When sellers cut the asking price, they cut deep

A home that is priced too high does not sell more slowly. It sells for less, in the end. That is the uncomfortable summary of the figures that housing data platform Woniqo published for August: sellers who adjust their asking price almost never do it gently.

One correction, and a substantial one

In August, Woniqo recorded 1,496 price reductions across 1,439 homes, collected from around 3,050 estate agency websites. For 97.7 percent of those homes it was a single reduction. The median correction was 5.26 percent, roughly 25,000 euro. For every price increase there were more than four reductions.

That pattern says something about seller behaviour. Nobody lowers their asking price by a thousand euro to see what happens. People wait, and when the waiting takes too long, they cut hard. The price that remains is not the result of a strategy but of impatience.

The lowest segment corrects the hardest

The size of the correction differs by price bracket:

• up to 250,000 euro: median 8.4 percent
• 250,000 to 400,000 euro: 5.7 percent
• 400,000 to 600,000 euro: 4.9 percent
• above one million: 5.3 percent

Worth noting: these are national figures, not Amsterdam ones. Prices in Amsterdam are higher and supply is tighter, so the percentages do not transfer one to one. The mechanism behind them does.

A wider market changes the game

The numbers fit a broader movement. In the second quarter of 2026, NVM agents listed the highest number of homes since measurements began in 1995. At the same time price growth is cooling: according to Statistics Netherlands and the Land Registry, existing owner-occupied homes were 4.1 percent more expensive in June than a year earlier, down from 4.4 percent in May.

Who is selling is striking too. In the second quarter, people over 65 accounted for more than 30 percent of sales by owner-occupiers, up from 26 percent in 2020. They tend to bring larger, more expensive homes to the market. More supply in that segment means buyers can choose, and a buyer who can choose negotiates differently.

What this means if you are selling in Amsterdam

In a market where buyers have more to choose from, the opening asking price does most of the work. The first two weeks after listing largely determine how many viewings you get. Price it too high and you lose exactly that attention, and the reduction that follows will not win it back. A home that has been online for months raises a question you would rather avoid: what is wrong with it?

Starting sharp is not a concession. It is how you keep the negotiation on your side of the table. And that starts with knowing what your home is actually worth, not what the neighbours got last year.