Amsterdam - Prices of Dutch residential real estate dropped by 1.8 per cent in 2008, the association of Dutch real estate brokers NVM said in its annual report published on Thursday.

An average Dutch home now costs 233,000 euros (306,930 dollars) compared with 246,000 euros (324,055 dollars) in the third quarter of 2008.

It is the first year since 1990 that the price of Dutch homes have dropped.

The NVM said prices fell by 2.5 per cent in the fourth quarter compared with the previous quarter.

The fall of Dutch home prices began in the third quarter (down 0.7 per cent compared with the second quarter).

The total number of homes sold in the fourth quarter dropped by 27 per cent, with the average sale time increasing by 14 per cent to 84 days.

In the Randstad area - the metropolitan area in the heart of the Netherlands running from Amsterdam to The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht - the number of homes on sale increased by 23 per cent.

On national level, the number of homes on sale increased by 13 per cent. NVM expects prices will drop by 5 per cent in 2009.

Prices in the Amsterdam agglomeration and in southern Limburg, a province the southeast Netherlands, dropped most, by 5.7 and 8.1 per cent, respectively.

Also on Thursday, NEPROM, the association of Dutch real estate project developers, said the number of sales of new residential real estate fell by almost 50 per cent.

"This is a dramatic decrease," Jan Fokkema, director of NEPROM, told Dutch reporters.

He added that if the fall in home sales persists in 2009, NEPROM expects a loss of 50,000 jobs in the Dutch building sector.

On Friday, the Dutch government is due to discuss measures to boost consumer confidence in the residential real estate market and stimulate home sales. (dpa)