Photo credit: sihhan

Holland's housing market "is in a coma", one Dutch newspaper has declared, as Dutch real estate enters a serious slump.

The comments follow a period of nose-diving, where house prices and economic recession have fed on each other as the Netherlands joins the other victims of the global financial crisis. But while Italy and Greece have hogged the EU headlines, Holland may end up outdoing them all.

The country's housing inventory is described by The Telegraph as "nearing South European levels", a telling sign that Spain's slouching property market has set the benchmark for "bad", but the Netherlands' deficit eclipse everyone else's, with household debts reaching 249 per cent of income - the highest in the eurozone. Even Ireland's is only 202 per cent.

Construction is also at an all-time low, with building permits dropping 9 per cent over the last 12 months, the lowest since 1953.

As a result, house prices are dropping too. Values have fallen 15 per cent since the market's peak in 2008 - and are predicted, one agent tells the newspaper, to drop by another 5 per cent this year.

These kinds of conditions are normally ripe for overseas investors, with foreigners keen to inject life back into a comatose market, but even though Holland rose by eight places in TheMoveChannel.com's Top of the Props last month, the country's unsold houses have actually doubled in number since 2008.  

Is it the economic outlook that deters investors? Officials are rushing to assemble an austerity package this week as Fitch reveals that it may downgrade the country to a "negative outlook" during their next review.

Is it the lack of buy-to-let potential? America has seen growth in rental revenue rise to $6.2 billion in 2011, according to the International Powered Access Federation, compared to Europe's combined total of €2.3 billion.

Is it a lack of confidence? Even the threat of the current transfer tax holiday being suspended in July has only led to uncertainty among buyers and lenders, with banks wanting "more clarity from the government on its long-term plans for the housing market", according to Radio Netherlands.

While other international markets have received equally bad press, areas such as the Costa Blanca in Spain, the Algarve in Portugal and Florida in the US have all proven ultimately resistant to negative buzz. Established as tourist destinations, perhaps it is that overseas investors already know that visitor interest will remain high, providing strong returns on low house prices. Or perhaps it is that there is much more information available for traditional property markets.

Either way, with markets such as Miami appearing to have bottomed out, recording four monthly price increases in a row and a record number of sales in March, the comatose Holland certainly has a lot of waking up to do.