So far the Netherlands, a founding member of the European Union and fiscal hawk along with neighbouring Germany, has been spared the dramatic collapse of property prices associated with southern European countries such as Spain.

Housing prices have fallen roughly 15 percent since 2008, compared with up to 30 percent in Spain since the crisis began.

Now, though, four years after the global financial crisis first hit, the economy is on the brink of another recession. And steadily sinking property prices are exposing a deep Dutch weakness: unpaid mortgages.