How do Budapest rental prices fare compared to other European cities’?

Statista has released a new report based on HousingAnywhere’s rental price data. This new report reveals that the average rent price has surged by 43% since last year. More importantly, it reports that the average Budapest rental price is 1,100 EUR, roughly 430,000 HUF. We researched the most recent data to verify its accuracy and compared rental prices to those of other European cities.

As Telex report, according to the latest KSH reports from July, the average rent price in Budapest and Hungary overall has risen by 1.9% compared to June. It has increased by 14% in Budapest and 13% in Hungary overall since July 2022. The average rent is HUF 230,000 (EUR 591.84), with the II. and V. districts having the highest prices at HUF 350,000 (EUR 900.62) and the XXIII. district the lowest at HUF 150,000 (EUR 385.98).

This data suggests that Statista‘s report, which has gained popularity on social media with over 7,000 likes by 6 October 2023, is somewhat misleading because HousingAnywhere‘s data pool only includes about 125 rental properties in Budapest, targeting mobile, upper-class consumers aged 18-35, including some digital nomads who do not rely on Hungarian wages and are typically paid in euros.

Read more: Brutal price fall expected on Hungarian property market in next 2-3 years

According to Statista’s most recent 2022 Q3 report on European rental prices, Budapest is becoming more comparable to other European cities. The average rent in Turin is EUR 970, slightly higher than the average rent in Budapest’s most expensive districts, but almost 50% higher than the city’s overall average rent and nearly three times as high as the average rent in the cheapest district.

Although Turin has a per-capita GDP of only EUR 33,000, which is just 10% higher than Budapest’s, it commands significantly higher rent prices. Other European cities like Brussels and Berlin have much higher rent rates, averaging 1,100 and 1,695 euros, respectively, while even Ljubljana boasts a higher average rent of 700 EUR. Conversely, Warsaw has an average monthly rent of EUR 610, which is approximately EUR 50 lower than the price of a one-bedroom apartment in Budapest, Eurostat reveals.

These statistics alone do not paint the whole picture. As we mentioned earlier, the average rent price has risen by 14% in Budapest since last year. However, according to KHS’s report, the average net salary has only crept up to HUF 377,600 (EUR 971.64), a 17.9% increase. Real salary prices have actually dropped by 3% due to a 21.5% increase in average consumer prices. This has made it more challenging for people living on average Hungarian wages to afford rent in Budapest. In contrast, it has not significantly affected digital nomads, as most of them receive their salaries in euros.

Read more: No end in sight: horror of the Hungarian rental market continues

Author: Máté Kollár

Source: telex.hu