Hungary’s housing prices soar as market heats up again
In September, the rise in housing prices accelerated, increasing by 2.7% nationwide and by 2.6% in Budapest compared with the previous month, following respective August increases of 1.2% and 1.4%, property website ingatlan.com said on Friday.
Housing prices soar all over the country
According to the property listings portal, year-on-year, asking prices nationwide are 16.8% higher, while in Budapest they are up by 22.1%. Prices in Northern Hungary have risen at a similar rate, by 20.8%, outpacing growth in Pest County (15.4%) and in the Western Transdanubia region (14.6%).
On a monthly basis, the largest increase in September was recorded in Northern Hungary, at 6.3%, which is more than double the 2.9% in Pest County and higher than the 4.0% in Western Transdanubia.
The price rises are no surprise
The statement quoted László Balogh, lead economic expert at ingatlan.com, as saying that the current price rises are unsurprising given the surge in demand linked to the Otthon Start housing programme. He noted that in Eastern Hungarian regions, prices are closing in ever faster on levels seen in Western Hungary and Pest County, signalling that the housing market price gap is narrowing.
Speaking to MTI, he explained that in the capital, prices jumped at the start of the year, driven by increased demand from investors exiting government bonds. In February, monthly price growth reached 4.5%, before the market stabilised in spring. He stressed that the annual growth in Budapest’s housing prices is mainly attributable to the early-year investment boom, not to increased demand from the Otthon Start programme.
Most applicants for the home loan programme under 40
Balogh described it as surprising that the average age of applicants for the 3% loan was 34, with 80% being under 40. This suggests that last month, the housing market was crowded by young buyers who had previously been priced out due to a decade of rising property costs. He added that initial expectations had pointed to greater investor activity once the loan programme began, but the entry of younger generations into the market is likely to affect rental prices as well.
Ingatlan.com also released some figures on second-hand housing prices at the start of October. Among districts with the largest supply, in the 13th district, the median price rose by 26% in September to 1.6 million forints per square metre. In the 7th district, the median price was around 1.5 million forints, and in the 6th district, 1.6 million forints—amounting to annual increases of 37% and 23%, respectively. Since July, prices in these three districts have risen by between 3.4% and 6.6%, with similar trends seen in other parts of the capital.
Other big Hungarian cities also see price rises
Outside Budapest, in cities with the largest housing supply, Debrecen saw a median price of HUF 987,000 per square metre in early October, up 19% year-on-year. In Szeged, the median price was HUF 937,000 (+23%), in Pécs HUF 818,000 (+24%), in Kecskemét HUF 765,000 (+19.7%), while in Salgótarján it stood at HUF 287,000 (+1.4%).
Told you so a couple of days ago on a previous post. Give cheap money to people and what you end up with is higher prices and the home buyers aren’t any better off. In fact anyone who doesn’t qualify for the subsidized loan but wants to buy is now worse off. Meanwhile Fidesz is putting taxpayers further in debt because they make the Hungarian state borrow money to finance this. It’s all done for bogus headlines and billboards you see in the streets to fool Hungarians to think they have a great government that is doing something. Meanwhile you won’t see any critique of what the government has done appear in any mainstream media source because they are all controlled by Fidesz. By the way on the cheap loans to small businesses that will be another failure as it becomes an open door for corruption taking your money. Instead the government should be cutting taxation of small businesses.
FIDESZ IS A CORRUPT BAG OF SHIT WHOSE CORRUPTION HAS INFLATED CONSTRUCTION COSTS
The housing market like everything else works on the basis of supply and demand and the costs of creating additional supply. If you want to make housing more affordable you don’t increase demand by handing out cheap money. You increase supply by encouraging more construction to increase supply and work to cut the costs of construction. Cut taxation on builders and wherever possible work to keep inflation down in the inputs of construction. What has being going on in Hungary is some kind of government mafia takeover of the cement industry which is causing inflation in the cost of construction. From an AI search: “Cement price inflation in Hungary has been influenced by high energy costs, supply chain bottlenecks, and specific government regulations that have increased production costs and restricted domestic supply. While average European cement import prices saw moderate growth between 2023 and early 2025, Hungary’s domestic market faced additional pressure from price controls, export restrictions, and a mining levy, which made imported cement more expensive and led to shortages”