Are foreigners fleeing the Hungarian real estate market?

The Hungarian real estate market is no longer that attractive to foreigners. Among the approximately 125,000 transactions carried out on the Hungarian real estate market last year, in 2,524, cases the buyers were foreign investors who were not citizens of the European Union, the European Economic Area (EEA), or Switzerland.

The Hungarian real estate market did not experience a major price drop

As we have written before, despite stagnation and a slowly arriving turning point in the Hungarian real estate market, prices were still higher in most cases in Q4 2022 than a year earlier. The average price for new homes, according to KSH, was HUF 54.5 million (EUR 145 thousand) in Hungary, up HUF 8.5 million (EUR 22 thousand) compared to the previous year. The average price per square metre is HUF 900 thousand (EUR 2,400), HUF 180 thousand (EUR 480) more than the average price in 2021. Last year, there was no significant drop in prices on the Hungarian real estate market, which also affected the willingness of foreign citizens to purchase real estate.

From whch countries are people buying real estate?

The majority of real estate acquisition applications, 73 percent, concerned houses or apartments in the capital, writes infostart.hu. The capital was followed by Pest, then the counties of Zala and Győr-Moson-Sopron in the list of popular investment areas. Chinese property buyers are still the most active on the Hungarian market, although their share decreased from 36.3 percent in 2021 to 31.5 percent last year. Among the Chinese, the most popular areas within the capital were Angyalföld, Erzsébetváros and District X last year.

The proportion of Ukrainian buyers increased by 2.5 percentage points

What is new is that the proportion of Ukrainian buyers increased by 2.5 percentage points compared to the previous year’s data. Therefore, Ukrainians became the fourth largest group purchasing Hungarian real estate in 2022. The proportion of Russian investors increased by almost 1 percentage point by 2021, and Hévíz and the XIIIth district of the capital were still attractive to them. The share of Israeli investors rose by 2 percentage points to 7.41 percent, nearly half of the transactions concluded by them took place in the VIth district.

Citizens of the United Kingdom also acquired a significant proportion of over 5 percent of properties in Hungary last year, who mainly preferred apartments in the IXth district. The main target of the Americans in nearly 4.2 percent of the deals was Sóskút in Pest County.

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2 Comments

Dishevelment / Disarray: says:

14/05/2023 at 19:47

THINKERS outside Hungary – possible in-side of Hungary – in the property investment game, they are SPENDING increased time – dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s – due to the HUMONGOUS instability of Hungary.
This instability of Hungary – the broadness of matters it covers, from Financial to a Government, a currency that is “Doomed” – these are just few of the cataclysmic WORSENING challenges that FACTUALLY face Hungary.
THINKERS – don’t look at them having a long term investment strategy as this is NOT the case in Hungary – through the HORRENDOUS instability as a country in its ENTIRITY that is Hungary.
Orban – the Prime Minister of Hungary continues to EXHIBIT removing pulling Hungary away from being recognized as a DEMOCRACY.
Hungary – under this Orban hasn’t been Governed as a DEMOCRACY in the 13 years this Orban has been Prime Minister of Hungary, that see’s HIM to this day control Media and the Judiciary and Rule by Decree.
Orban – “pushes” the country through factual examples that are there to witness to-wards a deepening relationship with Russia and China.
Hungary through Orban – abused the European Union – through fraudulent lodgement of applications for funding, which they Hungary have been found guilty through there WRONGFULLNESS by the Courts of Justice of the European Union.
THINKERS – they KNOW the subjects referred in this commentary and “other” – that comes back to the INSTABILITY of Hungary, and will they be EXPELLED out of the European Union – as they NO longer embrace nor practice by the LAWS of Membership as a country of the European Union – DEMOCRACY.
Hungary – what is going to be their Nadir???
No surprises there says:

15/05/2023 at 03:15

It’s not just foreigners who are opting out of the Hungarian real estate market, it’s locals too. My brother is just a single example, he wanted to buy and renovate a property in Naphegy, but decided against it and opted to build in southern Poland instead. In the end, it cost him less and he will get more out of it (for himself).