Budapest has the highest growth of property prices in the world

According to data from the Global Residential Cities Index, in the last quarter of 2018, Budapest was the city with the fastest growing property prices in the world. This was reaffirmed by Otthon Centrum’s analysis, which found that the average price per square metre in the capital is around €3000.

Based on the index, only the Chinese city, Xi’an, was able to keep up with Budapest’s rise in property prices. Rotterdam came 3rd in this ranking, a city where real estate value went up by 15.7%. For  Budapest, this same figure was at 23%. This is remarkable because global real estate price growth slowed from 4.5% in 2017 to 4.3% in 2018.

As reported by mfor.hu, Otthon Centrum calculated that for half the price of €3000 – the figure that will on average get you one square metre in the capital – it is possible to buy the same unit area in a newly built flat in some of the towns in the countryside. Districts I., II., V., VI. and XII. continue to be the most expensive, while most of the investment is heading into district XIII.

Out of all the country seats, Győr offers the most new flats, while the most expensive project is taking place in Székesfehérvár, where flats are advertised for €3000 per square metre.

“Investors have assigned high prices for their homes in Budapest: whoever wants to buy a newly built apartment in the capital will have to have an average budget of €3000 per square metre, which is 15.5% per cent more expensive than last year,” said Gábor Soóki-Tóth, Head of Analysis at Otthon Centrum.

In Districts I., II., V., VI. and XII. it is not unusual to see prices well beyond €3000 per square meter. Only in District XXIII. can potential buyers find flats under €1600, while in other outer districts, prices continue to range between €1750 and €2500 per square metre.

“Based on our findings, increase in prices were the greatest in the outer districts, whereas, in the inner city, prices continued to rise at a slower rate,” added Soóki-Tóth.

Otthon Centrum’s analysis showed that the number of investments remains high in the XIII. district. One of its neighbourhoods, Angyalföld, has the highest number of investment projects, while district XI. in second place only has 53.

Most investment outside of Budapest is channelled towards Győr, Debrecen, Pécs and Szeged. It is these four towns where 49.3% of property projects outside Budapest are taking place. The number of homes under construction was the highest in Győr, where 1,420 apartments were made available. Győr was followed by Szeged and Debrecen, where 1090 and 1060 new apartments respectively were ready to be sold to potential customers.

The most expensive towns outside of Budapest cost around the same as properties in the outer districts of the city. The cheapest real estate development is taking place in Miskolc, where flats can be bought at €700 per square metre. “The improved economic climate and favourable interest rates mean that the property market will not collapse any time soon, and the value of real estate will continue to rise,” said Soóki-Tóth.

In September last year, we reported that the final quarter of 2018 was going to see high property prices. Earlier this year, we also revealed the most sought after properties in Budapest.

Source: knightfrank.com, mfor.hu, oc.hu