There is a housing crisis in Hungary, but especially in Budapest, with rents skyrocketing. But to solve this, we need two parties: the Orbán Government and the Budapest Mayor, who is part of the opposition.
Home rental rates in Hungary rise 9.6pc in September
Home rental rates in Hungary rose 9.6pc year-on-year in September, data compiled by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) from listings site Ingatlan.com show.
Rental rates in the capital increased 9.9pc.
In a month-on-month comparison, home rental rates edged down 0.1pc for the whole country and inched up 0.4pc in Budapest.
The monthly rental rate for a flat in Budapest’s District XIII and II, where the most rentals were listed, ranged between HUF 250,000 and HUF 350,000. The average rental rate was HUF 230,000 in Debrecen, HUF 150,000 in Pecs and HUF 160,000 in Szeged.
Karácsony and the government sees housing crisis
The Prime Minister’s recent statements suggest that the government understands that the housing situation, mainly affecting Budapest, “is unsustainable,” Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of Budapest, said on Monday.
The mayor said the housing crisis was an acute challenge in a letter to the prime minister. In a Facebook post, Karacsony noted that housing price and rent increases have now outstripped growth in household incomes.
He said Budapest had proposals and specific schemes at the ready, worked out in cooperation with the staff of the European Commission and a government body, to ensure the provision of affordable rental accommodation and to convert underused publicly owned buildings into housing, which he called the biggest housing scheme of the past decades.
He added that the 20 billion forint program would be implemented once the government “finally publishes” the related tenders so that Budapest can access related EU funding.
“I am ready to negotiate … to solve the housing crisis in Budapest,” Karácsony said.
Read also: Here’s what to expect from Budapest’s real estate market in 2025
Govt could remove obstacles to using voluntary pension savings for home purchase, renovation
Related news is that Hungary’s government has drafted a measure allowing Hungarians to use savings in voluntary pension funds for home purchases or renovations, tax-free, during the 2025 calendar year.
Social consultations on the measure will start on Monday, the National Economy Ministry said on Monday.
Over 1 million Hungarians are members of voluntary pension funds. On average, they have more than HUF 2m savings per member.
Read also: Hungarian housing market: Buyer demand reaches 2-year high
UPDATE
Fidesz councillor: Budapest suffering from housing crisis
Budapest is suffering from a housing crisis and the mayor of Budapest bears responsibility for it, Alexandra Szentkirályi, Fidesz’s group leader in the Budapest Assembly, said on Facebook on Tuesday.
In his manifesto five years ago, Gergely Karacsony promised to build subsidised housing and student dormitories, “and he had a series of other fake plans that came to nothing,” Szentkirályi said. The “thousands of billions” spent in the city, she added, had yielded “zero affordable rentals or dorms”, and the municipality’s housing agency had only managed to rent out three flats.
“Karácsony and his team are trying to sweep their total housing failure under the carpet, but they are the ones leading this city. Naturally, they are expecting solutions from the government, and now that the government has had enough of their inactivity, City Hall has started to panic,” she said.