Home, sweet home: dream and reality in Hungary

The majority of the Hungarians dream about living in a 100-square metre house having at least three rooms, however, the average space of homes is 15 square metres smaller, Napi.hu told based on a survey of CIB.

According to the survey, nine out of ten people in Hungary deem it important to feel themselves at home where they live, yet, only a tiny fraction of the Hungarian population is satisfied with their living conditions: only every fifth respondent aims to live his or her entire life in her or his current home. Although half of them feel well where they are living, still, they believe that they would find better residence.

Napi.hu reports that though the majority (54%) of the respondents are living in a detached house, 27% live in condominiums, 19% live in block of flats, and even more, 80% told that the house of their dreams would be a detached house. The numbers of rooms also vary greatly in their dreams and their real homes: almost half of the respondents have two rooms , while 77% would like to have at least three. For the majority of the respondents, a house of 100 square metres would be ideal. In reality, the average lives on 85 square metres.

Besides the type of the residence, high costs also create grounds for discontent. 61% of the participants in the survey complained that the costs were too high for them. The respondents are living in their third home in average, and 27% of them told that they had been the happiest in one of their former ones. Many of these respondents (48%) blamed the environment, but the atmosphere (41%) and the co-habitants (38%) could also stand as weighty reasons.

Moving? How so?

Up to half of the respondents stated that they would move if they were unsatisfied with the type and the size of their home and provided that they could afford another property. In case of asking for loan, for the majority of the participants in the survey, interest rate would be the most determining factor. Almost the same amount of people consider the annual percentage rate of charge (APR) (89%) and the duration (87%) the most important. After choosing the right loan, one third of the respondents collect information at the bank holding their account, while 29% browse the websites comparing the offers of different banks. The opinion of friends and acquaintances are also determining, Napi.hu wrote.

More opportunities for claiming Family Housing Support Program

15% of the respondents claimed Family Housing Support Program when purchasing their current residential property. The number of applicants is expected to rise, because CIB Bank sees a great interest towards the programme. 52% of the applicants spend the support on second-hand flats or building a house.

Applicants having one or two children claim about 2.3 million forints when buying or building a new house. In case of those who have three or more children, the amount is much higher (9.41 million forints in general).

Public openness towards borrowing is shown by the fact that around 75% of the borrowers require the support together with loans subsidised by the government or loans from the market or loans adjusting to demand and supply. Former is required in an average amount of 8.45 million forints, while latter in 9.44 million forints.

Copy editor: bm

Source: Napi.hu