Hungary’s big housing push: Cheap loans with 10% down, student hostel plans
The government’s Home Start programme marks a “big step forward” for young Hungarians seeking to buy their first home, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said at a weekly press briefing on Thursday.
Home Start programme
Gulyás said the programme, without precedent in recent memory, would launch in September. It will offer first-time home buyers subsidised loans up to 50 million forints (EUR 125,000) with a fixed rate of 3 percent for the full maturity, up to 25 years, he added. Down payments for borrowers will be set at 10 percent, while home prices will be limited to 100 million forints and 1.5 million forints per square metre, excluding any “luxury properties”, he said.
There is no age limit for the credit, and borrowers will not be required to be married or commit to having children, but they must have paid social security contributions in Hungary for at least two years, he added. Gulyás noted that 80 percent of Hungarians over the age of 40 own their own homes, but that rate stands at just 40 percent for people between the ages of 18 and 40. He also noted the “significant appreciation” of properties not only in Budapest but in other Hungarian cities, where “even in the outskirts properties cannot be purchased cheaper than 1 million forints per square metre”.
Gulyás said the Home Start loan could be taken out on top of other forms of family assistance, such as the CSOK scheme. Concerning details of the programme, he said, for example, that a loan of 20 million forints for a term of 25 years would translate into a debt service of a monthly 94,000 forints, while a loan of 30 million forints would involve a 142,000 forint installment a month. The government has discussed details of the programme with the banking association, Gulyás said, adding that Hungarian banks were ready to “sign [loan] contracts in the fastest and simplest way possible”.
Student hostel plans
Meanwhile, Gulyás said that the government was preparing separate programmes in the areas of “first home provision, home refurbishment and housing in general” with special regard to creating a sufficient number of places at student hostels. He said the goal was to provide accommodation at hostels for a total of 17,000 students. Under the Rural Home Refurbishment Programme, people could use 50 percent of their employee benefits received on Szechenyi Card accounts for the purpose.
Referring to a regional comparison, Gulyás said a further appreciation of properties in Budapest could be expected irrespective of the new, subsidised loan programme. He said Budapest prices were “well above” those in Bucharest, but per square metre prices were higher in Warsaw and Bratislava, while the prices in Prague were twice as high as in Budapest.
Meanwhile, Gulyás said Ukraine’s future did not lie in NATO, and rather than offering it membership, the European Union should also strive for a “different kind of relationship” with the country. Gulyás said this year’s NATO summit had been fundamentally different from the previous years’ meetings, with the new US president making it clear that Ukraine’s future did not lie in the alliance.
The “self-destructive proposal” for NATO to bring Ukraine into the alliance as soon as possible was now off the table, Gulyás said, insisting it would have “immediately led to a third world war” as NATO countries would have had to intervene if another member was at war. “Ukraine’s membership is not on NATO’s agenda, and this is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future,” Gulyás said.
The EU summit, however, had been “significantly harder”, because similar changes had not occurred in Europe, Gulyás said. “A similar change in Europe would have required Donald Trump to be elected German chancellor rather than US president,” he added.
Slamming Brussels
He said the prime minister “clearly expressed the Hungarian opinion” at the summit, and Brussels would have to accept the opinion of the 2-plus million people who participated in the Vote 2025 public survey “and don’t want to see Ukraine as an EU member”. “This clear opinion can’t be swept off the table, and sooner or later Brussels will have to admit that this is reality,” he added.
Gulyás said the Hungarian government and Hungary were under severe pressure from both Brussels and Kyiv, adding that there were also national security aspects to this. The government on Wednesday briefed the national security committee on how the Ukrainian secret services had come into contact with Hungarian journalists and media outlets in an effort to “change the opinion of the Hungarian people”.
He noted that with previous enlargements, the EU had guaranteed its own security by admitting countries that were already NATO members. In Ukraine’s case, he said, this meant that because the country could not join NATO, the EU could not get similar security guarantees, either, and the bloc should strive for “a different kind of relationship” with Ukraine.
Gulyás said most EU member states — with the exception of Slovakia and Hungary — were in favour of Ukraine joining the bloc, but Hungary has not approved the opening of the relevant accession chapters. He added, however, that it was inaccurate to say that the prime minister had vetoed the opening of the accession chapters, noting that under the basic treaties certain EU decisions require the unanimous approval of all member states.
Drought in Hungary
Meanwhile, Gulyás acknowledged the challenge posed by drought in Hungary, but noted that the government was ensuring farmers’ access to water for irrigation free of charge. He added that the government set up a Drought Defence Operative Corps in May and earmarked 4.7 billion forints for water management infrastructure. He said 1,000 people were working on topping up reservoirs and getting that water to farmers hit by the drought.
Addressing other recent events, Eszter Vitalyos, the government spokeswoman, said that 45 years after Bertalan Farkas’s mission, Tibor Kapu is on a 14-day mission on the International Space Station where the crew is set to complete nearly 60 scientific experiments for 31 countries. She thanked Orsolya Ferencz, Hungary’s ministerial commissioner for space research, and the staff of Hungary’s HUNOR space programme for their work. She also noted the introduction of the country’s “biggest family support scheme to date” which channels 5 percent of GDP to supporting families
Vitalyos noted the family tax benefit was raised by 50 percent on July 1, adding that another 50 percent increase will be implemented on January 1 next year, with around 1 million families benefitting from the measure. From now on, the monthly tax benefit for families with one child will increase from 10,000 to 15,000 forints, from 40,000 to 60,000 forints for parents with two children and from 99,000 to 150,000 forints for couples raising three children, the spokeswoman said.
From July 1, the csed and gyed family benefits, as well as the allowance for foster parents, will be exempted from the personal income tax. The government has also introduced csed extra, through which young mothers can continue to receive a maternity allowance even if they decide to return to their job 90 days after childbirth, she said.
Gulyás said new mortgage subsidies would not have an impact on this year’s budget, but it would involve an expenditure between 50-100 billion forints in the years 2027-2029. He added, however, that “we don’t know how many people will turn to the facility”. The central budget will provide an interest subsidy between 15-25 million forints for a loan of 50 million taken out for 25 years, he said, adding that “since the state pays the difference in interest rates, the banks will benefit from those transactions.
Gulyás also said the government would pass a decision on a subsidised home refurbishment programme in September the latest. Concerning the heat wave, Gulyás said both this year’s and next year’s budgets allocated 10 billion forints to provide farmers water for irrigation free of charge. He noted, however, that Hungary’s irrigated area had been “significantly larger” in 1989 than now, but the goal was to increase that area. “In this respect the European Union is showing its good side, making resources available for such developments,” he said.
Answering a question concerning last Saturday’s Budapest Pride march, Gulyás said “there may have been fewer people” if the event had not been banned, adding the march had not been on the government session’s agenda. But, he added, “it would be difficult not to call an event Pride if you see creatures called drag queens on stage.” He said the march had given rise to a legal and political debates, adding that the government’s goal to promote child protection “has only partially been met”.
Answering another question on the subject, Gulyás slammed Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony’s position that municipal events are not governed by the law on public assembly. “Anyone saying that last Saturday’s developments dubbed Pride were outside the scope of the assembly law should return their law degree.” Meanwhile, Gulyás said any “LGBTQ sensitisation” went against the government’s child protection goals and the child protection law, adding that schools run by foundations or church organisations were not beyond the scope of that law.
Gulyás said it was “shocking for any person with a regular moral sense and good taste when a drag queen dances with the national colours on their bare chest and then throws them to the ground” referring to an episode in the show concluding the Pride march.
The minister said Hungary had long got beyond the point where “politicians decide who goes to court”, adding that it was up to the authorities to “pass judgement on Pride participants”. But the role of participants and organisers should be evaluated differently, he said, “since there were two contradicting positions by the state and the municipality” concerning the Pride event.
Concerning the expenses incurred by the Pride march, Gulyás said the city of Budapest “must provide an account of public funds spending”. He noted that the city’s taking on the organisation of the march had not been approved by the assembly, and added that “the city says it is nearing bankruptcy while it organises Pride at a high cost and spends 50 billion forints on a construction site… We’d love to be that bankrupt.”
Asked how Peter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza Party, could promise to pardon participants of the Pride march, Gulyás said it depended on what the outcome of next year’s general election would be. “I wouldn’t find Magyar’s promise of a pardon reassuring because, for one, he has never kept any of his promises so far, and for another, we have a good chance of achieving a significant victory just as in previous elections,” he said.
Concerning the left’s support for LGBTQ issues, Gulyás said “it appears that the opposition — with the exception of Our Homeland — has a unique attraction to this topic.” He said everyone in Hungary had the right to live however they want, but the government’s child protection-related goals were legitimate. Asked to comment on Magyar disputing the Vote 2025 survey’s response rate, Gulyás said only one National Consultation survey had more participants.
He said one of the reasons why Magyar and his party were participating in Hungarian public life was that the EU “could use them to push through Ukraine’s EU accession”. Gulyás said the government expected both Magyar and Ukraine to respect the will of the Hungarian voters, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “shouldn’t interfere in Hungarians’ affairs, either”.
Gulyás said the left-wing media believed that the best way for them to boost Tisza’s chances in the election was giving the impression through polls and articles that it had a chance of winning. The government, he said, was not focused on the election campaign for now, but was doing its job, and had its own polls that it trusted.
Gulyás said Fidesz was preparing for “a big victory in 2026”, adding that it would be up to the voters to decide whether that would mean a two-thirds majority in parliament. He noted that the opposition had been said to be seven points ahead in September 2021, yet Fidesz ended up with another two-thirds majority in the 2022 election.
Asked to comment on a report by the Government Control Office (KEHI) saying that Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, Tisza’s defence spokesman who was formerly Hungary’s chief of staff, had used public money to pay for his cosmetic surgery, Gulyás said the KEHI report had shown that Ruszin-Szendi had “lied” when he said that he had undergone a “general health procedure”, adding that “none of this could have happened legally… The least he will have to do is pay that money back.”
Asked if the fact that Ruszin-Szendi had undergone the cosmetic surgery under an assumed name raised the suspicion of fraud, Gulyás said it was “beyond dispute that what happened was unlawful, but deciding what the consequences should be … must be left up to the authorities”.
Asked to comment on Tisza health spokesman Andras Kulja’s claim that he had taken photos of cockroaches at the Peterfy Sandor Street Hospital, Vitalyos said Kulja “could have taken those photos anywhere, even in his own apartment”. She noted that Peter Takacs, the state secretary for health care, and the hospital have both dismissed Kulja’s claims as “lies” and would file a report against him.
As regards Brussels’s refusal to drop its plan to ban the import of Russian energy, Gulyás said the European Commission should not count on Hungary backing the sanctions package if they planned to introduce it as a social policy measure. Hungary will veto every sanction “that’s disguised as a trade policy measure”, he said. Meanwhile, he said neither Hungary nor Poland would implement the trade deal between the EU and Ukraine and would uphold their import bans.
Asked about the Danish EU presidency’s statement vowing to put pressure on Hungary to accept a fast-tracked Ukrainian EU accession, Gulyás said the pressure was “continuous from Brussels, Kyiv — and earlier from Washington — so Copenhagen can’t add much.”
Regarding the “behaviour” of the Ukrainian foreign ministry, Gulyás said he was “old-fashioned” and missed courtesy in diplomatic ties. He said that while Ukraine and Hungary did not see eye to eye on fundamental issues, Hungary had been helping Ukraine in “countless ways”. “We would expect the Ukrainian government and president to talk about Hungary with the requisite respect,” he added.
Ukraine has an interest in a Hungarian government supporting its EU accession, he said. “They are doing everything they can to achieve that; they have found a party like that and they are supporting it.”
Meanwhile, regarding mandatory savings imposed on state-owned companies, Gulyás said the government had set a target to curb the deficit and that it is planning to cut the budget deficit this year as it has in past years. “It is important that state-owned companies contribute to that, he added. “It is legitimate to discuss which companies should be impacted, and this must not affect employees’ wages,” he added.
The government had used “common sense” to pick the companies that had been granted an exemption, he said. In the case of the Paks nuclear plant, expenses cannot be curbed to the detriment of operational security, while in health care, “there are no ways and means to implement the measure,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gulyás said wage increases for government employees and the employees in municipalities of localities below 30,000 inhabitants would come to 2.5 billion forints (EUR 6.3m) this year and 10-11 billion in 2026. “That’s the room for manoeuvre the budget allows.” Regional administration employees will also see wage hikes this year and next January, but the scale is yet to be decided, he added.
Asked about the renewal of the Hungary-US agreement against double taxation, the minister said “it’s no accident that the rumour has been spreading … that the agreement will not come about this year: the US legislation is slow in these matters.” The government, he added, was working to ensure the process speeded up.
Gulyás rejected reports that the CATL plant in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, was firing Hungarian workers to replace them with Chinese employees. The company had issued a statement rejecting those claims and made a similar declaration to the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA), he said. CATL had fired “a few dozen people on probationary period due to objections to their work,” according to the company, Gulyás said. CATL is planning to replace them “primarily with Hungarians”, he added.
Put to him that former President Katalin Novák continues to draw income from the state, Gulyás said Novák had taken responsibility and resigned from her office. “There is a single office in this country where benefits continue after the tenure of the official has ended. Other offices, such as that of the prime minister and the speaker of parliament, earlier had the same benefits, but that had been scrapped.”
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