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Experts: major change concerning rental prices in Budapest
Since September, the Otthon Start Programme has imposed a stubborn price cap on Budapest’s rental market, potentially holding back rent hikes not only in 2026 but for years to come, according to a statement by the Rentingo lettings platform to MTI on Tuesday.
Tenant demand prices plummeted in August
It is the liveliest the property scene has been since the chaos of COVID. Average rents failed to break through the 250,000-forint “glass ceiling” in the first half of the year, but the summer letting rush was derailed by the announcement of the Otthon Start Programme. Tenant demand prices plummeted in August and have yet to fully recover, while supply swelled this autumn alongside the dip in demand. The market was flooded by flats snapped up for investment using attractive 3% loans, the Hungarian News Agency wrote.
The release notes that after six months of steady erosion in the capital, average asking rents remained firmly below 250,000 forint (EUR 647) by the end of 2025, with tenant bids stabilising at around 220,000 forint. In December, landlords demanded an average of 244,000 forint per rental, while tenants were willing to pay 221,000 forint, narrowing the price gap to just 10%.
I find it distasteful, how much the government spends on keeping the house prices high.
We need a plummeting housing market. Sure, the banks would go under, but most of them are foreign owned anyways, and all of them are parasites to begin with. So them collapsing would be a net benefit on the long run.