Housing market alert: Hungary’s home rental rates climb sharply in April

Home rental rates in Hungary rose 7.6% year-on-year in April, data compiled by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) from listings site Ingatlan.com show.

Rental rates in the capital increased 8.6%. In a month-on-month comparison, home rental rates edged up 0.9% nationwide and increased 1.3% in Budapest. Ingatlan.com said the average monthly rental rate in the capital was HUF 250,000.

In Debrecen, Hungary’s second-biggest city, the average monthly rental rate was HUF 225,000. In the county seats of Szeged, Pécs, and Győr, rates were between HUF 160,000 and HUF 190,000.

Home rental in Budapest

According to Rentingo data, tenants primarily look for bright, youthful apartments. Thirty-eight percent of those looking for a place to rent consider a balcony important, 32 percent would move into a building with an elevator, and with the approach of warmer weather, more and more people (30 percent) are indicating air conditioning as a basic requirement.

Although prices have started to stabilise, there is still a significant gap between tenants’ and landlords’ expectations, which limits landlords’ bargaining power. Therefore, most advertisers are still forced to reduce their original asking prices in order to successfully rent out their properties.

According to Rentingo‘s database, the most popular area is currently District XI, i.e. the inner part of Újbuda, where 14% of people looking for a place to rent would like to move. There is also considerable interest in District XIII (especially the Újlipótváros part and areas close to the metro), as well as Ferencváros (District IX).

These are all districts close to the city centre with excellent transport links, where many new apartments have been built over the past 10 years. The more affordable Districts VIII and X are also growing in popularity, and the green areas of District XIV are particularly popular with families. As prices can vary from district to district within the district itself, it is worth checking the rental prices in your chosen area on the alberletkalkulator.hu website, which advises the rental platform.

As we wrote yesterday, this is what’s really driving up Hungarian property prices, read details HERE.

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