The government must intervene and incentivise rental housing construction, which the Wekerle Sandor Housing Construction Programme aims to address, Dávid Vitézy, the minister of transport and investment, said on Facebook on Sunday.

Vitézy insisted that opposition representatives were “fiercely trying to prevent the government from reforming housing policy”. He insisted they were “clearly representing the interests of companies that hoped for massive extra profits from incentives granted for priority investments.” He added that the government is reviewing these exemptions.

The previous government’s “ineffective” housing policy measures, Vitézy said, had left the current government with a housing deficit necessitating intervention. Last year, only 1,256 new homes were handed over per million people, which is “by far the lowest figure” in regional comparison, he said.

“This rate is about one-fifth of Austria’s or Poland’s housing construction, while Czechia and Romania build more than two to three times as many new homes as Hungary. This has contributed to a significant price increase in the housing market, far outpacing real wage growth,” he said.

Meanwhile, the average time people needed to work to afford a new home has grown to seven years from 5.9 years a decade ago, he added.

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The Wekerle Programme, he vowed, would help create “more, easily accessible, and liveable homes” through tax and construction regulation changes, while the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility can also be used to build new, affordable rental housing and dormitories.

Comprehensive programmes must be compiled by the end of the year, with the government involving local authorities, real estate, and construction industry stakeholders in the consultations, he said. The goal is to ensure that young people, career starters, and families have access to housing, he wrote.

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