Hungary’s new home construction booming in these regions

The city of Debrecen Photo: https://www.facebook.com/DebrecenHirei

Although new home projects are slowing down in most of the Hungarian cities, according to a Hungarian real estate portal, some regions see booming housing construction.

Otthon Centrum real estate portal has completed its first quarter evaluation of this year, penzcentrum.hu reports. According to the results, a total of 254 projects in cities with county rights in Hungary are in the process of building 6,000 apartments. The number of new projects launched this year is 39. According to Gábor Soóki-Tóth, head of analysis at Otthon Centrum, these figures indicate a decline. According to him, 8.6 percent fewer projects are currently under development, and 8.9 percent fewer apartments are being built in cities with county rights than in the same period last year.

Debrecen at the top

However, this downward trend is not present everywhere. In Debrecen, there are currently 49 housing projects underway, and this is the first such high number in three years. So far this year, a total of 9 new projects have been launched in the city. Debrecen is followed by Szeged with 32 projects, while Pécs is in third place with 23 projects. The top three cities are followed in order by Székesfehérvár, Kecskemét, Nyíregyháza and Győr. Hódmezővásárhely is at the bottom of the list. In Hódmezővásárhely, there is only one four-apartment building under construction. In smaller cities such as Baja, Esztergom, Dunaújváros or Salgótarján, no such projects are currently in progress.

Read also: Surprising: most homes were built in these regions last year in Hungary

Szeged leads in the number of new apartments with 956, while Debrecen has 783 apartments under construction. Nyíregyháza is in third place in terms of the number of apartments being built. Here, 650 new apartments are currently under construction as part of an investment project involving several hundred apartments.

Price per square metre over HUF 1 million

Gábor Soóki-Tóth informed penzcentrum.hu that the prices of newly built apartments in cities with county rights have never been as high as they are now. Compared to a year ago, the average price of newly built apartments is 25 percent higher, which means HUF 947,000 (EUR 2,467) per square metre.

The pace of price rises was record high mainly in the first half of last year, but the 5.2 percent increase compared to the previous quarter indicates a slowdown,

the expert adds.

The most expensive cities are Sopron, Debrecen and Szeged. In Sopron, the average price of newly built apartments is HUF 1.1 million (EUR 2,865) per square metre, while the average price in Debrecen is HUF 1.09 million (EUR 2,839) per square metre and HUF 1.04 million (EUR 2,709) in Szeged. They are followed by Győr with HUF 987,000 (EUR 2,571), Veszprém with HUF 980,000 (EUR 2,552), Pécs with HUF 974,000 (EUR 2,537) and Érd with HUF 961,000 (EUR 2,503) per square metre.

The cheapest city for new-build apartments is Hódmezővásárhely, where the average price per square metre is HUF 485,000 (EUR 1,263). In Békéscsaba, new-build apartments are also cheaper than the average in the country, with an average price of HUF 606,000 (EUR 1,578) per square metre. Although the price of new-build homes has risen significantly in all cities, compared to the previous quarter, the most expensive cities have not increased their prices, penzcentum.hu concludes.