Hungary’s property market on track for 30% sales increase in 2024

Home sales in Hungary could reach 130,000 this year, climbing from around 100,000 in 2023, David Valko, the chief analyst for OTP Ingatlanpont, the real estate broker of OTP Bank, said on Tuesday.

Valkó said that next year, rules allowing Hungarians to tap their savings in voluntary pension funds for home purchases could rechannel as much as HUF 1,000bn to the market.

He noted that home sales had climbed 36pc in Q1 and 20pc in Q2, according to transactions data from the Central Statistics Office (KSH). He added that nominal prices could rise by 8-10pc for the full year.

Erika Kasziba, in charge of business development for home lending at OTP, said local lenders’ home loan outlays could double in 2024 from HUF 600bn (EUR 1.5)bn) a year earlier.

Zsuzsa Lipták, who heads OTP Group’s listings portal Zenga.hu, said visitor numbers were up 35 percent from a year earlier. More than 1 million use the site each month, she added.

As the OTP reports, the EU’s all-items price index for April-June showed an annual increase of 2.9%. The most spectacular contributors to this positive result were some Central European countries. Poland led the way with a 17.7% increase, followed by Bulgaria (15.1%), Lithuania (10.4%), Croatia (10%), and Hungary in fifth place (9.8%).

Hungary’s house price index shows that house prices almost tripled between 2015 and the middle of this year, remaining the highest in the EU.

As we wrote today, Budapest Mayor Karácsony urges Orbán to address housing crisis as rent prices soar, details HERE.

related article: Here’s what to expect from Budapest’s real estate market in 2025