What Hungarians look for when buying property

Hungarians owning a property typically get their first home of their own at the age of 27, and two thirds of them do not move further. However, around 60 per cent of those who do move further stick to their previous neighborhood, according to recent researches. Napi.hu reports that, although nearly two thirds of the respondents take out a mortgage to buy a property, they spend only a few days choosing the right mortgage. Moreover, many consider only one bank’s offers, though two thirds of the respondents spend months choosing the property, which means visiting at least 4 properties.

People usually move away from their parents at the age of 23, while they get their first property of their own at the age of 27. In 40 per cent of the cases people get the home of their own in the year they move away from their parents, while in other cases people wait 8 years in average for their first property – according to the researches of Budapest Bank, which asked property owners between the ages of 25 and 59.

The first owned property was a family house in case of every second respondent (51%), 25 per cent of the respondents moved into a block of flats, while 24 per cent of them moved into some other types of owner-occupied block. 69 per cent of them bought the property, while 17 per cent of them chose building. Most of the respondents (77%) moved into the first home of their own with their partner or spouse.

If considering the respondents’ current homes, the rate of people living in family houses has increased to 58 per cent, while the rate of people choosing flats has decreased to 17 per cent. This means that mainly the flat-owners moved into family houses.

Hungarians are still not very mobile: 65 per cent of them still live in their first property that is totally or partly their own. Only third of the respondents (35%) have moved two or more times into a property of their own, but they do not do it often: usually in every 9 years. Moreover, they do not like going far, as 57 per cent of those people who moved multiple times stayed in the same town every time.

In more than the half of the cases (54%) they needed a bigger home, in 27 per cent of the cases people moved because of family issues, while only 11 per cent moved due to their workplace.

83 per cent of the respondents took part in searching for their home, and 96 per cent played an active role in making the final decision. However, in most cases the decision was not made alone but with the help of family members. Only 17 per cent of the respondents made the decision alone.

Half of the people searching for a property (51%) were informed by small ads, 34 per cent asked estate agencies for help, while one third paid attention to the advises of relatives and acquaintances. Only 8 per cent used social media for this purpose.

More than two thirds of the respondents were looking for their new property for no more than three months, one third of them (30%) needed less time for that, while 17 per cent were looking for more than half a year. Most of them (63%) visited four or more properties, but one fifth (19%) bought the first property they visited. It is not surprising that most people consider financial factors when choosing the right property (66% consider the price, while 40% the money available), but the property’s location (52%) and state (43%) are also important factors. However, only 5 per cent of the respondents consider whether the property is new or second-hand.

Four fifths of the respondents (81%) know how much they want to spend on the property, and two thirds of them (68%) managed to keep themselves to this amount. However, one third of those who had a previous budget (28%) spent more money at the end.

58 per cent of the respondents took out a mortgage for the purchasing, 47 per cent used their savings, and 33 per cent took advantage of the price of their previous home. Most of the respondents (78%) was informed about the mortgage by banks. 73 per cent of them was going into the branch of the bank personally not settling for only the bank’s website. Though two thirds of the respondents (67%) spend a few weeks or even months choosing the right property and visiting several of them, people tend to spend much less energy into deciding how to finance it: 38 per cent of those who finance their purchasing by mortgage considered the offer of only one bank, and spent only a few days (36%) or a week (23%) choosing the mortgage.

Ce: bm

Source: napi.hu