No end in sight: horror of the Hungarian rental market continues

Every month now, rent peaks are being set. In eight years, rents have doubled, not only in Budapest but also nationally. In just one year, the price of rented property has risen by nearly 14 percent.

Rent prices continued to rise in July. Both nationally and in Budapest, the increase was 1.9 percent in one month, according to the joint rent index of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) and ingatlan.com. The number of home insurance policies also jumped, by 26 percent year-on-year, Netrisk.hu reports.

According to the KSH, rents increased in all regions of the country except Pest. Within Budapest, the biggest increase was in the transitional districts of Pest, where rents rose by 3%. The rate of nominal rent growth also exceeded the monthly rate of inflation in July, with real rents rising by 1.6 percent nationally and 1.7 percent in the capital compared to the previous month.

After a slowdown at the end of last year, the first half of 2023 has seen a faster pace of rent growth in the rental market. July saw a 1.9% increase compared to the previous month, both nationally and in Budapest, napi.hu writes.

Compared to the same period last year, rental prices increased by 13 percent nationally and by 14 percent in the capital.

Nominal rents have been rising above the January 2020 peak for about a year and a half, exceeding it by 32% nationally and 29% in Budapest in July 2023.

However, taking into account the consumer price index, real wages were 7.6% and 9.7% below their pre-pandemic levels.

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