Good news for those wanting to buy property: December brought a drop in Budapest prices!

According to demand data, expectations for the housing market have been confirmed, as property price growth in Hungary slowed further in December 2025.

On a national level, prices increased by just 0.4% in the last month of the year. In Budapest, December saw an even stronger monthly price decline of 0.7% compared with November, according to the latest housing price index from Ingatlan.com, which tracks changes for both December and the entire past year.

“In Budapest, buyers’ purchasing power has reached its limit, putting a cap on price growth. Since October, demand has not been able to maintain the previous pace of increase. This has quickly reflected in the capital’s property prices,” said László Balogh, chief economic expert at Ingatlan.com.

He added: “Pest County also saw a significant slowdown. The 1.7% monthly increase in November fell well below 1% in December, meaning that the rate of price growth in the Budapest agglomeration slowed noticeably within just one month. Across the rest of the country, there were no major changes. However, in Central and Southern Transdanubia, prices rose faster than the average of recent months. This can primarily be seen as a mid-year correction, as in the second half of the year, prices in Eastern Hungary increased more rapidly than in Western Hungary.”

Double-digit annual growth

While December’s monthly figures were favourable for buyers, prices still rose significantly over the year. Nationwide, they increased by 18%, while in Budapest the annual rise was 20%. Balogh noted that price growth had been even faster in the first half of 2025, but the annual figures were moderated by the base effect. By the end of 2024, prices had already begun to rise noticeably due to investors exiting government bonds and returning to the property market.

Interestingly, after Budapest, the highest annual growth did not occur in the Transdanubian regions or in Pest County, but in the Northern Great Plain (Észak-Alföld), where prices increased by 19.1% in 2025.

Housing prices continue to move closely in line with changes in demand. Since October, a slowdown in demand has transformed previous price growth into stagnation. This is partly because many buyers have reached the upper limit of their purchasing power, and partly because Budapest’s Otthon Start Programme, with its HUF 1.5 million per square metre price cap, has clearly restrained price growth.