Good news for home buyers: Hungarian housing market reaches a trend changeover

According to László Balogh, leading economic expert at ingatlan.com, housing prices have been stagnating since autumn 2022. He added that since January this year, even a decrease in prices can be seen in some places. László Balogh talked to Index about the ongoing trend change in the Hungarian housing market.

Trend reversal in the housing market

This year has seen a radical change in the real estate market compared to what we have been used to in the past seven years, said László Balogh, chief economic expert at ingatlan.com, to Index. He believes that there has been a drastic turnaround. According to him, between 2015 and 2022, buoyant demand absorbed supply. This resulted in fewer properties for buyers to choose from at higher prices.

Mr Balogh said that since the trend reversal, demand has halved year-on-year and supply has started to increase dramatically. “The number of advertisements for property for sale and rent has already surpassed the psychological 200,000 mark,” he said. That is 30 percent more than in March last year.

Read also: Is this the turnaround in the Hungarian property market? Experts are positive!

What is the reason?

According to the expert, the increase is mainly due to the expansion of properties for sale. In this situation, the bargaining power of buyers has also increased one and a half times compared to a year ago. The prospects clearly favour buyers who are staying in the market or are now entering the market.

The expert also said that house prices have tripled in the past seven years. This has not been a headache for buyers, Index writes, because as state subsidies have increased, interest rates on housing loans have become cheaper. Many people have therefore took out more loans.

“As a result, we have reached the point where every second home purchase is financed by some kind of loan”,

Mr Balogh added.

“Since January, we have already seen a drop in prices in some places, which is due to a fall in demand,” the expert said. He added that the fall in demand and increase in supply has happened very quickly accross the whole country.

Demand has halved in Budapest and in the county seats as well. There is currently no segment of the housing market that is not affected by the trend reversal.