This is where rent takes the biggest part of the salary in Hungary

In recent years, rents in Hungary have gone through the roof. This is confirmed by the latest survey, which shows that in some places rent costs almost half of the average salary, while in others it is only a quarter.

In theory, the ideal housing situation would be if rents did not exceed 30% of tenants’ salaries. With this in mind, Ingatlan.com has analysed the rents of more than 14,000 rental properties in different parts of Hungary to find out how much of the average salary is needed to rent an apartment.

Rent situation in Budapest

There are significant differences in housing, no wonder. In the capital, on average 37% of salaries go on rent: the average gross salary was 697,000 forints (1790 euros), compared to 250,000 forints (642 euros) in mid-February.

The capital’s fifth district is particularly expensive, with 44 percent of the average salary: an average rent of 340 thousand forints (EUR 873) for an average salary of 779 thousand forints (EUR 2000). In districts XI and XIII, with the largest supply of rented accommodation, the ratio of rents to gross salaries is 30 and 31 percent respectively. With rents of 250 thousand forints, earnings were 841 thousand forints (EUR 2160) respectively. The cheapest district continues to be the 15th, where the average rent for a rented apartment is 24 percent of the local gross wage.

Rent situation outside Budapest

Székesfehérvár and Debrecen are the most expensive of the duchy towns, but even there the ratio is close to ideal, at 33-33 percent. Debrecen has a rent of HUF 200,000 (EUR 513) and an average salary of HUF 599,000 (EUR 1530), while Székesfehérvár has an average rent of HUF 205,000 and a gross average salary of HUF 620,000.

The ratio is more favorable in Veszprém, Győr and Pécs, where the rent of HUF 150-180 thousand is 26% of the average gross salary of the district, which is HUF 581-694 thousand. In Szolnok, Szekszárd, and Miskolc, one of the big university cities, rents are the cheapest in this comparison, at 18-20 percent. As a rent of 100-120 thousand HUF (EUR 256-310) can be financed from 539-553 thousand HUF gross (ca EUR 1420).

Based on official figures, but…

“If we look at the average rents in Budapest and in the duchies, the capital has the most expensive apartments for rent compared to the average salaries. However, when looking at the wage data for a given district, city or borough, it should be taken into account that although an increasing proportion of tenants are registering for the address, not everyone is doing so, so the latter’s salary data may not or not at all appear in the local earnings data,”

László Balogh, chief economist at ingatlan.com, was quoted as saying in the release.

As we wrote earlier, based on The Economist’s recently coined Carrie Bradshaw index, Budapest emerges as the priciest European city for solo flat rentals, details HERE.