Metropolitan apartment buildings predominate
In the first quarter of 2021, 6,153 new dwellings were built, 29% more than a year earlier. The number of homes to be built based on issued dwelling construction permits and simple declarations was 6,946, 1.2% fewer than in the same period of 2020.
The number of new dwellings increased mainly in Budapest, where 2,708 new dwellings were put to use, more than twice than a year earlier. 12% more dwellings were built in towns of county rank, but 9.0% and 11% fewer dwellings were built in smaller towns and villages, respectively, than in the same period of the previous year.
The second largest regional new housing market after the capital is Pest county, where 3.6% less new dwellings were put to use, than in the first quarter of 2020. The number of dwellings put to use also varied within each region, but fewer dwellings were built in all counties of Northern Great Plain than a year earlier.
Due to the expected tightening of regulations, detached house builders sought to finish their projects by the end of 2020. Owing to earlier-than-planned detached house constructions, multi-apartment buildings dominated in housing construction in the first quarter of 2021.
The proportion of dwellings built by individuals fell from 43% to 28%, while that of dwellings built by enterprises increased from 57% to 71% compared to the first quarter of 2020.
30% of dwellings put to use in new residential buildings were in detached houses, 67% in multi-dwelling buildings and 0.5% in residents’ parks compared to the same period of 2020.
The average floor-area of homes put to use decreased by 16.2 m2 to 80.3 m2 compared to the first quarter of 2020.
According to dwelling construction permits and declarations, the number of dwellings to be built was 6,946, 1.2% less than in the same period of 2020.
In Budapest, construction sentiment decreased significantly (by 79%), while it increased in every other settlement category: by 77% in towns of county rank, by 82% in other towns, and by 84% in villages.
The number of dwellings to be built increased by 79% in Pest county. There was an increase in every other region in the countryside also, but in Northern Hungary and Southern Great Plains regions the number of planned dwellings is still low, so the large majority of new dwellings will be built in the central and Transdanubian regions, as usual. In the eastern part of the country, only the Northern Great Plain region issued a large number (nearly 1,000) of building permits, a threefold increase year-on-year.
Builders used the simple declaration option in 67% of cases. This proportion is the lowest in Budapest (39%), and the highest in villages (96%).
Based on new construction permits (declarations), 63% more, i.e., a total of 3,867 residential buildings are planned to be built. The proportion of planned one-dwelling residential buildings was 78%, while the that of planned buildings with three or more dwellings was 6.4%
The number of permits issued for non-residential buildings was 883, 1.6% more than a year earlier.
New dwelling construction permits and simple declarations, dwellings put to use and ceased
| Territorial unit | New dwelling construction permits issued (declarations) | Dwellings put to use | Number of dwellings ceased to exist | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of permits | quarter 1 2021 as a percentage of quarter 1 2020 | Number of dwellings | quarter 1 2021 as a percentage of quarter 1 2020 | quarter 1 2020 | quarter 1 2021 | ||||
| quarter 1 2020 | quarter 1 2021 | of which: simple declarations | quarter 1 2020 | quarter 1 2021 | |||||
| Budapest | 3 615 | 757 | 298 | 20.9 | 1 184 | 2 708 | 228.7 | 44 | – |
| Towns of county rank | 974 | 1 721 | 804 | 176.7 | 976 | 1 091 | 111.8 | 40 | 68 |
| Other towns | 1 446 | 2 636 | 1 786 | 182.3 | 1 645 | 1 497 | 91.0 | 140 | 147 |
| Villages | 997 | 1 832 | 1 754 | 183.8 | 967 | 857 | 88.6 | 68 | 89 |
| Total | 7 032 | 6 946 | 4 642 | 98.8 | 4772 | 6 153 | 128.9 | 292 | 304 |
Methodological note: in accordance with Government Decree 456/2015. (XII. 29.) statistical data contain construction permits, simple declarations, put to use permits and official certificates concerning the put to use of buildings constructed on the basis of simple declaration.