Housing

It is exceptionally important to us to provide more up-to-date information on the social and economic developments in our country, in addition to our regular and detailed publications.
Our WEEKLY MONITOR provides insights into trends in key areas through weekly, monthly and quarterly data from our interactive chart collection.
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Sales in the housing market expanded by nearly a fifth in 2021, after a decline in 2020 due to the Covid19 pandemic, and exceeded the pre-pandemic level of 2019 by 3.7%. Prices have also risen rapidly, with home prices in Q4 more than a fifth higher than in the same period of the previous year and more than double the level in 2015. A new home cost on average HUF 8 million more and a second-hand one HUF 2.6 million more than in 2020.

The HUF 4.6 billion housing loan stock at the end of 2021, which accounted for 8.3% of GDP, exceeded the 2010 peak in nominal terms. Both the number and amount of approvals and disbursements increased, with those for housing modernisation being particularly strong. The availability of the moratorium on repayments, introduced to mitigate the effects of the epidemic, was tightened in the second half of 2021, with only 6.8% of housing loans benefiting from it, down from 29% in the first half of the year.

4,528 new dwellings were built in the first quarter of 2022, 26% fewer than a year earlier. The number of homes to be built on the basis of issued construction permits and simple declarations was 8,001, 15% more than in the same period of 2021.

Rents rose at an accelerating pace in March, up 2.3% nationally and 2.9% in Budapest compared to the previous month. In the capital, asking rents were on average 19% higher than a year earlier, with the largest increase (23%) in the inner districts of Pest. Budapest's rent index exceeded its January 2020 peak for the first time this month, with apartments for rent 1.2% more expensive than before the epidemic.

Rising labour and material costs pushed up housing construction costs by 16% in 2021 compared to a year earlier. The rise in material costs has played a bigger role in the increase over the last two years, with its rate of increase almost doubling last year due to a significant increase in the price of construction materials on the world market. Housing construction costs were 21% higher than a year earlier, while labour costs rose by around 10%.

The yearbook is a data compilation on construction permits and simple declarations, dwelling constructions and cessations, housing stock, housing market and the management of municipalities. Data on average construction costs and the main figures of housing loans as well as data of dwellings purchased by the National Asset Management Company are also available here.