In Q1-3 2022, 4.6% fewer homes were sold than in the same period of the previous year. The decline was observed in all quarters in both the new and second-hand housing markets. After a surge in the first quarter, house price growth gradually slowed down to 2.6% in the third quarter. The slowdown in the increase in prices of second-hand dwellings can be observed in all areas of the country.

Housing market turnover below previous levels

After a strong 2021, the housing market turnover slightly moderated in 2022. The turnover figures for the first three quarters are 4.6% lower than a year earlier at the same level of processing. The number of sales fell by between 3% and 7% in each of the quarters under review, and this was observed in both the second-hand and new housing markets.

In Q1-3 2022, the share of new dwellings in sales was below 5%, well below the peak of 10% in Q1 2021.

Price increases slowed down significantly in Q3 2022

In 2022, after 9.7% in Q1, second-hand house price growth gradually slowed to 3.0% in Q3. At the same time, prices of new dwellings slowed from 7.7% at the beginning of the year to stagnation. (However, data on just over half a thousand new dwellings sold in Q3 are available so far, so the data that will come in after this period could still significantly change the first estimate of the index.)

Prior to the slowdown in Q3, the number of loans for the purchase of second-hand dwellings had already fallen significantly by 26% in the first half of the year, foreshadowing a slowdown in the second-hand housing market. Lending for new housing expanded even further at that time.

Nominal house price growth in Q3 lagged behind consumer price growth, resulting in a 4.0% decline in the real house price index.

The nominal house price index exceeded the 2015 base by 161% and the real index by 88%.

Despite the slowdown, the housing market as a whole continued to show high year-on-year price increases of 23%. Prices for second-hand dwellings were 24% higher in Q3 2022 than a year earlier, while prices for new dwellings were 19% higher.

Housing market weight of the capital city increased

In Q1-3 2022, the housing market turnover declined in all regions and in all categories of municipalities except the capital. The number of transactions in the capital, with the same processing rate, was 15% higher than in Q1-3 2021. At the same time, a third more sales were recorded in the Pest region and 16% fewer in Central Transdanubia. The combined number of new and second-hand dwellings sold decreased more moderately (2-4%) in the other regions of Transdanubia, and significantly (6-10%) in the eastern regions of the country.

New housing market in Q1-Q3 2022

• Data on 3.9 thousand new dwellings sold are available so far. A significant number of new housing transactions data are expected to be received later for this period.
• The average price of the transactions processed so far was HUF 50.8 million, 4.8 million more than in 2021. The average price per square metre is HUF 899,000, 180,000 more than the 2021 average.
• In Budapest, the average specific price exceeded HUF 1.1 million, 22% more than in 2021. Of the districts with a significant number of dwellings under construction, only in the 4th district was it possible to buy a new dwelling for less than HUF 1 million per square metre. At the same time, the limited number of new dwellings available in the inner districts of Pest and the hilly districts were already selling at an average price of close to HUF 2 million (districts I, II) or even above (districts V, XII).
• In the county seats and smaller cities, the price per square metre was 19% and 23% above the 2021 level, respectively.
• Housing prices rose sharply in Debrecen and Siófok, but also in Győr, where the increase was faster than average.
• In Nyíregyháza, however, the price per square metre of new dwellings crossed the half-million forint mark only at the beginning of the year.
• In several cities, new house prices have not kept pace with the rise in housing construction costs. The unit price of new dwellings rose by less than 1% in Szombathely and by just under 5% in Székesfehérvár.

The prices of new dwellings delivered in the period under review are usually set in contracts signed several months or even years in advance, so the price level of new dwellings presented here is below the supply price level of the period and only reflects the price evolution of the actual dwellings delivered.

Second-hand housing market in Q1-Q3 2022

• The price per square metre increased from an average of HUF 339 thousand to HUF 407 thousand in 2021. After a rapid price increase at the beginning of the year, prices in smaller settlements declined, and in Q3 prices continued to rise only in Budapest and the county seats.
• In Budapest, the average price of a second-hand dwelling was HUF 46.2 million, HUF 8.1 million more than in 2021. Meanwhile, the specific price rose from HUF 692 to HUF 826 thousand. Prefab housing in housing estates increased the most (21%), while prices of other types of flats increased by 11-15%. The brisk rise in prices in Q1-2 slowed down in Q3 in all the districts of the capital, and even stopped in the ‘other districts’ of Buda (III, XI, XXII).
• The information available on a fraction of sales in the Budapest agglomeration suggests a slowdown in price increases here as well.

• In the Transdanubian regions of the country, prices per square metre have risen, with the exception of villages. In the eastern part of the country, the fall in house prices also reached smaller (non-county) towns.

• The most expensive county seat is Veszprém with a price level above HUF 600 000, followed by Győr, Debrecen and Székesfehérvár with a difference of a few tens of thousands of HUF. Salgótarján is still at the bottom of the list, with a specific price of less than HUF 200,000.
• In the Balaton agglomeration, the price per square metre of dwellings increased from HUF 486 to HUF 618 thousand in the first three quarters of the year. Most of this increase occurred in the first quarter (13%), with the rate of increase slowing down to 5% in the second quarter and to 4% thereafter.

Home price growth slowed in EU Member States

Eurostat's house price index shows an aggregated trend in prices for second-hand and new dwellings. In the third quarter of 2022, the aggregate house price index for EU Member States (EU27_2020) was 149% of its 2015 base, and the euro area house price index was 146%. Compared with the previous quarter, total price increases were 0.9% in the EU aggregate and 1.0% in the euro area, both down from just over 2% in the previous quarter.

Q3 2022

• In addition to the Hungarian index (261%), prices in Czechia exceeded twice the base period level, and house prices rose by almost the same amount in Lithuania.

• Overall, housing prices in Italy have risen by 7% since 2015, the smallest price change among the Member States reporting data.

• Compared to the previous quarter, home prices fell in several Member States: by more than 3% in Denmark and Sweden, and by around 1% in Romania, Estonia and Finland. German housing prices also fell over the same period (0.4%).

• Among the Visegrad countries, home prices rose by 2.8% in Slovakia, 2.4% in both Poland and Slovenia and 1.3% in Czechia compared with the second quarter. The Hungarian index was 2.6%.

Further data and information

Methodological notes

Annual national data:
18.1.1.1. Summary data of housing
18.1.1.13. Housing price indices
18.1.1.14. Mean price per dwelling and sqm by region and building type
18.1.1.15. Number of housing transactions made by private persons
Annual regional data:
18.1.2.8. Mean price per dwelling by region and settlement type
18.1.2.9. Mean price per sqm by region and settlement type
18.1.2.10. Number of housing transactions made by private persons by region and settlement type
18.1.2.11. Mean price per dwelling by region and building type
18.1.2.12. Mean price per sqm by region and building type

Infra-annual national data:
18.2.1.1. Summary data of housing (quarterly data)
18.2.1.8. Housing price indices by quarter years
18.2.1.9. Number of housing transactions made by private persons by quarter years

Infra-annual regional data:
18.2.2.13. Mean price per dwelling by region and settlement type (quarterly data)
18.2.2.14. Mean price per sqm by region and settlement type (quarterly data)
18.2.2.15. Number of housing transactions made by private persons by region and settlement type (quarterly data)
18.2.2.16. Mean price per dwelling by region and building type (quarterly data)
18.2.2.17. Mean price per sqm by region and building type (quarterly data)

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