Hopeful forecast: the real estate market in Hungary will boom in 2024??

The real estate market in Hungary saw an upswing in the first three months of 2024, with a rise in both property supply and buyer demand. We have reason for optimism for the rest of the year, according to one expert.

real estate market in Hungary

Encouraging performance in Q1 for real estate market in Hungary

Both supply and demand in the housing market soared in March 2023. The market was characterized by a 16% annual increase in demand compared to 2023, reports Portfolio. In contrast to March 2023, 8% more apartments were offered for sale, which is a 40% increase compared to 2022.

Overall, the Hungarian real estate market is producing commendable data this year. In January 2024, for example, there was a 43% higher turnover than a year earlier. Moreover, the total amount of mortgage loans showed a growth of 80%.

As we elucidated in our article covering January's statistics, the declining interest rate and loan rates below 6% contributed to the vitality of the market. Furthermore, the renewal of home purchase subsidies was also responsible for the skyrocketing buyer interest in properties.

Budapest: an outlier in pricing trends

In March 2024, Budapest saw a 16% increase in demand. However, there was a decline in the number of homes for sale, with 8 percent fewer listings compared to the previous year, resulting in a total of 12,000 properties being advertised.

The increasing supply of properties for sale benefits homebuyers, compounded by the recent reduction in interest rates on home loans within the country. Moreover, heightened demand in the housing market facilitates the sale of their own properties, which speeds up the process of purchasing a new home and relocating. Furthermore, as Portfolio points out, the upturn in demand has not resulted in a significant increase in prices thus far, which is advantageous for prospective buyers.

The real estate market movement

However, as we have previously covered, property prices in Budapest present a different scenario: at the beginning of 2024 they experienced significant growth. As a result, in mid-March, the average price per square meter of a brick apartment in the capital exceeded the psychological threshold of one million HUF (2.533 euros).

Despite historically low demand in 2023, prices in Budapest soared, indicating a nine-year low in the real estate market in the country last year. It should be noted that our article highlights sharp price differences between different districts in the city.

Source: dailynewshungary.com.