Hopeful forecast: will real estate market 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.
Encouraging performance in Q1 for Hungarian real estate
Both supply and demand in the housing market surged in March 2023. The market was characterised by a 16 percent annual increase in demand compared to 2023, reports Portfolio. In contrast to March 2023, 8 percent more apartments were offered for sale, which represents a 40 percent increase compared to 2022.
Overall, the Hungarian real estate market has been producing commendable figures this year. January 2024, for instance, witnessed a turnover that was 43 percent higher than a year before. Moreover, the amount of total mortgage loans showed an 80 percent growth.
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.
Csongrád-Csanád county leads the list in terms of housing demand, experiencing a 50 percent increase in demand in the southern Hungarian region. In contrast, most apartments for sale were advertised in the counties of Nógrád, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok and Vas.
In March 2024, Budapest saw a 16 percent increase in demand. However, there was a decline in the number of homes offered for sale, with 8 percent fewer ads placed compared to the previous year, resulting in a total of 12,000 properties advertised.
László Balogh, the leading economic expert of ingtalan.com, holds an optimistic view regarding the future of the housing market. He anticipates a significant increase in market activity in 2024, projecting a 15-20 percent rise in turnover compared to 2023. This would entail approximately 120 transactions completed within the year.
Budapest: an outlier in pricing trends
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.
However, as we previously covered, property prices in Budapest present a different scenario: at the onset of 2024, they experienced significant growth. Consequently, in mid-March, the average price per square meter of a brick apartment in the capital surpassed the psychological threshold of HUF 1 million (EUR 2.533).
Despite historically low demand in 2023, prices in Budapest surged, indicative of a nine-year depression in the country’s real estate market last year. Notably, our article highlights stark price discrepancies among different districts within the city.
Read our other reports on the real estate market:
Positive changes at Lake Balaton: Far more holiday homes for sale than in 2023
Will the luxurious mini Dubai propel real estate prices to new heights in Budapest?
Source: Portfolio