Hungary is one of the most favourable countries in the world for first-time home buyers!

Hungary is the second best place in the world for first home buyers, according to research by Compare the Market. The research ranked 35 countries on 6 of the major considerations for first home buyers, including disposable income to cost-of-living ratio, average mortgage interest rate and government grants aimed at first home buyers.

Hungary came second on the index for a variety of reasons including a 181% increase in house prices from 2015 to 2021, a 4 out 5-star rating for long term investment, and a very comfortable disposable income to cost-of-living ratio of 10.4%, Compare the Market reported.

Coming second, Hungary is in the company of countries like Slovakia (1^st), Lithuania (3^rd) and Latvia (4^th) while the bottom of the list is populated with countries like Mexico (35^th), Iceland (34^th) and Sweden (33^rd).

The research writes about Hungary that its high increase in house prices indicates a rapidly growing housing market buoyed by favourable conditions, including:

low mortgage interest rates
higher wages
high employment rates.

In other words, the housing market is supported by a healthy economy in which homebuyers are actively purchasing properties. The increase in demand has seen significantly affected purchase prices.

To date, there’s been an 181% increase since 2015.

Read also: Property prices doubled in the past two years in most of the settlements around Lake Balaton

For the average Hungarian, 10.4% of their disposable income isn’t spent on cost-of-living expenses, meaning that the average Hungarian should be able to afford all necessities to live comfortably, and more. The high long-term investment rating coupled with the steep increase in house prices also indicates a great potential for the property’s value to continue increasing over time.

The Hungarian national and federal government offers subsidised interest on mortgages to families with children.

However, the market has been plunging over the last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here is the top 5 countries:

Best countries for first home buyers: the top 5 countries. Source: Press release.

Source: Press release/Compare the Market