Heavy fines on black market apartment rentals

napi.hu: According to a survey conducted in Terézváros, the 7^th district of Budapest, about 75 per cent of Airbnb hosts evade paying tax either on purpose or out of ignorance. These results are in line with those of international surveys. Failure to issue a proper invoice may result in fines up to HUF 1 million levied by the Tax Authority. The survey used local government property registers, publicly available data at the Airbnb website, and also personal interviews were made.

The Hungarian Tax Authority issued a press release recently to clear up any misunderstandings. The press release confirmed that private persons commercially letting one single room or their entire apartment for accommodation purposes through an online reservation system, such as Airbnb or similar, are legally obliged to issue an invoice and pay income tax, too.

Foreign buyers of Hungarian apartments

napi.hu: The boom of the Hungarian residential property market has raised the interest of foreign investors, too, and buyers from China, Russia, the Ukraine, and the Middle-East have become a regular feature in Hungary. According to 2016 Q1 figures less than 1 per cent of residential property transactions were effected by foreigners, but their ratio was almost 4 per cent in the most popular districts (V., VI. and VII) of downtown Budapest.

Chinese buyers had the biggest share (36 per cent), while another 15 per cent came from another country of South-East Asia. Buyers from the Middle-East had a share of 5 per cent. Judged by their combined share European buyers are still in majority, but the individual proportion of Austrian, German, French, English, Northern or Southern European buyers is small.

Most foreign buyers went for an apartment of 60-80 sq. m. in downtown Budapest at an average price of HUF 45 million.