Lawyer's addressLövőház utca 20/A.
1024 Budapest Hungary

Attorney's phone number Tel.: +36 1 316 9233
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Attorney's office e-mail info@drlittner.hu

How long will Hungarian apartment prices rise?

napi.hu, 08.11.2017 – There was a 2-point adjustment to the Budapest property index published by GKI Economic Research Ltd. compared to the previous figure from July. The national index remained unchanged. Property market outlooks peaked about a year ago but expectations are still high.

Although in the first ten months of 2017 the turnover of the apartment market did not grow on a year-on-year basis (in fact, there was a slight decrease), apartments at popular locations are still selling like hot potatoes and prices are still on the increase. An apartment with a good location is still considered to be a lucrative investment because at the age of low deposit interest rates it is hard to find a financial instrument that offers sensible returns paired with low risk.

As far as the Budapest agglomeration and Western Hungary are concerned the expectations of property agents for the next 12 months have deteriorated slightly compared to the previous quarter. In the Eastern part of the country, however, a slight improvement was detected.

This is not the time to buy a holiday home

napi.hu, 28.10.2017 – While there is no point in postponing apartment purchases because prices are climbing higher and higher, it makes sense to wait with buying a holiday home. According to a report published by a large online property agency this is because similarly to previous years prices are likely to start falling after the autumn rally. Let us take 2016 as an example: in the first and second quarters holiday homes sold at an average price of HUF 14 million compared to the average price of HUF 19 million at the end of summer 2015. The most expensive regions for buying a holiday home are almost exclusively in the proximity of Lake Balaton. The most expensive one is Siófok, where a holiday home will cost HUF 29 million, while a similar property in the region of Keszthely can be had for HUF 10 million less.

New apartments may flood the market

napi.hu, 04.11.2017 – A leading real estate expert said as a result of the 5 per cent preferential VAT rate that is expected to expire in 2019 the number of newly built apartments will become available on the market in the next couple of years will exceed even today’s figures.

There is an apartment construction boom in Hungary which, apart from the reduced VAT rate, is also due to CSOK, the Family Home Allowance. On a year-on-year basis the number of new apartments completed grew by 50 per cent in the first three quarters of 2017. The average price per square metre in Budapest, the Western and Eastern regions of Hungary is approximately 650-700k HUF, 360-400k HUF and 350-380k HUF, respectively. The differences are even greater for pre-owned apartments: these properties are three times more expensive in Budapest than in other parts of the country.