Project to alleviate Budapest housing crisis

napi.hu, 27.08.21 – Budapest Housing Agency may start its operation as soon as in 2022 to increase the pool of council properties available for rent and alleviate the housing crisis of the capital. The project is jointly run by the Municipality of Budapest, the Utcáról Lakásba Egyesület and Városkutatás Kft. with the help of international partners like the Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation in Barcelona and Habitat for Humanity Poland. At first, the Agency would expand the pool of council housing by private rental properties. Apart from the approximately 3700 vacant municipal and district council apartments there are many unused private residential properties in Budapest. These would be rented by the Agency below market price from willing owners who would be exempt from personal income tax in return and would also be freed from the expenses and risks of renting a property. At a later stage the project would include vacant council homes, too, and, provided that the Agency can drum up EU or government funding, it would buy or construct residential units to expand the affordable pool of council housing of the capital.

Do landlords need a tax number?

napi.hu, 06.09.2016 – According to a bulletin issued by NAV, the Hungarian Tax Authority recently, no tax number is needed for landlords offering their property for a long-term lease, unless they are legal entities with a compulsory tax number. As the lease of properties for non-touristic purposes by private persons is exempt from VAT, no invoice needs to be issued for the rental fee – a receipt or any other form of verifiable record will be sufficient.

Touristic accommodation services, on the other hand, fall into the category called “other types of accommodation” and involve a formal business activity, mainly the provision of short-term accommodation and related services. Property owners have a choice of several forms of business and taxation methods. Most of them do so as private persons and must apply for a tax number and also register with the local notary public.

Demand for housing was weak for most of 2023, but by the end of the year interest had increased, and from the beginning of 2024 the Csok Plus programme boosted the market

hvg.hu 16.04 In the first quarter of this year, home buyers took advantage of the new subsidy option in almost exactly one sixth of the loans, 16.7 percent. Of course, it was not only the Csok Plus programme that helped, but also the fact that interest rates have started to fall and inflation has also […]

Second highest house price increase in the EU since 2010 in Hungary

hvg.hu, 04 04 – In the last quarter of 2023, the average price of housing in the EU was 48 percent more expensive than in 2010 – Eurostat said. House prices in Hungary rose by 185 percent between 2010 and 2023. This is the second highest increase in the EU, with only Estonia 217 percent […]

Heirs left in the lurch at the probate hearing

napi.hu, 20.01 – Cryptocurrencies, social media profiles or documents stored in the cloud are increasingly common in probate proceedings. However, few people know that in lack of proper regulation and provisions, access to crypto currencies can be questionable for heirs, or that tech giants only allow access to deceased people’s data to those entitled to […]

Property and mortgage market data

napi.hu, 18.01 – More than a third of Budapest clients signed contracts for over HUF 20 million last year. Between September and December, for example, their share was 42%, which reflects an increase of 10 percentage points in 2021. The number of applications in this value range has increased steadily from quarter to quarter, to […]

Real estate prices have increased on the back of CSOK

napi.hu, 5 October – A study shows that the family home allowance (CSOK) has not improved the birth rate, but its amount has been incorporated into the price of homes. Three quarters of the subsidy was bunt up by the price rise, and the number of people having three children has not increased even in […]