Property prices in Budapest – January 2023 update

After the stagnation in November and December, the real estate market has fallen to a new low. Duna House's national estimates for January are 5,853 sales, the weakest start to the year in 10 years, with fewer January transactions last seen in 2013. Compared to the same period last year, the network saw a decline of 46%.

In the current market environment, sellers may have to adapt, reconsider and lower their selling prices, while buyers look for a better negotiating position.

The real estate agent's annual forecast predicts a sales volume of between 90-110 thousand this year. As in the real estate market, the credit market also started the year with declining volumes, according to domestic data from Credipass, the group's international financial brand. In the first month of the year, Credipass estimates that mortgage loans amounting to 37 billion forints were closed, a decrease of 10% compared to the previous month and 66% compared to January last year, due to the particularly strong green loan.

Although the dramatic price rise has stalled, sellers have begun to gradually adapt, but they have not yet fully accepted the peculiarities of the current market environment. They are only increasingly willing, even if only slightly, to change their target price, with 6% price change in the countryside and 5% in the capital, but even less in the investor-friendly city center, where prices rose only 2% in January this year.

Sellers' flexibility is more evident in the area of ​​haggling, with buyers' haggling at 12% in eastern Hungary and 8% in western Hungary in Budapest to 3 to 5% increase. In the capital, brick houses in Pest and Buda changed hands at the same pace, with transactions completed in about 3 months, while sales in the city center took no longer than 4 months.

Low-maintenance, energy-efficient factory housing is experiencing a renaissance, and despite the market slowdown, they continue to find new owners quickly. Apartments in residential areas in Pest sold on average in 55 days, while apartments in Buda took 2.6 months in January.

The guide price in the western part of the country changed by 3%, while the negotiating margin in the eastern part of the country was 3%, the guide price in the eastern part of the country changed minimally, while the buyer's negotiating margin was 5%. In the capital, the advertised price changed by 3 to 4%, while the buyer's negotiating margin for Budapest prefabricated apartments increased to 3 to 6%.

On the Buda side, the average price per square meter of used brick houses in the first month of this year was over 1.3 million forints, while in the city center (Pest) the average price per square meter is over 1 million forints lay.