Foreign property buyers swarm Hungary’s property market

What has happened? Foreign demand for Hungarian real estate has already exceeded the pre-COVID  level, according to Pénzcentrum.

Foreigners are buying up real estate mainly at the Northern and Eastern border and in the Transdanubian region. Interestingly, Budapest is not yet as popular as Chinese, Vietnamese and Israeli buyers have not yet returned to the market in sufficient numbers.

Details. In 2018, there were 7,300 contracts for the purchase of property in Hungary by foreigners, but this number rose to 8,000 in 2022. However, the changes are not only about numbers. Speaking about the countries of origin of foreign buyers, four should be noted: Germany, Slovakia, China and Romania.

• Between 2018 and 2022, the majority of buyers came from Germany, and their number has doubled (2,127).
• Chinese buyers have disappeared due to the coronavirus. Fortunately, they came back in 2022, although the number remains half  the 2018 peak (814).
• Romanian buyers have made 750 transactions, which is 25% less than in 2018.
• Slovakians did the other way around. They have  increased the number of property transactions by 45%. Thus, they became the second biggest foreign group in that regard, besides the Germans with 1,042 apartments acquired.
   

Preferences. The Chinese, Vietnamese and Israelis buy real estate almost exclusively in Budapest. 9 out of 10 transactions in 2022 were concluded in the capital. Meanwhile, the Dutch and Germans are fans of the Hungarian countryside. In 2022, only 6% of their apartments were in Budapest.

Country villages and towns are becoming popular among foreign buyers. Romanians, Slovaks, Austrians, Belgians and Swiss also chose villages and towns outside of Budapest. This is probably because they only come here after retirement.

Meanwhile, immigrants from East Asia come here not to retire, but to work hard.

In 2018, 42% of the transactions concerned properties in Budapest. That rate has decreased to only 33% by 2022.
Austrians and Ukrainians paid 119% more for an average real estate in 2022 than in 2018. Meanwhile, the lowest price increase concerned French buyers with only 19%. That is because they turned to properties in the countryside. Romanians experienced a 25% rise because they bought property near the Hungarian-Romanian border. In 2022, the number of buyers coming from the UK increased significantly. They bought thrice that many apartments and houses than when they were EU members. In Budapest, the British were the second biggest buyers community besides the Chinese in 2022.

Source: Daily News Hungary

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