Significant growth in rental prices in Hungarian cities

Most cities with universities have seen a significant increase in rental prices – and the trend is only getting stronger it seems.

In Pécs, Debrecen, Szeged and other big Hungarian cities flat rental prices have increased during the past year, and in some places this increase is radical, reaching up to 33 percent.

If we look at Budapest, the rise in prices is somewhat more modest. 40-59 m2 apartments cost an average 140.000 Forints to rent currently opposed to last year's 126.000 Forints, while larger flats around 60-79 square meters have seen a 4 percent increase in monthly rent.

According to László Balogh, market expert of ingatlan.com the average prices don't necessarily mean that all flats became more expensive, there can be great deviation in the particular regions or flat types.

It is no surprise that there is a surge when summer ends, seasonality dictates that when the fall comes and students begin to look for apartments for the next term, demand significantly grows. This year it means that demand for rentals have grown by 20 percent.

Additionally in the capital more and more people rent their apartment to tourists, so the supply on the market is shrinking and fewer new estates are built – which all leads to increasing prices.

According to official data 8.3 thousand apartments were built nationally last year – while before the financial crisis number typically showed 35-40 newly built apartments annually. If in the next years the number of constructions increases, that could stabilize the market according to Balogh.

(Source: http://www.vg.hu/vallalatok/ingatlan/alberletet-keres-nagyon-rossz-hireink-vannak-455717)