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“The slowdown in price growth is due to the expansion of supply, as significant investments that meet the requirements of the Otthon Start program were already announced at the end of 2025, and their number may increase further in 2026,” said Péter Futó, head of analysis at real estate search portal zenga.hu.
He added that there are nearly 10,000 apartments in Budapest that are expected to be completed in the next few years and meet the Otthon Start requirements. Several thousand more such apartments may be built in county seats.
At the end of 2025, according to data from zenga.hu, the average advertised price per square meter for residential properties in the capital exceeded HUF 1.5 million, with individual counties lagging significantly behind. At the end of last year, Somogy and Veszprém counties also exceeded the million-forint mark, while in most of the country, prices per square meter range between HUF 600,000 and 800,000.
In the cheaper counties – Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Tolna, and Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok – there is already a wide range of properties available for between HUF 400,000 and HUF 500,000, with Békés and Nógrád once again bringing up the rear with averages of just over HUF 300,000.
In mid-2025, the government announced a comprehensive program, primarily for first-time homebuyers. Otthon Start is a state-subsidized mortgage with a fixed interest rate of 3%, with repayment installments remaining unchanged throughout the entire term.
All this gave new impetus to the real estate market, which had been slowing down since the first months of last year, initially reflected in an increase in the number of inquiries. However, the launch of the program in September pushed up the number of transactions, although demand began to decline again in the last months of the year.
The head of analysis at zenga.hu explains this by saying that many of those eligible are waiting and will buy from the new housing supply coming onto the market in the coming months.
“Despite stable demand, the growing supply may slow down the significant price increases that characterized last year, especially in Budapest, where more and more housing developers are trying to meet the program’s upper limit of HUF 1.5 million per square meter. The pricing of new apartments will also affect the prices of used apartments, which have a much higher turnover, as was already evident in Budapest at the end of last year,” Péter Futó pointed out.
It is interesting to note that in several districts of the capital, the prices of used and new apartments have converged. In districts X, XV, XVIII, and XX, for example, the price of a prefabricated apartment is only slightly more than 10 percent lower than that of a new apartment of the same size, although it is true that the latter may take up to 2-3 years to be handed over.
While apartment prices rose significantly in 2025, rents remained virtually unchanged, and in some months even fell slightly. The analyst at zenga.hu does not expect any major changes in 2026 either.
The Otthon Start program may encourage some tenants to buy a home this year, and in addition, restrictions on short-term rentals have been put on the agenda in several districts, while the Airbnb moratorium in the capital will definitely remain in place until the end of 2026. As a result, this year is likely to be characterized by a supply-driven rather than a demand-driven market.
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