During the month of March, home policy holders may switch their insurers without penalty in a campaign initiated by the government to encourage homeowners to take advantage of increased competition on the market.

Nagy said as many as 200,000 policy holders could switch providers by the end of the month.

Hungarians have about 3.3m home insurance policies, the latest data from the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) show. The central bank noted earlier that just three-fourths of Hungarian homes are insured.