Hungary’s university cities continue to be among the country’s strongest real estate markets, driven by robust rental demand and rising property prices. Following the announcement of university admission results this summer, rental prices could increase by as much as 5%, according to Zsolt Molnár, regional manager at MBH Mortgage Bank, speaking at the bank’s MBH Real Estate 360 expert press briefing.
Gábor Soóki-Tóth, head of analysis at Otthon Centrum, said rental prices in university cities—which are also major employment hubs—have been climbing steadily due to competition between students and workers for available apartments.
He expects rents in university cities to rise by a further 1–5% during the summer, before the market cools in October, when rents could decline by 2–4%.
In Budapest, monthly rents near university campuses currently range between HUF 205,000 and HUF 304,000. The cheapest area is District VII (HUF 205,000 per month), while District IX is the most expensive (HUF 304,000). Over the past five years, rental prices have increased by at least 50% across the capital, with some districts seeing rents double.
Outside Budapest, Debrecen stands out with an average monthly rent of around HUF 200,000, while average rents in Szeged and Pécs are approximately HUF 150,000.
According to András Pásztor, head of Fundamenta Ingatlan, demand for rental properties typically jumps by around 30% immediately after university admission scores are announced.
Molnár added that average apartment prices per square metre in university cities have nearly doubled over the past five years.
According to the MBH Index, the sharpest property price increase over the past decade occurred in Magdolna Quarter in Budapest, where prices rose more than fivefold between 2015 and 2025. Among the city’s central neighbourhoods, Palota Quarter (+312%) and Outer Erzsébetváros (+307%) recorded the strongest growth.
Property prices have also increased significantly in provincial university cities. Over the past year, prices rose by 28% in Pécs, nearly 20% in Miskolc, and 19% in Debrecen.
Based on transaction data compiled by the MBH Index, Debrecen has become the most expensive regional university city, with an average price of HUF 946,000 per square metre. In the other major university cities, average prices remain below HUF 900,000 per square metre. Miskolc remains the most affordable, with an average price of HUF 474,000 per square metre.
Rental demand weakens, but apartment rents remain high in Debrecen
Within Budapest, property prices exceeded HUF 1 million per square metre in every district last year, Molnár noted.
Flóra Horti, senior sector analyst at the MBH Analysis Centre, said Hungarian house prices have continued to grow at one of the fastest rates in Europe. Since 2015, residential property prices have quadrupled, compared with an average increase of just 65% across the European Union.
She added that, after several years of rapid growth, the market is expected to moderate. Nationwide residential property prices are forecast to increase by 8–13% in 2026.
As the market gradually normalises, housing construction is also accelerating. The supply of newly built homes in Budapest reached a 10-year high in the first quarter of 2026. Analysts expect 15,000 new homes to be completed this year and 20,000 next year.
Banking experts also forecast HUF 1.8 trillion in new Otthon Start home loans, equivalent to around 50,000 new loan agreements, representing annual lending growth of 25–28% across the sector.
However, the number of property transactions is expected to remain below last year’s 136,000, with the bank projecting between 118,000 and 125,000 transactions in 2026.
While last year’s market was driven largely by investor demand and the Otthon Start programme, experts say the current environment is more balanced.
On the question of whether it is better to rent or buy, András Pásztor argued that purchasing a home is clearly the better financial choice for anyone planning to stay in the same place for more than five years, while renting remains the better option for shorter periods.
With standard market-rate mortgages, the break-even point in Budapest is more than 10 years, meaning homeownership becomes more cost-effective than renting only after that period. In Hungary’s larger provincial cities, the timeframe is also close to 10 years, with the exception of Miskolc, where buying becomes more economical after about five years.
Molnár added that subsidised financing and the possibility of renting out part of the property could shorten this payback period to three to five years.
(MTI)
