Buying a home with a loan, even together with state subsidies, means an excessive financial burden for families in Budapest, but even in the big cities in the countryside, you have to save for more and more years, writes Népszava based on the latest housing market report of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank.
Last year in Debrecen, 13.5 years of total net average income was needed to buy a 75 square meter apartment at a typical price, while a year earlier 12.6 years of savings would have been enough. Between 2010-2015, even 8-9 years of net income was enough for the purchase.
According to the report, 11.9 years of average net income was needed to buy a flat in Budapest last year, which is the highest value since 2004 – except for 2019, when 12.28 years of income were needed.
In Szeged, 10.89, Székesfehérvár 10.2, Pécs 10.08, Győr 9.59, and Miskolc 7.26 years of net income was required to buy an average apartment last year. Since 2004, house prices have increased the most in Szeged compared to incomes, but in Miskolc, buying a house has become a little easier since 2021. For the calculations, the central bank used the average incomes for the given county as a basis.
Apartment and sublet prices are constantly rising in Debrecen
The situation is even worse if someone from the countryside wants to move to Budapest because the average salary in the capital is higher than in the rest of the country. Thus, based on the national average net salary, in the first quarter of this year, 16.2 years of savings would have been needed to buy a 75-square-meter apartment in the capital, which is no change compared to the previous year. Budapest is thus the seventh least affordable capital city in a European comparison.
