In its Tuesday summary, the real estate listing portal reported that, according to official records, Budapest’s population grew by a few thousand in 2023, despite a stagnant housing market. However, last year, the housing market started to recover, and the capital’s population began to decline again.
Based on data from January this year, only four districts in Budapest saw population growth. The largest increase occurred in District XIII, where the number of permanent residents rose by nearly a thousand. According to László Balogh, chief economic expert at ingatlan.com, this growth can also be attributed to newly completed housing developments in the district, which many people were able to move into in 2024.
The growth in District XXIII was partly driven by attractive real estate prices. According to ingatlan.com, in March this year, the average price per square meter of residential properties for sale in District XXIII was 816,000 HUF, significantly below the nearly 1.3 million HUF average in Budapest.
Detailed data also show that the population increased in some of the most sought-after settlements in the capital’s metropolitan area. Among Hungary’s 20 municipalities with the largest population growth, 14 are located in Pest County.
However, every county seat in the country experienced a population decline. The report highlighted that the number of permanent residents decreased in both Debrecen and Szeged. According to László Balogh, one factor in this trend could be that the rising cost of housing, driven by industrial investments, is pushing more people to relocate to suburban areas.
Among towns outside Pest County, the most significant population growth was recorded in Herend (Veszprém County), Velence (Fejér County), and Balatonföldvár (Somogy County). The increase in Velence’s population is not only due to its proximity to Lake Velence, but also because the area is part of both Székesfehérvár and Budapest’s metropolitan region. Balatonföldvár, located on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, remains one of the most popular destinations, making it an attractive place to live, according to ingatlan.com experts.
(MTI)
