Hungary
Presentation of country
- Country located in the middle of Central Europe with 9.7 million inhabitants and 1.7 millions in the capital Budapest
- Very dynamic country with unemployment rate of 3.7% and one of the fastest growing revenue per capita in Europe
- High industrial presence and strength particularly in pharmaceutical, food processing, automobile, chemical and electronic industry
- Average salary around 1350€ which explains a very high advantage in employment costs vs. skills ratio of the country, thanks to a voluntarily low exchange rate of Florint currency vs. Euro and Dollar
Potential
- Recently Hungary has become the hotspot for both retirees from countries like Germany and the Netherlands as well as externalized western European industries
- Salaries are one of the lowest in Europe whereas the education level is well above the average, particularly in sciences and maths
- GDP growth is around 6.9% in 2021 which is the one of the highest results in the European Union
- One of the highest economic growths, salary increases, which are still very low, and lowest unemployment rates. These facts give Hungary a lot of potential in terms of economy and improvement of life standard for people as well as for real estate prices and rental liquidity
- Long term high potential of value creation through convergence of salaries level and exchange rate catch up
Real estate market
- Very active real estate market with prices up by 50% over last few years in Budapest
- Hungary’s nationwide house prices soared 14.1% in 2021
- Increase of transactions by 15% in 2021
- Pressure on prices due to demographic situation in Budapest (increase of numbers of students, retirees from western European countries, pursuit of urbanization and population migration from countryside as Budapest is the only significant city in Hungary)
- Possibility to access financing at 50% for non-resident investors
- Still significant potential of growth of house and rent prices
- Average price per sqm is still at 2500€ vs. 4300€ in Prague and
5370 € in Vienna
Tax & Social
- Corporate tax: 9%
- Tax rate on rents for non-residents investors : 15%
- Tax on dividends distributed : 15%
- Transfer tax of real estate: 4% of acquisition price up to 1 billion Forint and 2% on the excess amount
- VAT: 27%, reduced rate 18%
- Currency: Florint