1.9% of respondents have decided to renovate their home in a year, up from 1.2% in the spring. The record was 7.1% at the beginning of 2008. Overall, 85-90% of households own and do not rent their home in Hungary.

13% of apartments built remain unsold in Hungary, meaning that existing demand will be filled primarily from this stock. On the other hand there is demand for 300,000 government subsidized social housing units, yet only 135,000 exist.

The market does not expect the foreclosed properties to clear out from the banks for another 5-6 years. The largest savings bank in Hungary, OTP Bank, with 4 million customers (40% market share) and 400 branches nationwide, recently launched real estate brokerage services along with its mortgage products, aiming to be market leaders in 3 years.

OTP will apparently have 4000 exclusive properties in their portfolio by the end of the year. It will certainly be a different experience buying an apartment from a bank clerk and not a real estate agent!

While in the West 90% of real estate transactions involve a professional broker, in Hungary only around 50% of transactions are sold through estate agents. Sellers are becoming more and more desperate to find buyers yet it seems many agents are not being creative enough...

By Andras Patkai., Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of CE Invest Group, and expert blogger on real estate and property issues in Budapest and Bratislava.

This opinion does not necessarily represent the views of this portal, your opinion is welcome too via info@xpatloop.com