Duna House estimated that mortgage outlays came to HUF 135bn in July, up 1pc from the same month a year earlier.

Home sales in the first seven months of the year reached 72,882, edging down 0.4pc from the same period a year earlier.

New home builds fall but permit issues climb

New home builds slipped, but permits issued for residential construction climbed in the first half from the same period a year earlier, data released by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) on Friday show.

The number of new homes handed over nationwide fell 14.9pc to 5,129. Home completions in the capital dropped 14.3pc to 1,821. The number declined 34.3pc to 736 in county seats and cities with populations over 50,000, but edged up 1.1pc at 1,503 in smaller cities. In Hungary's smallest settlements, the number fell 17.5pc to 1,069.

Detached homes accounted for 48pc of completions. Homes in multi-storey buildings with multiple dwellings made up 41pc of the total and homes in residential parks 7pc.

The average new home size was 93.5sqm.

The share of homes built by businesses stood at 67pc.

The data show 640 homes were demolished or condemned.
 

The number of home building permits issued jumped 43.0pc to 12,830. The number of permits issued for homes in the capital was 5,992, 3.8 times more than a year earlier. The number issued for homes in county seats and cities with populations over 50,000 increased 3.3pc to 2,411. The number issued in smaller cities fell 17.4pc to 2,411. In the country's smallest settlements, the number of home building permits issued was down 6.1pc at 2,016.

Meanwhile, Orban: Interest in 3 pc home credit 'very strong'

Interest in a subsidised 3 percent credit scheme for first-time home buyers is "very strong", the prime minister said in a weekly interview with public radio on Friday. Viktor Orban also spoke about the start of a family-friendly "tax revolution", and announced plans to prepare action plans to counter the negative effects of the trade deal between the European Union and the United States.

Highlighting price thresholds for eligibility, Orban said the Home Start Programme was not about subsidising "luxury apartments" or "grand homes" but about helping the middle class and the aspiring middle class to reach the first rung of the property ladder.

He added that the scheme was about nation-building and helping young Hungarians form a bond with their homeland.

Orban said interest in the scheme was strong, adding that it could it could lead to a boom in real estate investment, with a knock-on effect on economic growth.

He said the world had been grappling with uncertainty since the pandemic, noting the war between Russia and Ukraine, the "trade wars started by the US president", and technological changes like the rise of artificial intelligence.

"Many things that seemed stable in the past are now being questioned," Orban said. "This uncertainty makes things more difficult for young people, which is why the government is trying to help out with home [subsidies]."

He highlighted the rollout of employer housing support, with tax preferences, up to 150,000 forints (EUR 375) a month from the start of the year and a new programme offering home allowances to civil servants up to 1 million forints a year.

He said there were several sectors in Budapest and Pest County that were struggling to find workers due to high property prices, which was also making it hard to accommodate people hired from outside the capital. "So it would be good if a larger share of civil servants had their own homes," the prime minister said.

The government, he said, was now giving police officers, soldiers, doctors, health-care workers, teachers, civil servants and other public sector workers a chance by offering them the new home allowance.

Orban said the measure was "about more than money", because it was a show of appreciation for civil servants. "They work for us, and it’s important for us to repay them and for the state to show its respect and recognition," he added.

Another area where the government had announced a breakthrough, he said, was family family subsidies.

Orban noted that the "family friendly tax revolution" has introduced personal income tax exemptions for child-care allowances that could leave families with as much as 1 million forints. Also, tax allowances for families raising children will be doubled, and the government is gradually introducing personal income tax exemptions for mothers, he said.

"This is nothing short of a family friendly tax revolution," Orban said. "There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the world … certainly not now when austerity measures are being introduced everywhere in the Western world. So we’re not turning to austerity in this turbulent economic wartime situation, but instead giving opportunities to young people and families."

Orban said the government’s job was give people the chance to set goals, which required the government to set goals as well.

The prime minister said he had started every government term by setting clear goals he had wanted to achieve. "If you have goals then those are what have to determine the budget and the state finances," he said, adding that the cabinet’s current top goal was "family-friendly governance".

This, he said, encompassed home creation and aiding working people and those raising children.

Commenting on the EU-US tariff deal, Orban said the United Kingdom, which left the EU, had negotiated "a much better agreement" with the US. He said a smaller economy negotiating a better deal than a larger one constituted a "failure" on the larger economy’s part.

Orban said the EU made several blunders, the first being timing, since instead of taking the US president more seriously as soon as he assumed office, they "laughed at him". "This isn't a good negotiating tactic," he said.

He said Brussels failed to see that Trump "would actually reorganise the world economy", yet the president was putting into effect promises made to voters "point by point", including revamping America's customs rules. Simply "giggling" about this, which is what the EU did, "could get you into trouble", he added.

Orban said that since February he had urged the EU to "take the initiative" and switch to full free trade, or make special deals for certain sectors.

He said the trade deal included Europeans buying energy from the US, yet "Brussels has never bought a single cubic meter of gas" because "it is not a country". It is member states that buy energy, he said, adding that he had not given EU president Ursula von der Leyen the go-ahead to strike a deal "on my behalf". "I don't know whether others gave her authorisation; I don't think they did."

Further, the deal also meant the financially straitened bloc would have to make 600 billion euros of investments in the US. "Money should be brought here, not taken out," he declared.

Von der Leyen made commitments to the US, he said, "that do not fall within her competence".

Also, the "secret clause" on arms shipments to Ukraine "does not fall within her competence either", he said, adding that the US would give arms to Ukraine paid for by Europeans, yet there was no European decision on this matter.

"If we want to make a deal with the Americans on Ukraine, it shouldn’t be done as a secret clause in a tariff deal, but separately. It should put on the table separately and discussed separately."

The tariff deal struck by the United States and the European Union "is a terrible economic agreement and an economic own goal" for the bloc, Orban said in the interview.

"Anything that could have been botched from a professional standpoint in this agreement has been," Orban said.

"It’s not just that we made a bad deal -- because all European goods exported to the US will have a 15 percent tariff on them, while there will be no tariffs on US goods coming to Europe -- but we’ve also agreed to terms that we obviously can’t fulfil," he said. "This means that we haven’t settled the tariff disputes, we’ve just lost the first battle and there will be more battles to come."

The prime minister also argued that if the promised 600 billion euros in investment, arms and energy purchases were not fulfilled, then the tariff agreement would have to be renegotiated.

He said that Hungarian industry and jobs must be protected. The government, he added, had two action plans, given that the EU-US trade deal had a negative impact on companies operating in Hungary. Products exported from Hungary to America amounted to around 11 billion dollars, to which a 15 percent tariff of around 1.5 billion dollars was added.

One was a job protection plan to ensure that foreign companies here do not lay employees off, or if people are laid off, another job should be waiting for them, he said. The second, he added, was an industrial protection action plan to prevent factories from closing if exporting to the US "is not worth it due to high tariffs".

Peter Szijjarto, the foreign affairs and trade minister, has been charged with negotiating with large investors that have concluded strategic agreements with the government, while Marton Nagy, the economy minister, has been authorised to negotiate with the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Orban said.

Decree on subsidised credit for first-time home buyers published

A government decree on a subsidised credit scheme for first-time home buyers was published in the official gazette, Magyar Kozlony, late Thursday.

In the framework of the Home Start Programme, home loans with fixed rates of 3pc up to HUF 50m will be available to first-time home buyers from September 1.

The down payment on the loans is set at 10pc and their maturity up to 25 years.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Government Information Centre said the credit scheme was unique in all of Europe. The goal is to help young Hungarians buy their first home, it added.

The credit is available to all first-time home buyers regardless of age or family status.

 

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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