We have collected three main reasons why living and working in the Hungarian capital is one of the most absurd and sad thing nowadays. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Hungarians and people from other nations living in the Hungarian capital city can see these things through. This is based on real life shit. I don't know where this shit leads to. All I know is that it is definitely NOT the recipe for growth and a healthy economy.
Absurd rise of property prices and rental fees
Let's take an example. Let's say your dreams are not too far from realities as an average Hungarian planning to move to Budapest from somewhere else, and you are planning to buy a flat. You plan to buy a quite average sized, 60 square meters flat in Budapest. Average prices (per square meter) are somewhere between 1.3 million HUF and 1.5 million HUF per sq meter. For this price, you will get a flat in a 10-storey block house, not so fancy, many neighbors, no privacy, quite often noisy. But let's say you value more the fact of ownership than having a normal place to live.
Let's suppose you were lucky, and you found a flat that costs 1.3 mill per square meters.
Buying a flat for 1.3 million * 60 sq meters = 78 million HUF. Average salary in 2025 was 530,000 HUF per month. This means that, if you're earning the average salary and providing you can save 60% of your net salary (318,000) each and every month, you can buy your "dream flat" in 245 months which is a bit more than 20 years.
I know the above calculation is arbitrary, but I wanted to create a simple number that expresses the absurdity of the situation. That simple number is: 20 years. If you are an average person starting your career in Budapest now, and your salary remains average throughout this time, and you are quite good in savings (60%), then it will take 20 years for you to buy a fucking average flat from your savings.
I think this is absurd.
Budapest is not Western Europe. It is far from the West. Wages are shitty. Services are shitty too. Let's not even talk about the quality of those flats that you can buy with an average salary. Quality of flats and quality of life are significantly lower, especially in 10-storey block houses. So 20 years is too much for an average Hungarian to save for his/her first flat.
If it takes approx. 20 years to save for that flat, then it will take at least the same amount of time to fully own it when buying using a mortgage loan - banks are not stupid.
Problem is, dear average Hungarian property buyer, that in 20 years, flats in those communist run-down 10-storey block houses will worth shit.
Closely connected to this: the recent absurd rise of rental fees in Budapest. There is an important factor that needs to be mentioned.
As I said above, Hungarians are obsessed of being the owner of the flat/house they are living in (approx. 80% 'owns' the place they are living in - whatever it means) - so the percentage of those renting a flat is about 20%. They are regarded as some poor, idiotic minority in this country - even the youngest people who can afford it, are obsessed with owning flats or houses.
Some are buying flats to have a second, a third, a fourth flat, and they are not living in those. Of course those are the wealthier layers of the society who can afford this kind of kink. Sometimes they rent the flat out, sometimes they don't.
I am not some motherfucker financial advisor, so I won't state anything, just ask: Why aren't these rich morons take their money to the banks, and put it in some bank deposit? Or some motherfucker bonds? I cannot understand why someone takes a risk and buys a run-down flat now, because he/she thinks the flat might be sold at a higher price after 20 years have passed?
A little advice from a not-financial-advisor person: take 3% year-on-year interest that you would get for a 20-year bond or something, and take the compound interest for 20 years at 3%. As compared to this, betting on Hungarian property price rise to continue for 20 years is stupid, to say the least.
These things are rising the prices in a market where supply is very very weak anyway.
Back to the rise of the rent prices: this is shitty because this blocks the inner-country migration to Budapest. It prices out those who cannot or do not want to pay the overpriced rental fees in Budapest.
Failing strategies
Since the collapse of Soviet Union, Hungary thinks its future lies in "cheap labor" - whatever it means.
"Cheap labor" means a low-value-added focus in both companies with production lines and companies that offer services. Even the Hungarian economy is white-collar dominant, so this low-value-added focus means one thing: low wages, significantly lower than in the West.
For a while, this strategy was working. It was working because living costs, including buying a flat or renting a flat, and general cost levels, were significantly lower than in the West. Since 2022, the country saw several consecutive years with inflation over 10%, and the peak was well above 20%. Inflationary pressure did ease a lot, but not enough.
Reasons why I think Hungary's strategy is a fail:
This is absurd. Why did companies rise the wages of their employees without any rise in productivity? This is absurd, and I think it won't work for too long.
When I was a student, they told us: "If you learn something at the university, your knowledge will be valuable and you will be better off in the job market." and "If you are willing to do the life-long-learning thing, this makes you valuable in the job market."
Now we know it is bullshit. But if knowledge does not count at all, then what counts?
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The above article might contain false information. It is an opinion article. Other than that it is *fake news* entirely.