Rents in the inner districts of Budapest have gone up by significantly in a year, partly because of the growing popularity of social sites offering accommodation.
Experts say the price boom is currently concentrated only in downtown, but outer districts are likely to join the trend soon. Outside the capital we can see a different situation: while prices increased, this is mainly true for larger cities, and average growth fall behind the averages of inner Pest districts.
Real estate prices have been increasing due to two main factors. One of them is that DGP has been increasing for the last two years, and this usually spurs growth on the real estate market. The other reason is that interests are generally low, which attracts invertors to the market.
Especially foreign investors, as even with the increased prices they find Hungary cheap compared to Western European countries. They have been buying up estates in the capital for some time, which are sold by the families with defaulted loans. Then most of these estates get rented.
Tourism is a major factor. Prices are much lower than in Western Europe or the United State while services are on the same – or even higher – level, so tourists can have high quality rents in a beautiful city for prices that are low to them. Increasing tourism also means that social sites like AirBnb become popular, which in time spreads the trend to the city's whole sublet market. This is what happened in Berlin, San Francisco and Dublin, and what is happening now in Budapest.
All this of course creates a problem, as a price boom can easily force out people with lower income. There is no universal solution – San Francisco banned than legalized AirBnb, Berlin has set an upper price limit.
Social rental sites are not regulated in any way, but it won’t be long before tax authorities start inspections, just like they noticed a very similar service after a time: Uber. But until this new form online sublet market gets regulated, there is little help for those who want to rent in Budapest.
(Source: http://m.hir24.hu/hirek/gazdasag/Tenyleg-agyremme-valtozott-a-budapesti-alberletpiac)
