Hona
An independent guide for expats

Find your home in Budapest, with confidence.

Renting, buying or selling here gets much easier when someone explains it plainly. These guides walk you through each step in English, with every figure sourced and dated.

I’m renting I’m buying I’m selling

Written and kept up to date by people who live in Budapest and have rented, bought, and renovated here.

The facade of a classic Budapest apartment building on a quiet street otthon means home
  • No listingsWe do not sell or let property, so nothing here steers you toward one.
  • No hidden commissionsNobody pays to be recommended, and how we earn is public.
  • Every figure sourcedPrices, taxes and fees carry their source and the date we last checked.
Start here

Pick the guide closest to your situation

  1. RentingLeases, deposits and your rights as a tenant, and how to confirm a listing before you pay.
  2. BuyingThe process for foreigners step by step, the non-EU permit, lawyers, and the checks before you sign.
  3. SellingPricing, paperwork, tax when you sell, and how to handle a sale when you live abroad.
  4. Costs and taxesTransfer duty, legal fees, the deposit and advance, and monthly running costs in one place.
  5. Mortgages and state programmesWhat banks lend to foreigners, and which government programmes you may be able to use.
  6. Your first weeksThe address card, tax number, utilities and the paperwork that follows a move.

Also here: government housing programmes, buying a flat to rent out, renovating a flat, selling from abroad, getting a deposit back, registering your address, and moving with kids.

Districts

The districts expats choose most

Used flats in Budapest sold for about 1.2 million HUF/m² on average in Q1 2026, up about 7 percent year on year (KSH). Each plate shows the current asking price per square meter.

Transaction anchor: KSH quarterly housing report, Q1 2026 (published 31 July 2026). Asking prices: ingatlannet.hu district statistics, retrieved July 2026. Realised prices run about 2 to 4 percent below asking for flats, more for houses (Balla Ingatlan, 2025). Kerület means district. Data and sources.

Compare the districts
Tools

Work it out before you sign

Calculators and generators that run in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.

All tools and downloads

The toolkit

Every template and checklist, in one download

Fifteen bilingual templates and checklists: the lease template, the handover protocol, the buyer and seller checklists, and the letters you will need along the way.

We email the link, and an updated version when a rule or figure changes. Unsubscribe any time.

A tree-lined residential street in Budapest in summer
When you want a person

Advice for buyers and sellers, openly priced

Most readers never need more than the guides, and that is a good outcome.

If you are about to commit real money and want a second pair of eyes on a flat, a price or a contract, you can book a one-hour consult at a fixed, public fee. We sell no listings and take no commission from anyone, so the advice has nothing to steer you toward.

How the consult works
Stay in the loop

A short email when something changes

We write when we publish a new guide, update a figure, or a rule changes, such as a new state programme or a tax deadline. Renting now but might buy one day? This is the easiest way to keep the market on your radar.

No selling your data, no pressure, unsubscribe whenever you like. Prefer to ask people who have done it? There is also a small, moderated community.