How we source our data
Every price figure on this site shows three things: whether it is an asking price or a transaction price, the source name, and the date. This page explains why that discipline matters, where Hungarian price data actually comes from, and how much weight we put on each source.
The short version
- Asking prices are what sellers advertise on portals. Transaction prices are what buyers actually paid. They are not the same number.
- In Hungary, every transaction price ultimately comes from one place: the tax office (NAV), which the statistics office (KSH) turns into the official house price data.
- We lead with the transaction figure where it exists, show the portal asking price clearly labelled, and put the source and date next to every number.
- Realised prices currently run about 2 to 4 percent below asking for Budapest flats, and more for houses (Balla Ingatlan, 2025).
Asking price versus transaction price
There are two completely different kinds of "price" for a Budapest home, and keeping them apart is the easiest way to read any figure with confidence.
Asking prices are what a seller advertises. Portals such as ingatlan.com, ingatlannet.hu and otthonterkep.hu publish average asking prices per square meter, updated constantly and broken down to the neighbourhood and building type. They are timely and granular, but they systematically sit above what buyers really pay, and listing stock skews toward renovated, higher-quality flats.
Transaction prices are what buyers actually paid, recorded in signed sale contracts. These are the gold standard, but they arrive later and are published only for larger areas, not usually for a single district each quarter.
Put simply: a portal figure answers "what does an apartment like this list for today," while a KSH or MNB figure answers "what did comparable apartments actually sell for last quarter." We lead with the transaction figure for headline claims and trends, and use portal data for current, granular, clearly labelled asking prices.
All Hungarian transaction data traces back to one origin
This one fact explains a lot. In Hungary, official sale-price data has a single origin: the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) stamp-duty database, which records the sale contracts of private individuals. From there:
- The Central Statistical Office (KSH) receives that database and turns it into the official house price index, the quarterly Lakáspiaci árak, lakásárindex report, the STADAT tables, and the district and street-level Ingatlanadattár.
- The central bank (MNB) builds its own hedonic house price index on essentially the same transaction universe.
- Eurostat republishes the KSH national index for European comparison.
So when a blog quotes a "transaction price," it is quoting KSH or MNB, whether it says so or not. You cannot download a district average sale price directly from NAV; you reach that number only after KSH has aggregated it. That is why, for single-district transaction prices, the free access point is the KSH Ingatlanadattár, and it is published only once a year.
Why we often cannot give a single-district transaction price
Answer first: reliable, free, quarterly transaction prices for one individual Budapest district do not exist. The KSH quarterly report breaks Budapest into district groups, not single districts:
| KSH district group | Featured districts in it | Price change, year on year (Q1 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Inner Pest (pesti belső) | V, VI, VII, XIII | about +6% |
| Other Buda (budai egyéb) | XI | about +6.5% |
| Buda hills (budai hegyvidék) | II, XII | about +5% |
| Transitional Pest (pesti átmeneti) | context only | about +10% |
| Outer Pest (pesti külső) | context only | about +10% |
Single-district transaction prices exist in only two places: annually, through the KSH Ingatlanadattár interactive tool, and quarterly, through the paid ELTINGA Budapest Housing Market Report. Everything else at single-district resolution is asking-price data. When a reliable single-district transaction number does not exist, we say so and show the portal asking figure, clearly labelled, instead.
Our reliability tiers
We sort every source into one of four tiers and treat it accordingly.
| Tier | What it is | Main examples | How we use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Official, transaction-based | KSH, MNB, Eurostat, NAV | Headline price levels, the index, and year-on-year trend. Our anchor for any claim about what homes sell for. |
| Tier 2 | Reputable market reports, methodology disclosed | ELTINGA, Duna House | Per-district transaction detail and market absorption, where we can access it. |
| Tier 3 | Portal asking-price statistics | ingatlan.com, ingatlannet.hu, otthonterkep.hu | Current, granular asking prices, always labelled "asking" with the portal and date. |
| Tier 4 | Crowd-sourced or secondary | Numbeo, Global Property Guide | Indicative rental yields and city-level context only, always flagged as an estimate. |
A note on rental yields: the district yield figures we quote come from the Global Property Guide (Tier 4, derived from asking rents and list prices), so we present them as indicative ranges, not hard facts. We also flag known issues, for example that the Global Property Guide mislabels its District XIII row as Hegyvidék (normally District XII), and that yields for Districts II and XII are not cleanly sourced.
How often we refresh
We re-read the KSH quarterly housing report each time it is published (roughly every three months; the Q1 2026 edition came out on 31 July 2026) and update the transaction anchors and trend figures. We re-check portal asking prices whenever we revise a district guide. Exchange-rate conversions to euro are approximate, at about 365 HUF per EUR (ECB reference rate, 30 October 2026), and the rate moves, so we tell you to check the live rate against a real offer. Every figure carries the date we last checked it, so you can judge how fresh it is.
Our source-and-date rule
Every price or market figure on this site shows its type (asking or transaction), its source, and its date. Where reliable single-district data does not exist, we say so plainly rather than filling the gap with a guess. That single discipline is what lets you rely on the numbers here.
The primary sources we standardise on
- KSH Lakáspiaci árak, lakásárindex quarterly report, for headline Budapest and district-group transaction figures and trend.
- KSH Ingatlanadattár, the one free tool for single-district transaction prices per square meter and transaction counts, published annually.
- MNB House Price Index and Housing Market Report, for the authoritative index and the Budapest narrative.
- Eurostat house price index, for European context on the Hungary series.
- ingatlan.com and ingatlannet.hu, for current, granular asking prices, always labelled as asking and dated.
- Global Property Guide, for indicative gross rental yields, labelled Tier 4 and asking-derived.
Spotted a figure that looks off?
We are always glad to correct a figure. The community is the fastest way to flag a number, compare it against what people actually paid, and help us keep every figure accurate.
Primary sources: KSH quarterly housing report (Q1 2026, published 31 July 2026) and Ingatlanadattár; MNB House Price Index and Housing Market Report; Eurostat house price index; ingatlan.com and ingatlannet.hu asking-price statistics (portal, dated on each page); Balla Ingatlan negotiation tracking (2025) for the asking-to-sale discount; Global Property Guide (February 2026, Tier 4) for indicative yields. Euro figures approximate at about 365 HUF per EUR (ECB reference rate, 30 October 2026); check the live rate against any real offer.