Hungarian Rents Rose 5.0% Over the Year in August, KSH Index Shows
Hungarian advertised rents rose 0.7% in August 2026 and 5.0% over twelve months, with Budapest at 5.2%, according to the KSH experimental rent index.
Advertised residential rents in Hungary rose 0.7% month on month in August 2026 and 5.0% against August 2025. Budapest ran slightly ahead on both measures, at 0.9% and 5.2%. The figures come from the experimental rent index jointly produced by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and the country's largest property listings portal, published on 11 September 2026.
Adjusted for consumer prices the increases are smaller but still positive: real rents gained 0.5% nationally and 0.7% in Budapest over the month, and 3.7% and 3.8% respectively over the year. Tenants are paying more in real terms, not merely keeping pace with inflation.
Five years of compounding
The longer view is the one that reframes the monthly number. Measured against the 2021 base, nominal rents are now 77% to 78% higher both nationally and in Budapest. In real terms, after stripping out consumer price inflation over the same span, the increase is roughly 20%. A 5.0% annual reading looks moderate on its own and looks different as the latest step on that staircase.
Inside Budapest the spread by district group was wide for a single month, from 0.4% to 1.3%, with the largest gains in the hillside Buda districts. Over twelve months the range runs from 6.8% in the outer Buda districts down to 3.3% in the inner Pest districts, a two-to-one difference in annual rent growth within one city.
What the index actually measures
The release is candid about its sample, and the composition matters for anyone reading the number as a yield input. About 93% of the observed advertisements were flats in multi-unit buildings and only 7% family homes, a share that falls to 3.1% in Budapest. Private individuals, rather than agencies or institutional landlords, posted 44% of the listings nationally and 43% in the capital. This is an index of asking rents on a portal, not of contracted rents across the whole tenancy stock. The next edition is scheduled for 12 October 2026.
Rents are growing, prices faster
The Glopra snapshot dated 7 September 2026 puts the Hungarian national average at $2,150 per square metre with a gross rental yield of 4.69%, and Budapest at $4,376 per square metre with 4.63%. Our stored annual price change comes from the National Bank of Hungary for the second quarter of 2026: 12.3% nationally and 8.3% for Budapest.
Put the two series side by side and the arithmetic is unambiguous. Prices are compounding at 12.3% nationally while rents compound at 5.0%. When the denominator of a yield calculation grows more than twice as fast as the numerator, the gross yield falls, and a 4.69% starting point does not have much room to give. Budapest is the milder case, with 8.3% against 5.2%, but the direction is the same. A further complication for a foreign buyer: the forint gained about 8% over the past twelve months, so the same Hungarian price increase reads as 21.3% in dollars. Our Bubble Risk score for Hungary is 69 and for Budapest 64, both inside the elevated band.
Sources: Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), experimental rent index for August 2026, published 11 September 2026 https://www.ksh.hu/s/kiserleti-statisztika/kiadvanyok/kshingatlancom-lakberindex-2026-augusztus/index.html