Buying Property in a Hungarian Wine Region Can be a Good Investment

Tokaj

MBH Mortgage Bank has compared property prices in the wine regions of Hungary. According to the CEO of the bank, rural life is becoming increasingly popular in the country, thus it may be a good investment for families to look for a new home in one of the wine regions, reports Világgazdaság.

Looking at the property market in Hungary’s wine regions, one can see that there is not a strong correlation between the price and quality of wine and the price of residential property. The Tokaj wine region, known for the most expensive wines, has the lowest property prices. In the prestigious Pannon wine region, including the Villány and Szekszárd wine regions, and in the Upper Hungary wine region, including the Eger and Mátra wine regions, the prices were about the same as in the Great Plain region, which produces large quantities of light wines.

Therefore, even if a region is famous for its wines, if it cannot turn this into higher income through tourism, for instance, property values may be lower. There are many factors that influence prices, but one of the most important is income, the experts pointed out.

For instance, the proximity of the western border and the region’s abundance of job opportunities, including the area around Győr, may play a role in the high prices in the Upper Pannon wine region,”

they wrote.

Experts said the Balaton wine region, which attracted more than a million tourists in 2022, was the second most expensive, with housing at around HUF 400,000 (EUR 1,062) per square meter. This was followed by the third most visited region in Upper Hungary, and the Pannon wine region, with prices of around HUF 325,000 (EUR 862). The Danube wine region came in fourth place – receiving the second-most number of tourists – with just over HUF 300,000 (EUR 795.5) per square meter. Tokaj, which attracted the fewest visitors in 2022, proved to be the cheapest compared to the other regions despite the fact that it had the highest median price increase of more than 30 percent in 2021 and 2022-2023, with the price per square meter rising from HUF 104,000 (EUR 276) to HUF 140,000 (EUR 371). The rate of increase was lowest in the Upper Hungary wine region, 17 percent, with the price per square meter rising from HUF 277,000 (EUR 734) to HUF 324,000 (EUR 859).

A similar picture emerges for price levels. The Upper Pannon wine region has the most expensive properties, with a median price of HUF 34 million (EUR 90,110) in 2022-2023. The average price paid for a property in the Lake Balaton area was HUF 29 million (EUR 76,854). In the Pannon, Danube, and Upper Hungary wine regions, the median price was HUF 19 million (50,350), 20 million (53,000) and 22 million (EUR 58,330) respectively.

Tokaj was the last in this respect: in the country’s smallest wine region, the average price was HUF 10 million (EUR 26,520).

“In recent years, with the rise of working from home, many people are looking for a home in the countryside, not just as a secondary home, but as their primary home. And wine regions can be attractive not only for those involved in wine production, but their importance for tourism is also growing,” said Gyula Nagy, CEO of MBH Mortgage Bank.

Via Világgazdaság, Featured image: Facebook/Tokaj Borvidék Fejlesztési Tanács