Positive changes at Lake Balaton: Far more holiday homes for sale than in 2023

The Lake Balaton area is a huge favourite of expats when it comes to buying a holiday home in a calm environment, close to nature. A positive trend seems to be emerging, as the selection of holiday homes for sale in the area is getting larger.

There has been a significant increase in the supply of properties for sale on Lake Balaton, with 10-20% more properties for sale on both the north and south shores than this time a year ago. Prices have fallen in real terms over the past year, and even nominally on the south shore, Világgazdaság reports based on ingatlan.com data.

“There has been a significant increase in supply at Lake Balaton, while property prices are stagnating, the first signs of which were already visible in the summer of 2022, and the trend has been growing ever stronger since then”, summarised László Balogh, chief economic expert at ingatlan.com, the largest property advertising platform in the country.

Real estate development at Lake Balaton

The Balaton region is buoyed by the fact that in the last two or three years, a lot of real estate development has started. It also increases liquidity in the region that “when the economic or financing situation turns bad, most people put their second home on the market instead of their primary one, typically realising the value added on investment properties,” said László Balogh.

Supply has increased by between 10-20% on both the north and south coasts, and prices have also fallen in real terms over the past year. On the south coast, prices have also fallen in nominal terms, the expert pointed out. According to data on ingatlan.com, demand picked up in January-February compared to last year; however, it is not yet at the same level as in the first two months of 2022.

Only the areas not near the lake saw a decrease