Nearly One-Third of Home Loan Borrowers Now Aged Under 30 – Home Start Program Hits the Mark

Hungary’s housing loan market showed a striking structural shift by the end of 2025, as revealed by the latest statistics from the Hungarian National Bank (MNB). According to a recent analysis, the proportion of borrowers under the age of 30, as well as the share of home loans with low down payments and high loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, increased significantly in the last three months of the year. Nearly one-third of housing loans were taken out by those under 30.

Debrecen, September 1, 2025. Posters promoting the Home Start Program in Debrecen on the day of its launch. The central element of the new housing scheme is a fixed 3 percent interest rate. The aim of the program is to make home ownership accessible to first-time buyers, especially young people, under significantly more favorable conditions than the market offers. (Photo: MTI/Zsolt Czegledi)

In its analysis, Mney.hu points out that

behind this shift is not only the launch of the state-supported Home Start loan program, but also the growing recognition that housing prices in many cases are rising faster than young people can accumulate a down payment.

In this environment, purchasing with a lower down payment is increasingly seen as a conscious timing decision.

At the same time, in banking practice the main constraint remains the dept-to-income ratio (DTI), meaning that high-LTV loans are primarily granted to clients with stable and predictable incomes.

According to experts, this will remain the key issue in 2026: the borrowing activity of young people is determined not by the size of the down payment, but by their income capacity.