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)

While in January 2025 young people aged 18–30 accounted for 18 percent of housing loans, by the end of the year this share had risen above 31 percent, meaning that every third new housing loan is now linked to the youngest creditworthy age group. The share of those aged 31–40 remains around 35 percent. As a result, nearly two-thirds of the housing loan market is made up of borrowers under 40, according to a fresh analysis by the Money.hu portal.

By the end of last year, the share of housing loan borrowers under 30 rose above 30 percent, illustration (Photo: MTI/Zsolt Czegledi)

Home Start Program is working – down payment is no longer the main bottleneck

According to data published by the MNB, the most significant change can be observed in loan-to-value ratios:

• while at the beginning of 2025 only 3.5 percent of new housing loans were issued with an LTV above 80 percent,meaning a down payment below 20 percent,
• by December 2025 this had jumped to 17.3 percent.

The rise in loan ratios is concentrated primarily among young borrowers: 17.4 percent of the 18–30 age group enter the housing market with less than a 20 percent down payment, while a further 33.7 percent do so with a down payment between 20 and 30 percent.

“The trend shows that the younger generation is no longer saving for decades, but instead uses its income as leverage. For a 60 million forint home, the required 6 million forint down payment may now be a realistic goal, but the high loan ratio requires stricter financial awareness and a stable income background than ever before,” said Daniel Garam, a loan expert at Money.hu.

According to the latest wage data published by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), in February 2026 the average gross wage stood at 725,500 forints, representing a 9.7 percent increase compared to the previous year. Net earnings rose even more sharply, by 12.0 percent—a figure significantly influenced by targeted tax breaks for families and mothers raising children—while real wages increased by 10.5 percent. This represents a meaningful boost in purchasing power even for young workers without children. In addition, income tax exemption for those under 25 continues to provide a direct financial advantage for young people.

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.