Renovation plans are slightly more cautious but still optimistic

The population’s short-term (next year’s) prospects for housing renovation and modernization are slightly worsened in the second quarter of this year, after reaching its peak in the first quarter: there was some decline in both those are certain and likely to renovate. According to the intentions of the population, every eighth apartment in Hungary can be renovated to a greater or lesser extent in the upcoming one year. Over one third of renovation planners would also take advantage of the state support for this, according to a joint study of GKI and Masterplast.

The intentions of the population to renovate and modernize their homes in the next one year, 2013-2021

(thousand households)

Source: GKI surveys

GKI organizes a quarterly survey to estimate the population’s housing renovation and modernization plans, intentions and prospects. From January 2020, the survey is carried out with the assistance of Masterplast Nyrt. The sample of the population surveyed is representative of 1,000 people by gender, age, place of residence, and education.

The announced state support measures had a noticeable positive impact on the population’s housing renovation and modernization plans – this was the main lesson of the first quarterly survey (from January). In April, however, these prospects declined slightly on a quarterly basis. The elaboration of the third wave of the epidemic is thought to have resulted in greater caution. Besides, more and more information and clarifying details were published about the conditions of the state aid, which may have also contributed to the negative effect.  Nevertheless, the current outlook is still much more optimistic than it was a year ago, or even earlier. In the next year, almost 13% of Hungarian households plan to spend more on their housing (certain or likely). If all these plans are implemented, smaller or larger works could be carried out on about 580 thousand flats within a year. This is approx.  60 thousand fewer than in the previous quarter, but almost 130 thousand higher than the results of the survey a year ago.

 Renovation and modernization work planned for the next year, 2021. 2^nd quarter

(Frequency of reference, percent)

Source: GKI surveys

The strongest intention to renovate can be felt among the residents of family houses, 14-15% of these households may be affected. In contrast, the slightest desire to modernize is among those living in panel flats – slightly less than 10% are willing to do so. The plans of the residents of the brick-built condominiums are between these two (11-12%).

Mostly those households deal with renovation plans where the breadwinner is in their thirties (18%), but those where they are younger than this, i.e. 18-29, are also quite active (16%). They are followed by the forties (14%). 8% of those in their fifties are willing to spend more on their housing, while among those over 60, this proportion is negligible (2%).

9% of the surveyed households in Budapest, 12% in the county seats, 11% in other cities and 15% in the villages are preparing for some renovation. Municipal housing renovations and modernizations are supported by several public sources, which may be a significant motivation of these public intentions. Among the regions of Hungary, the activity is the highest activity in Central and Western Transdanubia (19% and 16% of households are preparing for some kind of renovation), but the expected renovation and modernization activity in the Northern Hungarian region also exceeds the national average (14%).

36% of those planning to renovate and modernize their homes would like to partlyfinance these actions by state support. Taking out the support is popular among those younger than 30 – 70% of young people count on this state funding. However, this support is also more popular than average among the residents in small-town and rural areas (nearly 50% of them would take this opportunity).