Economy 3 November 2025, 4:10pm

Home Start takes off, and this is where the scheme stands two months after its launch

Portfolio

Banks signed more than 5,500 loan agreements worth HUF 190 billion in the first two months of the Otthon Start (Home Start) Programme, with an average value of more than HUF 34 million, Portfolio has learned on Monday. While September was still focused on accepting loan applications, October saw a significant increase in the number of contracts signed, with almost 5,000 contracts worth nearly HUF 170 billion being signed in a single month. This is broadly in line with banks' latest quarterly expectations, but it partly reflects postponed demand from the summer. With the initial demand now subsiding, it is conceivable that this level of demand will not be sustainable for long. In our article, we present the latest credit and deposit market statistics from the central bank (MNB), which show that household bank debt exceeded HUF 12 trillion for the first time at the end of September.

According to Portfolio's market information, the key figures of the Home Start Programme were as follows at the end of October:

more than 5,500 signed loan contracts;
a contractual volume of approximately HUF 190 billion;
an average loan amount exceeding HUF 34 million.

It is worth comparing this with the latest data from the MNB, which is currently only available for September. According to this data, the new contractual amount of housing loans concluded under the programme was HUF 21.7 billion in September. This is relatively low, representing 600–700 contracts in the programme's first month, which started on 1 September. This is understandable given that the loan process takes several weeks.

Home Start deadlines for banks
The Home Start Regulation states that "the credit institution shall assess the loan application: a) in the case of home purchase, within 30 days of the loan application being submitted; b) in the case of home construction, within 60 days of the loan application being submitted – not including the minimum 10-day period granted to the customer to remedy any deficiencies, if necessary – and, if there are no obstacles to concluding the contract, the credit institution shall allow the loan agreement to be concluded from the 10th day following the assessment."

In any case, the above data indicate that

nearly 5,000 contracts were signed in October, totalling almost HUF 170 billion.

This is roughly the volume predicted by banks for each month of the last quarter. Therefore, total mortgage lending in October may have exceeded 6,000 contracts and HUF 200 billion. For comparison, banks issued an average of HUF 130 billion per month and 6,630 contracts per month in the first nine months of the year.

Although the HUF 21.7 billion reported by the MNB is not yet significant in volume, data published by the central bank on Monday showed that Home Start was already having an impact in September.

The amount of subsidised loans increased to HUF 42.8 billion — a figure not seen since June 2022 — representing a 38% share compared to the usual 20%.

The decline in the number and value of market loans suggests that the substitution effect has begun, although market expectations are that the programme will have an additional effect on the mortgage market in two-thirds of cases. Many loan applications may have started as market loans, but then been realised as Home Start loans in the following month, rather than in September.

In addition, the demand that was postponed in the summer due to the Home Start scheme appears to be having an impact, with new mortgage loans amounting to HUF 112.6 billion in September — only slightly higher than in August, and 1.2% lower than a year earlier. Cumulatively, the market is up 17% this year. Meanwhile, the issuance of personal loans in September and so far this year has increased by 39%.

The impact of Home Start is also evident in the distribution of home loans by interest period. These loans are considered to have a five-year interest period due to the way their interest subsidies work.

As we have seen, in September, market-rate mortgages still accounted for the majority of mortgages granted, with an average interest rate of 6.5%. This was unchanged from almost every month over the past year and a half.

There is good news for retail customers: the cost of personal loans continues to fall. The average annual percentage rate (APR) on contracts for less than one year has fallen from 17.2% to 15.4%.

Demand for interest-free worker loans, which were introduced this year, increased slightly in September, but did not reach the levels seen during the initial surge.

The bank debt of Hungarian households has exceeded HUF 12 trillion for the first time, having grown by 11.4% in one year. Within this figure, the volume of mortgage loans increased by 13.8%, while that of personal loans by 17.6%.

In terms of retail deposits, September did not produce any exceptional transaction figures, with household deposits increasing by 6.9% year on year to reach HUF 16,629 billion.

Demand for forint loans grew in the corporate lending sector, with companies borrowing a total of HUF 89 billion more than they repaid. Thanks to the unification of interest rates on Széchenyi Card loans and the spread of Certified Corporate Loans, October–November may be even stronger. From September 2024 to September 2025, the total bank loan portfolio of companies increased by just 2.7% to HUF 13,084 billion.