Q&A • Real Estate

How much transfer duty do you pay when buying a flat in Hungary?

The visszterhes vagyonátruházási illeték is charged on the market value of the property, undiminished by any encumbrance. For a typical Hungarian flat purchase that means 4% of the price - unless one of the statutory exemptions applies.

Short answer

  1. The rate is 4% per property up to one billion forint of market value and 2% on the part above it, capped at 200 million forint per property - Itv. 19. § (1) and 21. §.
  2. The base is the market value undiminished by encumbrances, so a mortgage on the property does not reduce the buyer's duty.
  3. In a cserepótló purchase the base is the difference between the value bought and the value sold - Itv. 21. § (2). Where the property bought is worth less, the transaction is exempt - Itv. 26. § (1) y).
  4. A CSOK or CSOK Plusz purchase is fully exempt - Itv. 26. § (1a) f). The Otthon Start scheme on its own gives no exemption.

The rate and the base

The duty is calculated per property - for a flat, per flat. Where a share of a property is acquired, the one-billion and 200-million thresholds are applied in proportion to the share acquired. Properties that are not dwellings - a garage, a storage unit, a holiday home - follow the general rule. The tax authority assesses the duty by payment order, and it does so on the market value it determines, which may differ from the price in the contract.

Worked example: a 60 million forint flat

No exemption applies, the buyer pays cash, the lawyer's fee is taken at 0.5% and the agency commission at 3% net. Only the duty and the land registry fee are fixed; the other two are contractual.

  1. Transfer duty: 4% of 60,000,000 = 2,400,000 forint.
  2. Lawyer's fee at 0.5%: 300,000 forint. There is no statutory tariff - Üttv. 28. § makes the fee a matter of free agreement, so this is a starting figure, not a market average.
  3. Land registry fee for registering ownership: 10,600 forint per property affected - 1/2024. (I. 30.) KTM r. 7. § (1).
  4. Buyer's total ancillary cost: 2,710,600 forint, i.e. 4.5% of the price.
  5. Adding the agency commission of 3% plus 27% VAT - 2,286,000 forint, normally borne by the seller as the client - the whole transaction costs 4,996,600 forint, or 8.3% of the price.

The exemptions and reliefs that really matter

  • Young first-time buyer, 50% relief: available to someone who has not yet turned 35 when the duty liability arises and is acquiring their first dwelling, provided the market value of the whole dwelling does not exceed 15 million forint - Itv. 26. § (6). For a share, the relief is proportional. The 15 million ceiling confines this relief to a narrow segment of the market.
  • Interest-free instalments on a first home: on the buyer's request the tax authority allows payment in equal monthly instalments without a surcharge, for up to 12 months from the due date - Itv. 26. § (15). This applies regardless of age or price.
  • Cserepótló purchase: if the buyer sells their other dwelling within five years before the purchase or one year after it, the base is the difference in market value - Itv. 21. § (2). The look-back window rose from three years to five on 1 January 2026.
  • CSOK and CSOK Plusz: acquiring a dwelling with the family housing subsidy, or with the CSOK Plusz preferential loan, is exempt - Itv. 26. § (1a) f). The exemption applies to sale contracts concluded after 31 December 2020, and the duty is assessed later if the subsidy has to be repaid, except where the undertaking failed for health reasons.
  • New dwelling bought from a developer: exempt where the market value does not exceed 15 million forint, and partially relieved up to 30 million where the buyer does not evidence the sale of another dwelling - Itv. 26. § (1) f) and (13).
  • Between lineal relatives and between spouses the transfer is exempt, as is the division of marital community property - Itv. 26. §.

Two points where estimates go wrong

First: the Otthon Start scheme does not itself create an exemption. The tax authority's information booklet published on 30 January 2026 lists no Otthon Start ground among the exemptions - alongside the preferential loan the 4% main rule still applies, unless the purchase separately qualifies for one of the reliefs above.

Second, on the cserepótló timing: the tax authority's booklet refers to three years before the purchase for the exemption, while the rule on the duty base speaks of five. The two windows are not the same, so for a sale that falls between three and five years, ask the acting lawyer or the tax authority for a position before relying on either figure.

How 4property helps the agency

4property is software for estate agencies - it is not an official calculator and it does not replace the lawyer. What it does is keep the agency saying the same number at the first viewing as at the signing: the portfolio holds every listing with its price, ownership details and documents, so a cost estimate always starts from the current figure; and the CRM search profiles record whether a buyer is a first-time buyer, whether they are financing and what their budget is, so the agency shows the properties on which the buyer's relief or exemption still stands.

See also