Young people all over the world dream of a place of their own but are increasingly outpriced from the markets because of the housing booms.

Budapest also has one. In fact, according to a recent study by Habitat for Hungary (pdf) shows how rental prices have doubled in downtown Budapest in the last five years only. Wages, on the other hand are only catching up in the statistics – and even that only happens since the government told that they should.

By 2016 the average rental price of a 40 square meter apartment in Budapest had hit 100% of one person’s average wage.

Official data on rental prices is always useless. Most of the rentals are still on the black market, and according to official statistics 90% of Hungarians still live in owner-occupied apartments. Which is obviously not true, but landlords are heavily incentivized not to report their incomes to the taxman. Hence the entire sector is hiding from statistics.

This is why Habitat used the data from a real estate website – where all those non-existent rental properties are put to the market.

But worry not, there is no inflation! Housing may take up a 100% of your income, but still not considered relevant enough to be included in the measurement of the purchasing power of your money. Thank you, central banks.

Oh and please remind me what I should do to get on the property ladder… Oh yes, that one: I should be saving. Right.

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