The upcoming end of the Home Renovation Programme and, from a financial perspective, the rapid price increase in building materials and construction works are hindering the execution of modernisation, which would be imperative due to the apparent need for improving energy efficiency, shows a joint survey conducted by the Hungarian Economic Research Co (GKI) and Masterplast.
GKI conducts a quarterly survey to reveal residential home renovation and improvement plans, intentions, and prospects. Since January 2020, the survey has been sponsored by Masterplast Nyrt. In this – October 2022 – survey, the sample of 1000 people is representative as regards characteristics like sex, age, place of residence, and qualification.
The number of households wishing to spend more money on their homes peaked in Q1 2022. Similarly to Q2 and Q3, this year’s Q4 survey results indicate a slight fallback in home renovation and improvement plans. Based on survey data from October 2022, 3.5% of households are certain, whereas 14.5% are likely to spend a larger sum on their homes next year. If all these plans are implemented, then – using survey results for conclusions about the whole population of Hungary – nearly 720 thousand homes will undergo minor or major works next year. Compared to the last year’s and previous quarter’s data, the current figure is 100 thousand and 80 thousand lower, respectively. Changes to the household bill regulations, which resulted in increasing bills in a considerable number of households, might boost investments into energy efficiency-related modernisation. At the same time, the skyrocketing inflation, which is somewhat above average as regards home renovations, the end-of-year closing of the most crucial state subsidy, the Home Renovation Programme, and the unfavourable changes to regulations regarding solar panels have all made it more difficult to finance residential home modernisation works.
According to this survey, theresidents of detached houses are the most willing to renovate or modernise their homes. The residents of apartment buildings have somewhat more modest plans. People living in smaller towns or municipals tend to be more active in this respect than city dwellers.
About 12% of the families planning renovations or modernisation are planning to apply for state subsidies under the Home Renovation Programme. This figure is significantly lower than a quarter ago, which was 47%. However, it is not surprising, bearing in mind that according to current regulations, this subsidy can only be applied for before the end of this year. Those who expect to receive support wouldapply for an amount of 1.8 million HUF on average, whereas in the last quarter, the average figure was 2.2 million HUF.
Internal renovation and upgrading heating systems are among the most popular renovation-modernisation plans, together with air-conditioning installations, which were mentioned by about 25% or one in four participants. One in five participants is planning to change external doors and windows and havethermal insulation installed. Bathroom renovation and solar panel installations are considered by one in six participants. The latter became undoubtedly less popular due to the recent changes to regulations, as in the previous quarter, one in three participants were considering them.
Masterplast Nyrt.
Founded in 1997, the Masterplast group is one of the leading building material producer and distributor companies in the Central Eastern European region. The company group owns subsidiaries in 10 countries, and sells products in a further 30 countries. The company is registered in the premium category on the Budapest Stock Exchange, and had revenue of 201,8 million euros in 2022.