Used Car Prices Shoot Up in Hungary

Search statistics on the used cars website Használtautó.hu show that in the pandemic situation, more and more people are looking to buy a car. In addition to rising prices, there is an increasing interest in cheaper models.

The domestic car fleet, which is on average 14.7 years old, can only be renewed – in part – by corporate purchases, while private buyers are mainly looking at the second-hand market. This year, most people have searched for Suzuki Swift on the Használtautó.hu interface

For Hungarian car buyers, used cars are the best alternative to new cars, and more and more of them are looking for cheaper models, while at the same time the market as a whole is witnessing a very significant increase in prices, according to data from market leader Használtautó.hu. As it was reported at the beginning of the year, last year as a whole saw a very significant 25% increase in the price of used cars, and the growth in demand and the rise in prices has not stopped. It may come as a cold shower to buyers to learn that average advertised price, which was HUF 3.1 million in December, was already above 3.7 million in March, a year-on-year increase of almost HUF 1 million, and 33.2% higher than in March last year.

At the beginning of last year, or the arrival of the coronavirus also set back the domestic used car market, but searches on Használtautó.hu and the number of changes of ownership showed a recovery in the later part of the year.

There are several reasons behind the price rise in the used car market. While the number of searches launched on the Használtautó.hu platform in March and April last year also fell – by far not as much as the number of new car registrations and sales. In addition, the number of interested parties and buyers returned much earlier, practically as early as May, and has only increased since then.

The first quarter of this year saw a 35% increase in the number of searches on the Használtautó.hu site, with almost 39% more searches in March than last year. However, higher demand is only one of the factors driving up prices. Both new cars and imports and foreign used cars have become more expensive due to the worseming forint exchange rate last year.