Airbnb in Budapest in 2026: what's banned, what still works

By François Dalleau, founder of Investissement Budapest

The rules, dates, and facts

The 6th district, Terézváros, voted to ban short-term rental in a local referendum in September 2024. The ban has been in force since 1 January 2026, and Hungary's Supreme Court confirmed it in November 2025. It is no longer a proposal, it is the law in force.

At city level, a moratorium freezes new short-term rental registrations from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026. The flat-rate tax regime specific to tourist accommodation has also been tightened, with the per-room tax quadrupled from 38,400 to 150,000 forints per year. The 8th district is studying its own caps for 2027, and the EU regulation on short-term rental data transparency, applicable since 20 May 2026, gives cities far more effective means of enforcing these rules than before. The direction is clear, and it is not toward loosening.

Three situations, three readings

You already operate, with a permit registered before the moratorium. It keeps working in districts that impose no local ban, with two things to watch: your building's co-ownership rules, increasingly restrictive, and your own district's regulatory moves.

You are buying a property that holds a permit. Its validity after the sale must be checked case by case with a local lawyer, never on an agent's word. These properties have become rare, that rarity comes at a price, and the regulatory direction argues against building the whole financing plan on that single asset. For the rest of the acquisition process, the steps and checks are covered in our buying guide (FR).

You are starting from scratch. No new registrations before the end of 2026 at the earliest, and nothing guarantees a reopening after that. The project should be modeled on student or long-term rental, with a possible return of short-term letting treated as a bonus if the framework ever allows it, never as the central assumption.

Taxation: what changed, and what didn't

For an individual, rental income is still taxed at 15%, with a choice between deducting substantiated actual expenses and a flat 10% allowance; the details are in our FAQ. What was tightened is the flat-rate regime specific to tourist accommodation, with the per-room tax quadrupled. In other words, the general taxation of rental income has not changed; tourist operations are what the rules target.

The alternatives that work

Student rental, our historical specialty, remains the most solid segment. International demand is driven by the medicine, economics, and engineering universities, and on the well-located properties we managed, occupancy approached 100% outside the summer break. Long-term rental has become the default choice: on the properties and neighborhoods we follow, rents remain on an upward trend, and it is not exposed to the restrictions aimed at tourism.

Our 7th district case, detailed in the investment guide (FR), historically combined summer short-term rental with student rental from September to May. The same property would be modeled today on student or long-term rental year-round: that is exactly the kind of trade-off this change of rules imposes.

Three mistakes to avoid

• Buying "for Airbnb" in the 6th district, still pitched by some agents despite the ban in force.
• Treating an existing permit as automatically transferable, without written confirmation of its continuation from a local lawyer.
• Modeling a 2026 yield on the tourist seasonality of 2019, as if the framework had not changed.

Frequently asked questions

Since 2022, the same method has been applied in Bali, with Bee My Guest, in a market where private hospitality remains the core of the business.