The Hungary for luxury developers
The 54th Blue Ribbon Regatta sailing boat race, also known as the Kékszalag, is held annually on Lake Balaton. Parts of the shoreline are sometimes referred to as the ‘Hamptons of Hungary’.
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When Anikó Woods and her husband were looking to buy a vacation home close to Lake Balaton in central Hungary, finding even a modest, rural place within their budget was difficult.
It was 2022, during what Woods described as the “height of the pandemic-era property boom.” Hungarians flocked to the shores and uplands around Lake Balaton — central Europe’s largest freshwater lake — sending prices rocketing.
The couple widened their search area and eventually bought a former winehouse where grapes had been stored and pressed, close to the town of Sümeg in the Balaton Highlands about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) north of the lake.
Fast-forward a few years and property prices remain high, with the average transaction value of a vacation home reaching 744,000 Hungarian forints (about $2,303) per square meter in 2025 — an almost fourfold increase on 2018’s price of less than 200,000 forints per square meter, according to data from real estate brokerage Otthon Centrum.
Why Lake Balaton?
Vacationing around the nearly 200km shoreline of Lake Balaton has been popular with Hungarians for generations. During the Communist era of 1949-1989, when international travel was tightly restricted, it served as the ultimate working-class escape, where trade unions provided members and their families with heavily subsidized, affordable holiday lodgings.
As Hungary is landlocked, the lake is sometimes known as the country’s internal sea, measuring nearly 80km long and about 14km wide at its widest point. Balatonfüred, one of its most popular vacation towns, is a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Budapest.
While the southern shores are famous for family-friendly beaches, parts of the northern coast have evolved into what some dub the “Hamptons of Hungary.” According to Woods, who runs the website How To Hungary, this scenic northern stretch is highly sought after for its “expensive second homes, excellent restaurants, vineyards, sailing and a recognizable summer social scene.”
Tihany Abbey overlooking Lake Balaton, a popular destination for tourists in Hungary.
Imagebroker/nikola Dubivská | Imagebroker | Getty Images
Head to Tihany, a peninsula on the lake’s north shore, and you might pay as much as 2.45 million euros (about $2.78 million) for an apartment with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, according to a September listing on Sotheby’s website. Otthon Centrum analyst Gábor Soóki-Tóth said Tihany is one of the most expensive places in Hungary to buy a vacation property — with prices outstripping those in the nation’s capital.
Sotheby’s described the upscale villas around Lake Balaton as a “prime opportunity” for investment, with “opulent” estates available “often at a fraction of the cost of comparable properties in more…
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