Hungarian mortgage bank FHB predicts a further 9% drop in real estate prices in the country, reports napi.hu. According to FHB deputy CEO László Harmati, the most recent quarterly price index suggests that the rate of decline is slowing down, but that a turnaround might be as far away as 2011. Last year, the index indicated an overall drop in prices of 7.6%.

In terms of the Budapest market, different areas of the city saw different trends, with the more prestigious areas of Buda seeing shallower declines. But drops 5%- 20% are apparent everywhere in the capital, while there are a growing number of empty rental properties and a corresponding drop in rents.

Meanwhile, the economic crisis has not impacted all property segments negatively, as double-digit price increases have been common for unimproved plots of land.