Publicly traded Hungarian real estate brokerage firm Duna House has released its metrics for the first quarter. Duna House started the year with record quarterly volumes in all of its core business lines in the middle of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. After a series of record highs in 2020, the first quarter, which is usually weak seasonally, brought all-time records in both real estate and credit brokerage in 2021: franchise real estate brokerage grew by 36%, own office real estate brokerage by 37% and credit brokerage by 6% year-on-year.
In Hungary, the residential property market started the year at levels not seen for the last 10 years. The outstanding market activity is partly explained by the government's new family support measures in the real estate market and by changing demand due to COVID-19.
The group’s Hungarian franchise real estate brokerage network reported 31% year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2021, reaching a total commission volume of HUF 2.5 billion. The volume of offices owned by Duna House grew by 30%. Loan volumes declined by 3% despite strong demand due to delayed loan application processes. Loan applications processed by the group in the first quarter significantly exceeded 2020 levels, so Duna House expects further volume growth in the next quarter.
In Poland, the particularly strong organic growth path continued, and the group reached new highs in all areas in the first quarter of 2021. Commission revenues of the Polish franchise network rose by an outstanding 60% and exceeded HUF 800 million. The performance of Polish company-owned offices was 58% higher compared to the first quarter of 2020. In terms of lending, Duna House's financial intermediary business in Poland grew by 9%.
Besides the two largest markets of the group, the Czech operations also performed strongly in Q1, reaching 7% growth in franchise and 14% in company-owned office real estate volumes.
Duna House shares have gained 18.8% this year, outperforming the 5.3% growth of the BUX index in 2021.
