Utilities and közös költség: every line on a Budapest rental bill

In short: a Budapest tenant pays rent plus közös költség plus rezsi (electricity, gas or district heating, water). For a 50 m² flat that is roughly 40 000 to 90 000 Ft a month on top of rent in winter and 25 000 to 55 000 Ft in summer, depending on the building and how the heating works.

Listings quote rent; you pay rent plus everything else. The everything else has a vocabulary of its own, and the sums can differ by a factor of two between two flats of the same size. This guide goes through each line so you can read a landlord's bill folder and ask the right questions.

What is rezsi?

Rezsi is the umbrella word for the consumption-based utilities: electricity (villany or áram), gas (gáz), district heating (távfűtés), water and sewage (víz és csatorna) and waste (szemétszállítás). In Budapest the providers are mostly fixed by law and you do not choose them.

• Electricity: MVM Next is the universal service provider for households. Billed monthly or on an estimate with an annual reconciliation, depending on the meter. Newer flats and estates increasingly have smart meters read remotely.
• Gas: also MVM Next in Budapest. Used for cooking, and in most brick flats for heating (convectors) and hot water (a wall boiler). A panel flat usually has no gas at all.
• District heating: FŐTÁV, now part of Budapesti Közművek. Serves the panel estates and many post-war blocks. The bill has a base fee tied to the flat's air volume, charged every month, and a heat fee per gigajoule for what the building actually used.
• Water and sewage: Fővárosi Vízművek supplies water, Fővárosi Csatornázási Művek takes it away, and one bill usually covers both. In 2026 the residential water rate is about 219 Ft per cubic metre and the sewage charge about 381 Ft, so a cubic metre costs about 600 Ft all in. Many older buildings have one main meter and split water through the közös költség; a flat with its own sub-meter gets its own bill.
• Waste: collected by MOHU in Budapest. In a block of flats the charge is paid by the building and sits inside the közös költség; you will only see it as a separate bill in a house.

What does közös költség cover?

Közös költség is the monthly charge every flat in a társasház pays to the building for the things they share: stairwell and courtyard cleaning, lighting, the lift and its inspections, the building's insurance, the property manager's fee, minor repairs, a contribution to the renovation fund, and often the whole building's water and waste. In a panel block it can also carry the heating base fee. Typical figures are 130 to 250 Ft per square metre a month, so 8 000 to 15 000 Ft for a 50 m² flat in a simple building and 20 000 to 35 000 Ft in a new build with a garage, a concierge or a gym.

Legally the owner owes közös költség to the building, so the landlord usually pays it and either folds it into the rent or passes it on at cost. Ask which. If it is passed on, ask for the building's most recent statement (közös költség kiírás) so you can see what is in it; a figure that already includes water and waste is not comparable to one that does not.

Átalány or actual meter reading?

There are two ways a landlord bills you for consumption. With átalány you pay a fixed monthly amount for utilities, agreed in the contract, usually based on last year's bills; some contracts settle the difference once a year, some never do. With actual billing the provider's bills arrive in the landlord's name and you pay the exact amounts, or the contracts are transferred to your name and you pay the provider directly.

Átalány is convenient and hides the winter spike, but if it is set generously you are paying for the landlord's peace of mind. Actual billing is fairer and it is what you should ask for on a longer let. Whichever you choose, write into the contract what is included, how overpayments are settled, and that you receive copies of the bills. A common middle path is fixed közös költség plus metered electricity and gas.

What is Díjnet?

Díjnet is a free e-bill platform where you can collect and pay bills from many Budapest providers in one place, including Fővárosi Vízművek, FŐTÁV and the gas bills from MVM Next. You register each provider with a customer number from a recent bill, the provider approves it, and from then on the bills arrive there and can be paid by card, instant transfer or the iCsekk app. Since July 2026 MVM Next's electricity bills for universal-service customers are handled in MVM's own portal instead, so check the current list on dijnet.hu. If the bills stay in the landlord's name, ask them to add you as a viewer or to forward the PDFs each month.

What does the price cap (rezsicsökkentés) mean for you?

Hungarian households pay a state-regulated low price for electricity and gas up to an annual allowance, and a much higher price above it. In 2026 the numbers are: electricity about 36 Ft per kWh up to 2 523 kWh a year (about 210 kWh a month), and about 70 Ft per kWh above that; gas 102 Ft per cubic metre up to 1 729 cubic metres a year (about 144 a month, weighted towards winter), and about 747 Ft above that. These are the figures published for 2026; the allowances are per metering point and reset annually, and from September 2026 MVM also offers an optional dynamic tariff for the above-allowance part, so check mvmnext.hu for what applies on your meter.

For a tenant the point is simple. A one or two-person household in a 50 m² flat rarely crosses the electricity allowance unless it heats or cools with electricity. Gas is the one to watch: a big, badly insulated brick flat heated with convectors can pass the yearly allowance by February, and every cubic metre after that costs seven times as much. That is why last winter's bills matter more than any average.

What does a 50 m² flat pay?

Two typical flats, both 50 m², one or two people, no electric heating. Brick means a pre-war building with gas convectors and a gas boiler; panel means a district-heated block with electric cooking. Figures are monthly bands in forints, gross, and they assume the allowances are not exceeded.

District heating looks expensive in summer because the base fee is charged all year, and some buildings smooth the heat fee into twelve equal instalments; the annual total is usually lower than gas for the same flat. A large brick flat with 3.5 metre ceilings and single-glazed windows can double the gas line.

What should you do at move-in?

Photograph every meter on the day you get the keys: electricity, gas, water (hot and cold, and every sub-meter), and the heat cost allocator on each radiator in a district-heated flat if there is one. Get the readings written into the handover record (átadás-átvételi jegyzőkönyv) with the date and both signatures, and do the same on the day you leave. This is what settles any argument about who used what. If the contracts move to your name, the provider will want the readings too.

Who pays what?

By convention in Budapest the tenant pays the consumption-based lines and the közös költség, and the landlord pays what belongs to the property: building insurance, the renovation fund contribution if it is levied separately, the chimney sweep, the annual boiler service, property tax and the fee of the property manager. The convention is not law, so the contract decides; if it says only that the tenant pays the rezsi, ask whether that includes the közös költség and the renovation fund before you sign.

Internet and TV

Internet is not part of rezsi and is rarely included in the rent. The main providers in Budapest are Magyar Telekom, Vodafone (which absorbed UPC) and Digi, plus smaller local operators; which of them reach your building depends on the cabling, and a new contract can take one to two weeks to install, sometimes with a fee. Many flats have a live line you can take over from the previous tenant. TV is usually bundled if you want it; most tenants stream instead. Mobile data with a Hungarian SIM is cheap and is a reasonable bridge for the first week.