Fringe benefits in 2025 – how popular are housing benefits and the SZÉP card?

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 03. 18. 11:45

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In its February survey, GKI Economic Research Ltd. asked companies with more than 5 employees, among other things, whether they plan to provide housing subsidies or SZÉP card subsidies to their employees. The questionnaire was completed by 1,408 companies, of which 1,390 answered our question about subsidies.

4.2% of the respondents plan to provide housing subsidies. Weighted by headcount, this number is 8%, which reflects the greater willingness of large companies to provide subsidies. According to our results, only 2.1% of employees will benefit from housing subsidies this year. It is also worth noting that the largest companies, which provide a higher proportion of various fringe benefits, were underrepresented among the respondents, so this proportion is presumably higher when compared to the national economy.

Although the Széchenyi Holiday Card is taxed similarly to housing allowance, it is more popular among employers due to its wider applicability and wider range of potential beneficiaries. However, only 13.4% of our respondents, and only 21.8% weighted by number of employees, plan to provide such a wage supplement this year.

Our survey results show marked differences by size. While only 3.5-4.5% of companies with fewer than 51 employees plan to provide housing allowance, companies with 51-250 employees do so at about twice the rate, at a total of 7.6%. Although it is difficult to give an exact figure for the group of employees over 250 due to the small sample size of the largest companies, the trend is clear: the larger a company is, the higher the proportion of companies providing housing allowance to their employees.