Szeged

Hi All,

Just curious as to what made you move from your homeland to Hungary? Could you please answer the following - Thanks:

1) Why did you move (or are currently thinking of moving) to Hungary? (I.e. you were/are tired of your homeland, you visited Hungary before, you have a Hungarian partner, etc).

2) Which part (county and/or city/town/village) of Hungary did you move to (or are thinking of moving to)?

3) What SHORT reason(s) made you decide upon your chosen Hungarian county and/or city/town/village? I.e. because you like farming, the weather, the property price, the quiet life, tourism, etc.

4) Did you buy your Hungarian property below 40,000 GBP or less? If so, what size is it in square meters?

5) When (what year) did you move to Hungary?

Szeged

I will start!

1) I originally bought my apartment as a place to escape the UK, because my HU GF is from Szeged and because the property was cheap enough that I could afford it and have it as a fallback - I didn't know of Brexit then of course, so I think I made a wise move at the time in hindsight

2) I moved to Szeged, Csongrad county.

3) I chose Szeged because it is a 'quiet life' city, not too quiet but not noisy either (I can sleep at night, every night, peacefully - not possible in London), and the people are friendly and happy with life. Plus Szeged has plenty of sun and nice places to visit with good facilities/amenities. It is affordable too in so many ways (builders, food, transport, etc).

4) Yes. 48 Square Meters.

5) 2014.

cdw057

Dear All,

Although answers are for a large part implied on the forum, sometimes good to be explicit.

1. Me and my wife moved around quite a bit and lived in UK, Netherlands and Luxembourg. We do however love Eastern Europe since ages. I got tired of working so hard and wanted to settle down (semi-retire)) in an affordable place.

2. West Balaton very small village

3. In this area (but for some points the arguments apply to Hungary in general)
-In this area many people speak German or English (Hungarian is too difficult for me (I am too old I noticed)
-Property prices are very acceptable
-Infra-structure is relatively good (roads, theater, dentists, ..)
-Local people in general are very friendly even if not business related.
- Big gardens (fruit trees, own vegetables)
-The proximity of Heviz lake is a big plus for my wife
-It helps that internet exists as an information source, together with eg google translate it is easy to survive (without Hungarian language capabilities and internet it will be difficult).
-Life is cheap in general (local taxes, water, electricity and gas). If you buy local produce your shopping bill will be limited. (Cigarettes and foreign whiskeys are more and more expensive though)
-Crime levels (in my perception) are very low
-Weather in general is quite fine, although now very, very warm and the wasp explosion combined make it less comfortable.

4. We bought over 40 K, but still priced very competitively (considering we want to stay the rest of our lives).

5 We arrived in 2014 (since then property prices increased)

Overall we enjoy living here even like everywhere there are drawbacks as well.

FenTiger

1. Planning to move to Hungary because my wife is Hungarian and I have always enjoyed going there for a holiday/break to visit her parents and sister plus family. We also have several friends over there, probably more trustworthy and generous than those we have in the UK!!! I don't want to spend my hard earned cash in the UK! Both my parents are dead and I'm estranged from my sister. My NHS pension would be a big drop from my working salary after tax and don't feel it would enable me to have a decent standard of living.
2. Malyi, near Miskolc.
3. It's where my wife's family and friends live. Miskolc is the third biggest city in Hungary so you can guess it's got quite a bit going for itself. It's in the county of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén. I like the outdoorsy lifestyle Hungarians lead, especially going to Malyi-To to meet up with friends for a chat and swim in the summer.
4. Haven't bought a property yet but I am a regular viewer on Ingatlan!!! Luckily with my wife's family living in Malyi I'm able to rely on them to provide advcse on the REAL value of some properties I have been interested in. Properties in Malyi can range from £5k up to £120k, the latter was a four bedroomed bungalow, depending on it's location in Malyi. There's two sides, the hilly bit and the flat bit.
5. Planned move 2018-2020

I'm expecting once I move there's going to be some days when I will think .... what have I done but ..... in the UK we hardly speak to our neighbours and also friends are too busy with their own cliquey lives!!!

hobgoblins

1) Have bought a property already and hope to move there permanently as soon as I can support myself there financially - I am a professional photographer and as I build up my on line business, hope to pick up some work locally in Hungary as well as possibly starting another little business there.
2)Small village near Lenti, Zala county.
3)Plenty of open countryside, people not living on top of each other, roads not congested, located near to Austrian and Slovenian borders, property prices reasonable to inexpensive. Low crime levels, no vandalism or local yobs to deal with.
4)Approximately 80 square metres plus large garden and outbuildings.
5)Bought this year and moving there full time as soon as possible !

Peter_in_Hungary

1) Why did you move
Redundancy gave a welcome opportunity for lifestyle change

2) Which part
Balaton Uplands National Park

3) What SHORT reason(s) made you decide upon your chosen Hungarian county
SWMBO grew up close to this area - Actually the landscape and proximity to the Balaton plus the usual reasons of property prices reasonable to inexpensive. Low crime levels, no vandalism, good bus services, good education system etc.

4) Did you buy your Hungarian property below 40,000 GBP or less?
Less than 40,000 GBP, but then lots of renovation, some new build and LOTS of fieldwork. Size purchased 22ha, now 32ha, family house extended and barn conversion to guest house.

5) When (what year) did you move to Hungary?
1994 - and don't want to move back !

duztee

1) Retirement.
The cost of living in the UK was too great on a pension, I am an addicted smoker!

2) Nagykoros, only because I have a friend here to help with translations and paperwork (which the Hungarians love). But it is a flat and very boring landscape.

3)Cost of living, better weather - it's either hot or cold, no long months of indecisive spring and autumn.

4) Well over, plus total renovation. but still less than a quarter of the house I sold in the UK.

5) 2012.

Would I choose differently now? Possibly, Croatia is a very scenic country where almost the entire population seem to speak English, but then where would I go for holidays.

FenTiger

On No.4 I can see that certainly happening to me. In the village of Malyi there's a four bedroomed bungalow/villa a quarter of the possible sale price of my house in the UK!

Szeged

I think that is generally true of Hungary and one of the reasons people are attracted to it (for its cheaper property prices).

I was lucky in that I bought my 48 square meter apartment for 11,000 GBP (bare concrete almost) and with renovation (22,000 GBP) and furniture came to around 24,000 GBP; which was still cheap in 2014. Why? Because if I had bought a 15 or 16 thousand GBP property and still had to renovate it and buy furniture, it would of cost me around 30,000 GBP.

Now my property is worth around 32,000 GBP, so not a bad investment for around 3 years (imho). Let's put it this way, I could sell it and now afford to buy a bigger property in Hungary, if not two small apartments. I could never find an 11,000 GBP flat in the UK. The renovation costs would be that much!

hobgoblins

The only thing you could find to live in here in the UK for 11K would be a second hand camper van or a tent !!

fidobsa

1) Not my first choice, which was central France but I opted for Hungary as the result of a process of elimination. I was looking for a place with low property and living costs, as a means of taking early retirement due to failing health. My income would come from renting out my tiny cottage in northern Scotland. I considered France, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Hungary. Elimination reasons:
France- High health care costs
Germany- Too many people, too much like the England ratrace
Austria- High cost of living
Bulgaria- Poor infrastructure and too much crime

2) Belezna, Zala County

3) I did not want to look at loads of houses because it gets too confusing. I used the ex concierge of this forum, Natalie (Rural Hungary) to find suitable houses. I was therefore limited to her "patch", although the one I bought was slightly south of her area and I found it myself. This was after my offer was rejected on my chosen house from those viewed with Natalie.

4) Yes, about £20k. It is a single storey house of 110 square metres plus farm buildings and 6,500 square metres of land.

5) 2011

fidobsa

I knew property prices in Budapest had increased but was not aware they had gone up anywhere else in Hungary. I have my house on the market at about what I paid in 2011 but there is very little interest, despite the improvements I've made such as central heating, double glazing and a roof overhaul.

PaulinEger

1) We moved here because we wanted a different lifestyle, more relaxed where we hoped to work less and have a better work/life balance. We were fed up of the rat race in England and if I'm honest, Britain is too multicultural for me and has lost its identity.
2) Several of my wife's family lived in Eger so that was the first place we visited and initially bought a weekend house in the hills overlooking the town. Then, before we moved here we bought another house in Sirok, about 20km from Eger. The plan was to use that as a guesthouse in the summer and live there in the winter when the weekend house can be inaccessible. We sold the Sirok house 4 years ago and bought another house in Bükkszék, 25km from Eger where we now live all year round. We found it tiresome to completely move house twice a year and there were too many stairs in the Sirok house.
3) My wife's family lived nearby, although we don't have any contact with them now. Plus, we like hills and mountains and forests. Eger itself is a more expensive place to buy property and we like the quiet life of villages yet within easy reach of Eger for work.
4) All 3 houses were 20,000 GBP or less and range between 50 and 75 sqm with land between 600 and 1,000 sqm. Our current house has the largest garden and plenty of outbuildings.
5) 2008