FenTiger

Sorry if there's already a thread on this .... couldn't find it!

Found this useful website about costs of living in Hungary.

How accurate is it?
Cost of Living in Hungary. Prices in Hungary. Updated Jun 2015

cathyg

I think this is pretty accurate except for a bottle of mid range wine which is cheaper than stated. If I spend 800 fts this would be on a bottle for a special occasion

Sachina

I didn't think it was very accurate for the Miskolc region for example I pay....

250ft for a Cappuchino not 335ft
189ft for milk not 216ft
300ft for tomatoes not 500ft
199ft for lettuce not 275ft
1500ft for 1 hour at the tennis court not 3500ft

I'm not sure where they get the 61.818ft p.m for utilities from as mine amounts to only 31.000ft for a 65 sq metre house My heating bill in winter is high as I'm retired and have two dogs who are always going in and out! And the price of trainers and shoes were also way out.

fidobsa

If you look at the "range" bit on the right, most of your figures do fit in their ranges, apart from the tennis. I thought the figure for cheese was on the low side as there are plenty that are above 2000 Ft/kg. The utilities does include heating so if you are buying logs you should add that in. I bought a house rather than an apartment but mine was less the 50,000 ft per square metre.

Sachina

I have both gas central heating and also 3 wood burning stoves. The figure I gave for utilities included gas as well as the cost of logs plus the cost of having them cut to size. It also includes the twice yearly emptying of the septic holding tank as well as mains water. And of course the cost of electricity - washing machine, fridge and 2 large freezers etc

wolfi

Since we switch residence between Hungary and Germany every few weeks we can compare prices easily - and also bring better and cheaper stuff from one country to the other, so I could write a lot on this topic.
Just a few remarks:
Generally prices are higher in Hungary because of that extremely high value of VAT (27% for most things) while in Germany we have only 7% on food - Austria is also cheaper so when we pass through we always see a lot of Hungarian cars parking at the Aldi in Fürstenfeld.
Of course local products are often cheaper and also of higher quality (if you know where to buy). A few examples of things we also bring to our friends in Germany:
Eggs, onions and other vegetables, honey, pumpkin seed oil, wine and spirits, meat, especially poultry - last Xmas we brought two whole goose livers even.

On the other hand many milk products are expensive in Hungary - and of lower quality (says my Hungarian wife ...)!
So we bring from Germany:
Irish butter(!), cheeses of all kinds, sour cream, olive oil, bread (especially the dark pumpernickel).
I could go on ...

On prices generally (especially food but also household items like detergents etc):
The prices vary extremely - we often wait for special offers (pay 2, get 3) and those 500 HUF vouchers if you buy for 5000 and then buy larger amounts at the Tesco or Interspar.

fidobsa

I would say I spend about twice as much on food in Hungary as I did in UK, despite certain items like bread, ham, pate and salami being cheaper here. The things that are more expensive in Hungary are sometimes 300 or 400% dearer. These are things like biscuits, packets and tins of soup, cereals and certain items of fruit & veg. All tinned food seems expensive, I suppose it is not popular, especially in rural areas where people do a lot of their own preserving. To be fair, my shopping habits are different here and I possibly miss out on bargains sometimes. When I was self employed in Scotland I tended to nip into the supermarket after my last customer of the day and would sometimes get items marked 75% off as they were on their sell by date. At one time they even gave stuff away free in the Buckie branch of Lidl rather than throw it away after closing time. In the Hungary Lidl shops I have never seen anything reduced by more than 30%.

wolfi

@fidobsa:
Re Lidl:
Our Lidls (we have two of them in Keszthely) and the Aldi often have bargains - especially say if in their Spanish (or Greek, Italian, French, American - you name it ...) week they don't manage to sell all the stuff they only sell temporarily.
Just today we bought lots of Italian biscuits for my wife's family which will visit us soon from the USA and of course other stuff.

PS: "South West Hungary" - does that mean you're near the Slovenian border? How are prices over there?

fidobsa

I am fairly near Slovenia but not near enough to go regularly so I don't know about prices. I did go to Slovenia to get passport photos after the ones I got in Hungary were rejected.
I am nearer to Croatia and do go there a lot. Prices there are slightly higher than in Hungary.

wolfi

Thanks!
Re Croatia:
We were in Harkány last year in a spa hotel (very nice) and also went to Siklós and Villány (for the wines ...) and found a lot of Croats shopping at the big Tesco there.
It was also interesting that the Tesco's selection differed from ours here in Keszthely - probably catering to those customers from Croatia.

PS and OT:

My wife asked at the hotel reception for the best cevapcici around (the guy there had a Croat accent) and we were sent to a little bar in Siklós - the food really was very good!

Alcogod

I am currently looking at small 2 bedroom apartments for myself in Budapest to buy outright so i have no mortgage/rent, but im wondering how much would it cost me for utilities on a monthly basis? Gas, electric, internet, water, mobile phone and is there a form of council tax? I need to know so that i can see what wage range i should be looking for.

Sachina

Having spent a good many years living on a French island I tend to do most of my shopping at Auchan, which being French owned has a really good selection of French products. Their "own brands" are particularly good and reasonably priced especially their biscuits and tinned food like cassoulet which I'm fond of but too lazy to make myself! If I want something British like Branston Pickle then I'll make a trip to Tesco. I'm also fortunate because in the village where I live I'm regularly given 4 or 5 kilos of fresh pork and sausages and also vegetables and fruit. Last week for example I received 10 kilos of potatoes, 1 kilo of cherries and a jar of honey!

Peter_in_Hungary

The site quoted compares prices of goods and services. I think that this is NOT a good indicator of the cost of living. Comparing items against hours worked is IMO a much better measure. Using figures from the tables available on the site I calculated that

In the UK you need to work 4.6 hours to pay for the mid-priced restaurant. In Hungary it's 8 hours.

In the UK you need to work 0,104 hours to pay for the loaf of white bread. In Hungary it's 0,194 hours.

In the UK you need to work 15.6 hours to pay for the quoted monthly utilities. In Hungary it's 56,5 hours.

In the UK you need to work 0,12 hours to pay for 1 ltr. of fuel. In Hungary it's 0,431 hours.

Buying an apartment however came out cheaper here (219 hours vs. 244 hours), but then it would because Hungary doesn't have a housing shortage.

So I would say that the cost of living in Hungary is much higher than in the UK. Unless of course you are living here on a UK salary or pension, which a lot of us are.

sowise

regarding buying in Budapest, most properties are in houses of multiple occupation and so you have to pay a communal service charge monthly which can be as much as £100 a month depending on the square meterage of your apartment. On top of that maybe rubbish collection ,although sometimes that is included in the communal house charges and on top of that all the usual service bills. I don't know about council tax that varies from different boroughs. So you'll only know the costs on a property by property basis Alcogod

Pollypaprika

[QUOTE=
So I would say that the cost of living in Hungary is much higher than in the UK. Unless of course you are living here on a UK salary or pension, which a lot of us are.[/QUOTE]

I think this is a very relevant point, and something a lot of people don't take into account when they come here. I often hear long term/perm expats thrilled that their pound is going so much further, but I often wonder if they stop to think what this is doing to the Hungarian economy and workers.

On the one hand, of course it is great for tourism (and those with a UK income/pension)...but a volatile exchange rate can have dire consequences on the country as a whole.

I have found that in the 4 years we have been here, the cost of living and prices (especially for food) have gone up.