backtobasics

Hi we're new users who are looking at early retirement in Hungary, may we thank everyone on this thread which we have found most useful, thankyou all.

I a retired soldier of 14 years and then police officer of 13 years before debilitating injuries, my wife still in police employ.

We are looking for help on pitfalls on buying in hungary?
General advice/opinion on the lake tizsa area?
availability of reliable builders for light renovation work?
Any recomendations on estate agents or any to avoid!

Our needs are for property in need of some repair/light renovation, a little land for veg/fruit. We're very keen on bird watching and nature, just wanting a slower pace of life.

thank you in advance.

Notalab

Hello backtobasics, when do you intend doing a 'recce'? [ex military myself & wife]. When you have posted a couple of more messages then you may contact me if you want. I will to pm you my details. [some things are best left off public forums] We [Balaton Britons] maintain a list of reliable artisans and professionals and other information which we disseminate to members via email or once a month at our meetings.
Regards.....

backtobasics

thank you sir, I fully understand your 'caution'.
Anne has some leave booked in May so we're most likely looking for a couple of weeks somewhere in the middle.

I believe that ferry and driving is going to be our method of travel as I can point out some old haunts on the way, hey maybe get chance to look up some old friends in Germany.
warm regards
John

backtobasics

Have any expats tried the lake Tizsa area?
We are quite taken by the prospect of finding a retirement home in that region and would welcome any advice or information on setting up.

stromnessdundee

Hello I am moving to Siofok in a month's time. My husband is already there. We are moving because of my hubby's work. Any information from someone already in Hungary would be appreciated. Most of the stuff on the internet seems to be very Budapest orientated. We have 2 young children and would be particularly interested to find out if there is anyone else in the area with English speaking children.

Thanks.

Markcomp

Just a few bits and pieces, we moved to Hungary 3 years ago with our 2 boys now 8 + 10 - we have an advantage as my wife is Hungarian and the boys are bilingual its just me that is the problem language wise!
We have built a house here up in the hills outside of Budapest having also renovated a flat in the capital some years ago. Some observations:
The comments from waffen are not our experience at all, yes Hungary has some serious economic problems that are not going to go away in the near future, but for many Brits who want to live abroad this is not a bad place at all, schooling is not always so straight forward and it depends on the school like everywhere, but the curriculum is very sound and the education is shaking itself up to equate to EU levels - not that it was bad my wife's degree of 18 yrs ago is equivalent of an Masters today! In fact they have had to dilute their teaching to meet a Bachelors degree!
Crime - havent seen anything of consequence or heard it 1st hand from friends or Hungarian relatives - sure everyone is paranoid but compared to London Manchester need i say more....
Building and buying houses - if you dont do your homework and compare notes with others someone may well rip you off - bit like the UK... We are on our second property and I could recommend any number of trades only one team could nt manage the quality. Also we have been very hands on from plumbing to electrics and tiling and used trades when we ran out of time etc all have been great oh and over 3 years of teams coming and going I lost one lump hammer but gained several other tools so I am not sure what crime that equates to.
Hungarians - as you will have seen from some of the comments can be negative and pessimistic about the country, future politics etc but if you study the history its not perhaps surprising, also its worth noting that min wage here is around £250 a month yes a month and it is acknowledged as being below the poverty line but its what is affordable for the country so for many life is tough- in comparison Us Brits have been born with the proverbial silver spoon.......get under the surface and there are many kind intelligent open people here all trying to make their way in life like the rest of us. How you treat people is usually reflected in what you get back genuineness begets the same , bitter and negative and so on.
Life still throws a few blinders and in material levels we have less, but we walk the kids to school every day, can often find plenty of (free or very cheap) things to do as a family here or in B;'pest at the weekends and have a much less stressful existence than back home which is v expensive, crowded ete as you all know.
We also went through the whole process of landing in Canada but decided after completing it all and landing that there would be only a little less of a rat race. Here we work two weeks a month -tell me a major country where you can do that.
Anyway enough ranting you can probably tell how i feel about living here.
Very happy to help with any info etc

backtobasics

Recce plans confirmed. hitting the Belguim coast next Saturday, taking casual route through Germany meeting old Army mates and will be in H for on site recce for 5 or 6 days.

backtobasics

to MARKCOMP:
Thankyou for the info just what we needed. With our kids being well over 20 we're set for a retired style existence away from ratrace.
We had tried America but after being totallt ripped off (by a british company) I was landlocked there for 2 years with my wife having problems visiting (she's English born employed by the uk police). Whilst in the USA I made many great friends because we're open, honest and treat people right and your comments are true of anywhere treat people right, ''reap what you sow''.
I would like to learn the basics of Hungarian language, I always make a point of learning hello, goodbye,thankyou,please, and excuse me as a minimum whereever I travel. However ultimately if we live our dream in Hungary then I'd like to learn more than the basics.
Question; What are costs like for car/house insurance, electric (avge use), petrol, (car taxation?).
I'd certainly welcome advice on recomended tradesmen/building Co's.
May I pm you later to enquire on other issues?

thankyou so much for taking the time to respond
John & Anne

backtobasics

Has anyone used, heard of anyone useing or had any feedback of estate agency 'Magyan Haz'?

Markcomp

Just a couple of points, car insurance - if its UK plated dont bother they wont insure it unless its registered, well that was the situation 3 years ago, it may have changed. Importing it if its relatively new will cost around £1500. we insure ours thro the AA as they have a policy for unlimited overseas travel - I assume triggered by all those folks who have moved to France and travel alot between the two. I am not sure exactly what the situation is if you dont have a UK address tho as they wont send docs abroad- you also have to spend some time in the UK????? Other costs vary some better some worse. We built with energy costs in mind and put 14cm of insulation on the walls and 25 in the roof - the result being we heated this winter with wood for about a £125 from Oct - I know poeple who paid 3 x that so it might pay to buy a bit run down and "do it up" insulating etc on theway. Asfor estate agents - not that sure, there are some stories about a lot of Irish folks paying over the odds in the capital but we met a couple recently who got a bargain just off Andrassy - famous pretty boulevard in Pest. Check the websites in Hungarian to see what the local prices are being offered and bargain-basically do your homework and dont rush into anything no matter how tempting.
Petrol is 308 forints and the pound has been 305 recently usually around 350 but as the forint is tied more closely to the euro thats how it tends to move vs ££
Re tradesman, talk to locals esp ex pats and get several quotes. Builders tend to be self employed businesses and guarantees dont really exist so word of mouth is best _ i can give you ideas on some prices in fact we get asked so often I am seriously tempted to set up as a building project manager or property maintenance company for ex pats etc.
Feel free to pm although i am not sure exactly what that is!!!

Markcomp

Not sure about the estate agent or Lake Tisza it's supposed to be very pretty and excellent fishing wildlife etc _ I might just check out the mosquitos though!

backtobasics

thnx Markcomp;

Mossies, not too unfamiliar but hopefully not too big a prob as we'll not be right on the lake but about 20 miles off. One ex pat doing well there running birdwatching tours, already spoken with him, nice chap.

Car; I was thinking long term buying in Hungary and using in country insurance co. Can't be as bad as in usa for Brits, who even after being there for over 2 years still have to pay about $1,500 every 6 months.

Lake Tisza and just a little further East has a great almost untapped nature reserve including the flood plains. I am sure over a few years that the area will be seeing growth in tourism.

Oh PM= is private message the link for which you will find in your profile page.

I feel that Hungary could be the place for my wife and I to retire to and enjoy slower pace, appreciate nature, employ a local to tend a decent veg patch garden, maybe we'll submit the odd photo or article. Perhaps consider a business opportunity for later on as tourism picks up. I've still business friends in the US looking for expansion in such areas.

We'll be able to see and explore for our selves next week.

anything else you can think of that would help in preparing to assess for buying and moving please let us know we appreciate all info that we can glean.

Starting a biz yourself; yes if you've practical knowledge and time then why waste a business opportunity, if you see it use it then if it grows you can employ and delegate so that you can still maintain a steady paced life style.

warm regards
John

cathyg

Hi Markcomp

Have been following this thread with much interest. My husband and I are planning to relocate to the outskirts of Budapest next year. Our plan is to buy a good sized piece of land with a building on which we can develop/extend. I know now as EU members it is ok to buy property but can you tell me how easy it is to get planning permission to extend or alter existing properties. I have found quite a few pieces of land with 'weekend houses' on which would be ideal but not sure of the status of 'weekend houses' in planning. Any ideas???
Just wanted to say we cant wait to get to Hungary, we have visited many times and have travelled around the country. Its not perfect but I love the feeling of space and the 'spa' culture. Very healthy I think!!

Regards
Cathy

cathyg

Hi Back to Basics

Just wanted to let you know that we have visited the Lake Tisza region and found it very interesting. We toured in a motorhome and there are lots of opportunities I think to set up tourist industries. We found that the sites we stayed on needed to be brought up-to-date, they were fine but not up to western european 'standards'. That sounds terrible but we got the feeling that the tourist industry needs some 'input' and it would not take much to improve the situation. So if you teamed a good camp site with bird watching you could do well. We stayed at Tiszafured which was very pleasant, not much english around though so you may be more isolated than Balaton or Budapest. But we managed well and everyone was really friendly.

Look forward to hearing about your travels.

regards

Cathy

Markcomp

Cathyg
just a quick note, weekend houses have a very specific status in hungary and can only be built according a lot of "strict" regulations. Although there maybe some "flexibility", I would not go down that avenue. (except as a holiday home) Also I think that you cannot have one as a permanent residence.
Mark