Rural Hungary

Just thought we might get some community chat going on the Hungary section and hope some of you will share your reasons for choosing to buy in Hungary.

John Gilbert

Because the people are warm, the summer is great & the property was cheap. The countryside around the northern & western sides of the Balaton is very beautiful, see Zanka, Koveskal, Kapolcs & of course Balatonfured & Tihany. Also places like Tapolca have great farmers markets with wonderful locally grown produce.

I know too little about the south of the lake but was pretty unimpressed on a quick visit to Siofok.

All of that & I have a Hungarian partner. A good place to retire but I would worry about earning a living there?

Ettamogah

Because of days like today, 22-03-2010 when I can sit on my front balcony eating lunch in wonderful sunshine, temp 25.5c and this evening there will probably be a glorious sunset over the Balaton lake, something that to me makes the south preferable to the north shore.

John Gilbert

Just back in London after time in Budapest. Left strong sunshine on morning coffee houses for rain & wind in UK.

Must check out the south shore next time

Rural Hungary

Ditto, great weather, affordable property and easy living. We had been priced out of France, didn't fancy Spain, spent 3 months in Bulgaria, ended up hating it and then discovered Hungary.
Our dream was a small holding, art studio and self sufficiency, however, a year later, due to personal experience and first hand horror stories, we have set up a company to hopefully help buyers being ripped off by unscrupulous agents and builders. It's something we never planned on doing as my partner left the building sites 4 year ago and this being our third renovation project, when finished, we planned to leave it all behind..... Funny how life works out sometimes. To date we love it, even with the language (ouch) and the occasional drama and can honestly say we feel settled.

tarakay

Built a house on the north side of Balaton a couple of years ago. Have a Hungarian daughter-in-law. We have been visiting Hungary for about 10 years and really enjoy the country. We plan to visit more often in the future.

richardmc

Come across Balaton on British "Wish you were Here" telly spent months researching, eventually visited with agents GLM (mmmm) saw 28 properties till they had enough of us, picked one in Balatonszentygorgy done a deal, purchased 2 years ago had hurrendous quote from their contacts (took 9 months to get!). Thankfully through this site and Balaton Brits site we are meeting "Balatonbase" to sort some intial works based on common sense and look forward to a future there which could be a move to live in the future. We love the region and love the 60's life slow and emptyish roads and slow pace, but I agree finding work when you are a grafter may be a problem.
I will be posting again.

Richardmc

littlelambfound

Worked as a photographer in Budapest for over 10 years...on all the new publications that set up shop there. Still keep a photo studio there. Married a Hungarian girl, and bought several properties in Budapest.
But....since my son was born 4 years ago, we decided to move to Spain. After so many years of negativity, attempted ripping off with regard to anything needing doing, and a worrisome political future moving towards the extreme right, Spain makes a nice change. We still spend a lot of time in Hungary, mainly due to the grand parents, but I am glad we moved away.
Sorry I couldn't be more positive!

Rural Hungary

Not to worry Littlelambfound, there are always positives and negatives and better to hear the negatives than go around wearing rose coloured spectacles all of the time.
Unfortunately we would agree about being ripped off, hence setting up a website to try and offer support and advice to those who have bought or plan to buy in Hungary. However, we found relocating to Hungary less of a minefield than Bulgaria, Morocco and several other European countries.
Good luck with your life in Spain.

John Gilbert

It will be good to see how things develop after the election in Hungary - the uncertainty will go & hopefully people will calm down.

Maybe one day people will stop taking politics so seriously & realise they are responsible for building their own lives. In the UK we know that be it Labour, Conservative or even Lib Dem, most things don’t change radically. Politicians have no magic wand to make problems go away.

For me, the positives of Hungary far outweigh the negatives.

hotpot

for us we came for a holiday in 2000 and driving round lake balaton one evening we both looked at each other and said i could quite happy to die here. we have been here 5 years now but there are so many things i miss from the UK.

I miss the street illuminations,or in other words 10 sets of traffic lights in 500m.
The double yellow lines and even the single ones. The sleeping policemen that do your tyres in. The smell of curry or fish and chips on every parade of shops.
I also miss walking along a street and everyone is in a rush and cant even say goodmorning or smile. mind you if they said goodmorning would you hear them with the noise of the traffic and the smell from it.
O yes i miss the speed traps as i always wanted to be on candid camara.
But the three things i miss most are being ill, ringing the doctor and being told you can see the doctor next week.(i can see mine on the day within 2 hours)
the last two are having to pay outragous rates ours are £45 a year and also being able to watch UK television with out having a licence.

John Gilbert

Hot Spot - you mean you can get BBC's from Astra 2D?
Regards
John

klarika

Do you speak Hungarian?

hotpot

hi john yes you can get BBC with a big 2.4m dish. we did have one up but it was so ugly we took it down.just settle for ITV,C5 and c5 and the other freesat we get off a 1.2 m dish.

klarika the only hungarian we know is what we have picked up over the 5 years here. hubby has picked up a lot more than me.

John Gilbert

Thanks Hot Spot - take your point about the ugliness of a 2.4 meter dish, it is very large. I also have ITV, Channel 4 & the 5's (or I did on my last visit) & that will do.

We have house in village near Tapolca & love the Balaton lifestyle.

All the best