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Living in Hungary - why?

Living in Hungary - why?

Old Jun 16th 2019, 2:41 pm
  #76  
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

I am 62 and the missus is 55.
Worked all my life in the UK, ran a security company for 10 yrs with Brother in Law, had enough of HMRC hounding us every week for this and that, so decided to jack it in and move out of the UK.
We moved here permanently in June 2017.
Being Ex RN and my father 22 yrs in RA, I have lived pretty much abroad all my life.
Stumbled upon the Forum and stayed with Peter and Barbara in Tapolca for 3 days after using the first week in Hungary at a timeshare resort.
Bought a house (2014) in Nick, Vas Megye, 40 mins from Austrian border, we are the only Brits in the village. Have met Brits in villages nearby and keep in touch etc.
My pension has 3 1/2 years to go before it kicks in, kids are grown up and two live in the house in Warrington.
Life is so calm, the air is clean, weather is good too. Make annual pilgrimage to the Formula 1 every year in Mogyoród.
We have had a motorway (M86) built just outside the village and see many nationalities driving through to the Pannonia Ring Circuit just down the road from us.
Village life is great, everyone is friendly and were yet to have a bad situation.
Cannot speak Hungarian but am trying, most people we speak to can communicate in German, so we get by on that.
Hope to lead a happy and long life here, no intention of returning... waiting for the kids to move out so can sell the house ... lol

Michael/Julie
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Old Jun 16th 2019, 7:23 pm
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

Originally Posted by rondee79
You can buy a gaff in Hungary now for peanuts, I saw one on eBay of all places for 8k
If it is that cheap there will be a reason why.

If it is/was that much of a bargain how come a Hungarian hadn't grabbed it as soon as it was advertised?.

Estate agents work for themselves first, the seller second and the purchaser (especially the foreign purchaser) is the cash cow. Hungary doesn't have the trades description regs that the UK enjoys. Searches undertaken (with liability) by your UK solicitor are not done here unless the purchaser does it themselves. Contracts are drawn up by a solicitor - the same solicitor for both sides and the solicitors job is to make sure that the contract is legal - note legal is not necessarily fair or just, but legal none the less. It is very much up to the purchaser to ensure that they understand what they are buying.
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Old Jun 17th 2019, 5:29 am
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

Originally Posted by FenTiger
England football matches no longer on BBC or the other terrestrial TV channels. Had to watch England v. Holland via BT Sport via Internet. Total crap with the footballers leaving vapour trails behind them but free as a gesture from BT Sport. I can't imagine this happening anywhere else in the world.
The Womens World Cup is on BBC .....surely this is discrimination if Mens football isn't shown on BBC!
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Old Jun 17th 2019, 5:32 am
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

Originally Posted by Peter_in_Hungary
If it is that cheap there will be a reason why.

If it is/was that much of a bargain how come a Hungarian hadn't grabbed it as soon as it was advertised?.

Estate agents work for themselves first, the seller second and the purchaser (especially the foreign purchaser) is the cash cow. Hungary doesn't have the trades description regs that the UK enjoys. Searches undertaken (with liability) by your UK solicitor are not done here unless the purchaser does it themselves. Contracts are drawn up by a solicitor - the same solicitor for both sides and the solicitors job is to make sure that the contract is legal - note legal is not necessarily fair or just, but legal none the less. It is very much up to the purchaser to ensure that they understand what they are buying.
Peter is spot on. Who would put a "gaff" on e-Bay? Dodgey, dodgey ....walk away!
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Old Dec 14th 2019, 3:48 pm
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

If you have to watch football, watch local matches !
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Old Dec 14th 2019, 5:15 pm
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

Originally Posted by scot47
If you have to watch football, watch local matches !
you hit the jackpot.
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Old Dec 16th 2019, 12:15 pm
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

Originally Posted by Moses2013
No sense of humour today? Now you say Avoiding Brits" usually means avoiding groups / enclaves / communities of ex pat Brits, not shunning individual Brits on sight, sound or contact.
How would you know if a person is British?
May be the way they dress? 😉
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Old Dec 16th 2019, 3:27 pm
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

You can spot them. Clothes, body language, posture
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Old Dec 16th 2019, 3:34 pm
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

Originally Posted by scot47
You can spot them. Clothes, body language, posture
Spot on!
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Old Dec 20th 2019, 3:59 pm
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

I can be considered one of the failed expats with respect to Hungary as I sold up and moved to Croatia. In my case I wanted to relocate as a means of taking early retirement due to health problems. I had (have) a bad back but could not get doctors to take me seriously. I suppose so many people use it as an excuse to get signed off work that the doctors fail to recognise genuine cases. I suppose the idea of buying property abroad first occurred to me when I was looking for a way to sell my house in Scotland. I had bought a very cheap camper van and was doing some repairs. I needed some parts and heard of someone breaking up an old caravan. When I went to see these parts I got to the location before the appointed time so I had a look round the town (Dornoch, I think it was) In an estate agent window I spotted a house I liked the look of. I seriously considered selling my house and buying that one but did not have a high opinion of Scottish estate agents. I wondered if I could sell my house on Ebay but had never looked to see if they had houses. I found they did indeed advertise houses there but most of them were in Bulgaria! I had already seen one or two TV programmes about people buying property in Bulgaria but had not realised how cheap the normal village houses could be as they tend to only consider beach type properties with swimming pools for those TV shows.
I never really considered relocating full time at that stage but was interested in buying a place for holiday use and modernising it. I did go on a viewing trip but that is another long and fairly grim story! It was a few years later that I decided to look for a place for early retirement. My favourite was the Limousin region of France but I also looked at Germany, Austria and Hungary. France got ruled out on economic grounds. They have a version of the NHS but it does not cover the full cost of (for example) hospital treatment. It may cover say 75% of the bill but the individual has to take out private health insurance to cover the remaining 25%. With me having an existing back problem the cost of such insurance would be prohibitive.
Germany was rejected because I thought I would be getting back into the rat-race, which I had left behind in the '90s when I moved to northern Scotland. This was a shame because the houses in Germany are mostly attractive, solid and well maintained. Hard to put a finger on why I didn't like Austria but it just felt wrong for me. Hungary seemed to offer the best compromise of low house purchase and living costs, modern infrastructure and low population density. It also helped that there were other Brits around if I needed advice and information. For me the big stumbling block was the language. Nobody in my village spoke any English and I failed dismally in my attempts to learn Hungarian. I felt too isolated, especially after I lost touch with Vic. Vic was an English expat of Hungarian descent and I had met him due to renting his house on my first property viewing trip. In the first year or two he did a lot of interpreting for me, especially in my village. His parents taught him to speak Hungarian but not to read or write it, so he was as clueless as me about documents in Hungarian. I did not consider Croatia at the time I bought the house in Hungary (2010) as it was not an EU country at that time. I do not regret moving to Croatia and it puzzles me that more Brits don't come here to live. I think they only look at the coast , where house prices are much higher.
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Old Dec 20th 2019, 5:09 pm
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

Fidobsa, do you speak Croatian ? Will you learn ?
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Old Dec 21st 2019, 12:04 am
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

Originally Posted by scot47
Fidobsa, do you speak Croatian ? Will you learn ?
More Croatians speak English I assume.
It is easier to get by in Hungary with German than with English.

Last edited by Thairetired2016; Dec 21st 2019 at 12:07 am.
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Old Dec 21st 2019, 12:18 am
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

Originally Posted by fidobsa
I can be considered one of the failed expats with respect to Hungary as I sold up and moved to Croatia. In my case I wanted to relocate as a means of taking early retirement due to health problems. I had (have) a bad back but could not get doctors to take me seriously. I suppose so many people use it as an excuse to get signed off work that the doctors fail to recognise genuine cases. I suppose the idea of buying property abroad first occurred to me when I was looking for a way to sell my house in Scotland. I had bought a very cheap camper van and was doing some repairs. I needed some parts and heard of someone breaking up an old caravan. When I went to see these parts I got to the location before the appointed time so I had a look round the town (Dornoch, I think it was) In an estate agent window I spotted a house I liked the look of. I seriously considered selling my house and buying that one but did not have a high opinion of Scottish estate agents. I wondered if I could sell my house on Ebay but had never looked to see if they had houses. I found they did indeed advertise houses there but most of them were in Bulgaria! I had already seen one or two TV programmes about people buying property in Bulgaria but had not realised how cheap the normal village houses could be as they tend to only consider beach type properties with swimming pools for those TV shows.
I never really considered relocating full time at that stage but was interested in buying a place for holiday use and modernising it. I did go on a viewing trip but that is another long and fairly grim story! It was a few years later that I decided to look for a place for early retirement. My favourite was the Limousin region of France but I also looked at Germany, Austria and Hungary. France got ruled out on economic grounds. They have a version of the NHS but it does not cover the full cost of (for example) hospital treatment. It may cover say 75% of the bill but the individual has to take out private health insurance to cover the remaining 25%. With me having an existing back problem the cost of such insurance would be prohibitive.
Germany was rejected because I thought I would be getting back into the rat-race, which I had left behind in the '90s when I moved to northern Scotland. This was a shame because the houses in Germany are mostly attractive, solid and well maintained. Hard to put a finger on why I didn't like Austria but it just felt wrong for me. Hungary seemed to offer the best compromise of low house purchase and living costs, modern infrastructure and low population density. It also helped that there were other Brits around if I needed advice and information. For me the big stumbling block was the language. Nobody in my village spoke any English and I failed dismally in my attempts to learn Hungarian. I felt too isolated, especially after I lost touch with Vic. Vic was an English expat of Hungarian descent and I had met him due to renting his house on my first property viewing trip. In the first year or two he did a lot of interpreting for me, especially in my village. His parents taught him to speak Hungarian but not to read or write it, so he was as clueless as me about documents in Hungarian. I did not consider Croatia at the time I bought the house in Hungary (2010) as it was not an EU country at that time. I do not regret moving to Croatia and it puzzles me that more Brits don't come here to live. I think they only look at the coast , where house prices are much higher.
Why do so many Croations go and work outside Croatia? Why do they try to maintain a link to e.g. Austria or Germany after retirement just to be able to have medical aid access in Austria or Germany?
From what I understand only the tourist areas are really developed. Inland nothing much has happened. Half built houses, houses still show bullet holes from recent Balkan war.
And what I noticed after having a Croation neighbor for a while: they are damned noisy, a normal conversation sounded like a fight.
Friendly they weren't either. No attempt to integrate in the host country. Was this family and their friends the odd ones out?
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Old Dec 26th 2019, 1:46 pm
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Default Re: Living in Hungary - why?

I have not encountered any hostility in the 3 years or so that I've been spending time in Croatia.There has been a lot of depopulation because people see they can get a lot more money for the same work if they travel a relatively short distance to Austria or Germany. They are still close enough to get back to Croatia for holidays etc. This also partly accounts for the half built houses although another reason is that a lot were built illegally and at some point the government clamped down on this. People abandoned the project rather than risk having a demolition order or whatever. I have not seen war damaged houses but it could be that there was not much warfare in my area. I do know that one neighbour came as a refugee from Bosnia so perhaps this was a relatively safe part of Yugoslavia. I have not heard of people going to other countries for medical help, although Croatian health facilities are perhaps not the best. I can't comment about Croatians who relocate to other countries but the ones I meet are generally polite and helpful. There is also very little crime. People leave all kinds of equipment outside that you would have to lock away in UK. I never dared go to school on my bicycle as it would have been stolen or vandalised but lots of kids here go to school on bikes and don't even lock them up.
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