Re: Property prices
 

I judge the value based on insurance assessment.
I bought my house for 21 mil, now 12 years later the insurance value is over 90 million.
But rumour has it that property prices are going down, so who knows.
There has been a surge in new builds in the town in the last few years, these are much more appealing to younger buyers than buying the old dilapidated property that need a lot of time and money to bring up to a good standard.
This renovation querk seems to be more of an English thing, and not just in Hungary, if the internet is to be believed (??) just do a search on French Chateau renovations!

Re: Property prices
 

I must check the insurance value but my understanding is that it is the cost of a rebuild not the property market value. So your house is probably worth alot more on the property market.

Re: Property prices
 

I'm not sure that renovating property is more of an "English" thing if my area is anything to go by. All the old property around here that has been renovated, or is in the process of being renovated, has been/is being done by either Hungarians or Slovakians.

Not a Brit in sight and hasn' tbeen to my knowledge for the past 17 years!

Re: Property prices
 

insurance value has little to do with the market price. Insurance value is based on rebuild cost which will include 10% for site clearance plus planning etc. Market price is just what people are willing to pay which is dependent upon other factors e.g. location. So if you build your house on the outskirts of Budapest then construction cost can be recouped instantly with extra. Do the same house in a remote village then it will be years before you get close to recovering the construction cost

I have also heard that prices are falling.

The tradition in Hungary was that you bought your plot and built your house. For some time (significant) government grants were available to young families but for a long time they were only available for new build and its is only fairly recently that grants were available for renovation. Lots of reasons for this but generally if a government wants to kick start the economy then giving a boost to the construction industry is seen as a good starter - this happens with new build but much less so with renovations.