Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hi all
my family and I are after some advice please.
We are considering moving to the area for a number of reason and are wondering where to start.
A little bit about us and our reasons may help -
I am Nick (37) and have worked in IT for around 12 years, the last 30 months or so for the University of Birmingham (Medical School), my partner Michelle (37) who has worked in Insurance since leaving school and our bright little girl Amelia (3) who works at everything flat out :lol:
Our main reasons for leaving the Uk for pastures new.
1) We have about £25k-30k capital but that doesn't really go anywhere with respect to property in the UK and I want to put down roots in a very old fasioned way for our little girl.
2) Our country is slowly becoming a place that leaves us feeling unsafe on a personal level.
3) Quality of life is something that only happens here after all the work / bill commitments have been met.
4) Education and social infrastructure for our little girl - the Hungarian education in particular appeals.

We are keen to be mortgage free if possible and work either in our current fields or something new.
We have at present no Hungarian although are making a slow start on this seeing this as a requisite not only for integrating into a new culture but also more than 93% of the population speaking it.
We have read up on the health system, education, property and citizenship a little.
We plan to visit in September as a way to get an initial feel for the region (although I realise it is huge with almost 60 towns etc surrounding the Lake) and also hopefully view some properties.
I have read some of the posts on here and am keen to avoid as many pitfalls as possible should we relocate.
For example - it seems an idea to sell our cars in the UK and also buy lefthand drive in the UK (cheaper?) and pay import tax when bringing them in to Hungary?. Also we have wondered whether to spend 10-15k on a property and another 10-15k on renovation or wheterht o buy a ready to live in house?
I've just noticed the length of this post so will stop here - hopefully it wil evolve.
Many thanks
Nick, Michelle and Amelia.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

I guess what we'd like to know -
what should we expect for our money
which areas should we focus on
what are the employment prospects
how are we likely to be received
what are the pitfals

thanks
nick

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

hi

well the area depends on you do you want city life or out in the sticks. or something in between. there is so much choice.
to work you really need hungarian and they say it is the hardest language to learn. if you could learn in the uk that would be better but there are classes over here and a few sites on the internet. yes you can find houses for 25k but might need some renovation it depends which area you choose.
employment is not good at the moment, but most of the young brits we know have started up their own business, and seam to be getting along quite well.
if you want village life make sure the village has aschool as they start early morning and the last thing you want in the winter is driving you child several k to get her to school and home again.
you will be received very well as the hungarians love the brits.
crime in the country is very low except in the major cities.
education as far as we can see is to a high standard.

most towns and even villages now have there own web site so look through as many as you can to narrow you options for houses.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hi thanks for the reply, ideally a small town or largish village with a bit of infrastructure really. From what I've read the north and south shores differ quite a bit?
The language should have progressed by the time we visit in September and our aim to move is 2011 although we may buy a property well before then.
I did wonder about setting up a small IT consulting business as it seems to be a skill in demand.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

hi
yas they do as the north side was once volcanic so lots of national parks. but fab countryside and good walks. access to the lake if i am correct is at big towns and strands (bathing beaches). where the south side is more built up with access to the lake can be found at all built up areas. the south side has the M7 which goes from budapest to croata.
IT in the last 5/7 years has come on in leaps and bounds but i cant advise you about anything on that as i am an idiot when it comes to anything like that.

it you read the rest of the hungary topics on learning hungarian i think it was country someone who put an address up for learning hungarian on your pc. well i went into it and i must admit it is very very good i am sure it will help you.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

I've now registered on livemocha :-) many thanks for that
I'm gussing that one of the smaller towns on the south side would be what we're aiming for.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hi npwilkes and welcome to the forum.

Personally, we preferred buying a cheap property and renovating so that we could ensure the quality of the renovation. We know of several renovated properties which have sold for £30-40,000 but been of a poor quality with dampness and cracks reappearing soon after purchase.
Regards North and South, we love the North but couldn't afford to buy there. The South is flatter and we found some of the villages to be quite sprawling and uninspiring. As a compromise, we bought in the West, which is less expensive but very scenic. Some villages around Marcali are attractive and still reasonable or near us where we are 10 minutes from Flybalaton (yes, we still live in hope folks) 15 from Zalakaros, 20 from Nagykanisza and 25 minutes from Keszthely. We enjoy the rural olde worlde lifestyle but are in driving distance of "civilisation".
In our area, villages that don't have schools, have a bus service for both the primary school and nursery.

From the little knowledge I have on the job market, most IT jobs are in Budapest and some don't require Hungarian. However, if you are set on the Balaton area, I think freelancing would be the most likely option. Have you looked at Elance? Prices are competitive due to many providers residing in Asia but being mortgage free, living simply and the lower cost of living, it is possible to compete with them.
Wherever you do decide to buy, ensure that you can obtain a reliable internet service!

The best place to start would be an extended visit and spend some time driving around different areas, get yourself a translator and visit local "non English speaking" estate agent ;)

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hi rural hungary, that is very helpful thank you.
The initial plan is to spend from now until September having a bash at learning the lamguage and then having a week split bewtween holidaying and looking at properties.
I shall have a look at elance.
Many thanks
Nick

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

It's nice and a huge relief to have some advice and a degree of helpful support - out friends and family are split between thinking it's a joke / we're mad or simply not understanding the huge undertaking that it is.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

We were the same 9 years ago when we sold up and went on a 12 month jaunt around Europe & Morocco - with four children in tow! Some friends were envious but the majority thought we were off our heads. Regardless, we went and it was the best experience ever, after that, moving to Hungary was a doddle.

Have you looked at: http://realestatehungary.hu/belepes_en.php
You have to search in increments of £3-4,000, can't remember off the top of my head but it will give you an idea of the prices in different areas.

Don't get me wrong, it is difficult at times but the weather is better, day to day living is easier and children can enjoy a more carefree childhood.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Thanks,not found that site yet. I suppose in a nutshell that's what we're looking for, the simpler life of an era long gone grom the uk. I undestand the developing nature of Hungary and it's language bring it's own issues

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

sorry rural hungary i could not remember your name to pass on the hungarian language course, so sorry.

we moved here 5 years ago and my brother-in-law said " dont think we will ever see you again if you are mad enough to move to a third world country"

some people have no idea.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Nick,
It is a very useful forum which I too have found most valuable for lots of different information. We are also moving to Balaton hopefully as soon as our property sells I speak Hungarian and am hoping that I might be able to do a bit of transalating over there if there is a call for it or maybe a bit of freelancing in communciations. Anyway wish you all the luck in your new venture and house hunting, it is encouraging to see more Brits going over.
I´m sure you will love it.it is a lovely country and people are very friendly.

Klarika

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Not a problem Hotpot, I am so pleased that you find it useful :)

I must admit, before visiting, I believed Hungary to be similar to Bulgaria, Romania etc Having spent three months in Bulgaria before arriving in Hungary, we were really surprised at how developed it was, absolutely not third world and definitely more developed than Bulgaria. Okay, its not as advanced as neighbouring Austria but property and the cost of living are a fraction of the price.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hotpot - the language site is really good - I can see how my lunch breaks are going to be spent now.

Klarika - thanks for the necouragement , good luck to you also.

Rural Hungary - any place that have tescos must be reasonably developed? :thumbup:

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

One of the problems we face is whilst looking at properties on the web is helpful (very good site btw way rural hungary) we have no way of knowing what the people and houses around it are like :-(

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Thanks npwilkes. Your concern is definitely legitimate and one of the reasons I built the site (I will finish it one day....). When we originally moved here, we had no intention whatsoever of offering building or assistance services but hearing horror stories of overpriced properties, bad workmanship and lack of after sales assistance, we decided to try and help where we can. A case in point is a house we visited yesterday (which on arrival we discovered had been broken into, fortunately the property was empty), we will try and help as much as we can but if we had viewed the house for the client prior to visiting, we would have advised them not to purchase it; due to it's slightly isolated position and structural condition.

For many buyers, they arrive, view 20-30 houses within a 2-3 day period and unfortunately do not have the time or means of investigating the area or neighbours, hence our pre viewing service. Though we do of course have to charge for that as sadly time and fuel aren't free ;) Though if you have certain villages in mind, either ourselves or others on the forum, will offer advise where we can. However, many villages can have both "good" and "bad" areas within them so you may wish to investigate a bit further.
Good luck

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hmm. I am not impressed by the education system here. The nursery was great but once my daughter got to primary school things went downhill. It is really rigid and to be frank backwards looking. This will only get worse with the new Government. The black marks for not having pencils sharpened correctly were the final straw for us I am afraid. We are now moving to Budapest from Siofok and putting our 2 kids in the British International School. Thanks to hubbie's employer this is an option. The 300km commute every day for hubby is another matter...

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Yes, I know from experience how these things change but was wondering what you had planned to do when you moved to Hungary?

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hello Npwilkes

If you ever need service such as building work etc etc etc etc in the South West region of Lake Balaton PM me and I will let you know who to trust and will give you a great friendly service - not sure but can I advertise the people i have found on this site, not sure ?? let me know .I dont want to break rules:huh:

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

We live in Balaton Bereny we have had excellent service from estate agents Balaton Investents the after service has been second to none they can not do enough for you and speak perfect english. Building, plumbers, painters ect have also been great and all very reasonable priced. If any body wants more information then please pm me I also speak hungarian if I can be of any assistance.

Good Luck

Carol

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Do you mean Balaton Investments Carol? I have a friend who bought through them and admittedly they were helpful but I think she was let down regarding building work. :( Perhaps something was lost in communication?


Hi Richard, I believe it is fine to recommend a company, what the site tries to avoid is summed up by Sue in her post here.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Thanks Rural I have read the rules and cannot see anything wrong in recommending builders that we have commisioned. In the same light I have ,in the past on the Forum mentioned Estates Agents that in our experience, are not very good in some ways and good in others and would not use again (GLM).
I would recommend "Balaton Base" to anyone for buildng quotes, and any other of the services they offer. We were nearly losing hope a year ago re builders you could trust to give reasonable Hungarian rates , the quote we had From a Hungarian builder was unreal and greedy so trawling around web forums we contact someone who put us onto "Balaton Base". One year on we are friends and have had our initial work completed and inspected and are very happy (keeping the missus happy) with the standard of work and price. Not only that but as remote second home owners they have done everything we have asked and more such as them discovering a small leak and liasing with the Waterboard and oversaw the repair and made sure the property was Winterised, also looking for a temporary sink so we can wash our dishes on our next visit. Excellent. These are the building bricks to enable us to eventually live in Hungary in the nearish future and gives us "security" in the knowledge that there are people who genuinly care. Everything going well there is a lot more work to come for them especally when we land there.:thumbsup:

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Thanks Richard :embarrassed_smile:

We were only too pleased to help and are delighted now to be able to call both of you friends :)

Unfortunately, you are not alone in your experience with the aforementioned company, many of our clients have bought through them. Thankfully though they are now, like yourselves, beginning to enjoy their homes in Hungary and moving in the right direction.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

We have just bought through the aforementioned company and so far they have been fine. I assume you are referring to aftersales service?

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hi Polgardi, I have no personal experience of the company, several users of the forum have but understandably , they may not wish to discuss their experiences on the forum. Some of the complaints I have heard of are; commission fees in the region of 30-40%, outlandish building quotes and excessive admin charges. Perhaps someone with personal experience of the company can enlighten you further.

With regards to realistic property prices, the agent Carol used is one of the better ones that I have come across.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hello Polgardi

Glad your sale went through ok. Yes GLM were helpfull at first, we visited for 5 days they put us up in B/B with nice people. They took us to OTP Bank Kesthely to set up an account and took us for a day trip to Budapest and a bit of sight seeing in between. We saw approx 28 properties in 3 days until they got fedup. We put an offer for a property near Lake Balaton which was accepted. The first transaction was 10% of the agreed price direct to GLM the remainder was then sent to the Lawyer who I assume does all the legals for them and the full price was shown on the sales agreement so I assume/maybe the deposit to them were their fees etc which was a lot of money in Forints. Still, the complete sale took a few months (there were 7 owners) and a few sweaty brows later and nervous gulps we received the title deed (one bit of paper stamped by Sigma).In short we waited a year for a builders quote with lots of apologies which was a no no. We had to laugh but Ewald, the owner invited us for a meal with his young wife (when we agreed a price) and when I asked how much he wanted for the B/B he said no money . GLM are very nice people and helpfull but I must admit their aftersales (when the sale is complete) is not good. I can ask at this point, we have no plans of our boundaries although the deeds stipulate the square meterage and want them, how do we go about it please. :huh:

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hi Richard, we enquired about a copy of the property plan for a friend, they came under Marcali - not sure if you are the same, if so we can give you directions when you arrive or if we are passing we could try and pick it up for you. It costs 3,000ft.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Thanks for this. We saw a property and land at the end of October and as of beginning of this year everything was done, including land registry etc - so I am really pleased with their service thus far. I also have a plan of the plot and size, though quite how I stake it out as part of the land has afarmers corn on it I dont know. I take on board what you are saying about aftersales and we will certainly shop around at any rate when we move to Hungary in June. Thanks for the info - really great.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Just for reference, sale can be as quick as 1-2 days - land registry takes about one month.

Local farmer will have been using the land, quite typical. If you intend on using it yourself, you will need to have a word with him before he starts preparing it to plant. Don't be surprised if he isn't happy about it - more so if he needs it to access other plots. If you don't intend using the field, the farmer will usually be willing to barter goods or services of some sort in return.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

We wont be using the land straight away, and probably not all of it in any event. We dont want to be upsetting locals and would let him know in advance. I suppose to us its an odd concept to have land and not use it yourself.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hi Rural,

Yes I do mean Balaton Investements in Kesthey they were brilliant. All work building, plumbing, decorating etc were all locals hungarians and very very reasonable. My husband was also a builder in Spain and would of been hell of lot more expensive should he have done similar work in Spain. I do have a network of people here that I can now call on and recommend without any hesitation. If any body needs any of these contacts please pm me anytime.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hi Klarika, yes it's the same company. Admittedly the sales service was brilliant, the difficulty came in that the workmen didn't speak a word of English.

Hi Polgardi, we were the same, we have over an acre of land and only use a small part of it. The old farmer who had been using it for years didn't speak to us for months as he thought we were going to use the land. After speaking with him, we now get half a pig from him each year (in return for the use of the land) and his wife regularly sends over cakes and gifts.

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hi Rural - when we come over for a week in Feb one of the first things we aim to do is introduce ourselves to the farmer and neighbours...start how we mean to go on so there are hopefully no misunderstandings :)

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Hello all, with ref to what Rural said the third section of our land is being used by the local farmer as are all properties on our side of the street. Next door neighbours are receiving our share of the yearly goodies I think as they go a bit blank on sign language, but hey ho, we are not living there. Also he has raised 3 pigs last year (without permission)on our second bit and they should have been slaughtered last September. He cuts our grass (for payment) 6 months of the year but has used his pigs to keep the grass down (crafty ehh) so less time cutting. They are nice people certainly not daft when it comes to money and gave us some fruit on our last visit, you cannot go upsetting the neighbours but when hopefully we live there subtle changes will have to be made ;)

Re: Young family considering a move to Lake Balaton area - advice very welcome indeed
 

Oh sorry to hear about your bad encounter with primary school, I used to follow your blog and you seemed happy with the nursery system. I know further up in the school system it is again better.