Budapest Real Estate Is A Rising Star

Now is the time to consider purchasing property in historic Budapest, Hungary. With the highest rate of outside investment in Central Europe, Budapest is a rising star in the international real estate market. It may come as a surprise to learn that the Budapest property market currently offers an outstanding selection of affordable homes, apartments, condominiums and luxury estates.

Whether you’re interested in purchasing a family residence or investing in a rental property, selecting a knowledgeable agent or realtor is the best way to get started. Have you ever dreamed of living along the celebrated Danube River? West of the Danube you will find the stately hills of Buda, but when you cross over the river you enter Pest and the beginning of a great plain. Wherever you go in Budapest, the people and culture are undeniably authentic. Budapest has a well deserved reputation for being the most beautiful city in Central Europe. An eclectic blend of baroque and neoclassical architecture sets the stage for old world cooking, lively taverns, fragrant gardens and steamy Turkish baths. Take a stroll along the Duna Korzó Embankment as pleasure boats sail the romantic Blue Danube. The capital city of Hungary is delightful in every way.

 
The available inventory of Budapest real estate includes every type of property imaginable. There are many luxury houses, penthouses and villas to consider. Perhaps you would prefer a flat near public transportation or the abundant nightlife of downtown Budapest. Maybe a spacious apartment near Lake Balaton or another upscale neighborhood would be more to your liking. The area even has an abundance of very affordable countryside estates and villas. The Budapest real estate market also features many attractive investment properties and vacation homes.

You can learn all the details when you contact a qualified real estateprofessional like us. You will learn everything you need to know concerning the various districts that comprise the city of Budapest. You’ll learn the best ways of obtaining a mortgage and transferring money to Hungary. You will become knowledgeable about emerging real estate markets and the return on investment that you can expect to earn from investment properties. Be sure to ask about properties in the vicinity of Margit Island, the most extensive green park in the city. The park is conveniently located near the Blue Metro Line and one of the largest shopping areas in Europe. So why not browse our selected listings of Budapest properties?

New shopping mall opens in dowtown Budapest in 2012

Previously the home of the Budapest Stock Exchange, this wonderful piece of property will now be “Hungary’s most beautiful shopping center” as developers claim.

The building truly is a masterpiece. Built between 1911 and 1915 based on the plans of Ignác Alpár, it was first used by the First Savings Bank of Pest, then later the Budapest Stock Exchange. The building became part of the UNESCO world heritage in 1933, and it is considered a national monument.




The building has been renovated according to the plans of Christian Biecher French architect; the works have been done by ORCO development company.




Now it will serve as a shopping center in the heart of Budapest, focusing on fashion and designer brands, but a few restaurants are rumored to be placed in the project, as well.
The property is located at the beginning of Vaci street on Vörösmarty square, the most popular pedestrian area of Budapest, where other 5 star hotels, high-end stores, the famous Gerbeaud-confectionary, and the Christmas markets can all be found.
If you'd like live around it, I happen to know a couple of luxury apartments for rent in Budapest, some them right around the area.

Home sales boosted by mortgage scheme in Hungary

As it was expected, the early repayment scheme for foreign-currency mortgages boosted Hungarian real estate sales in December last year, according to estate agency Duna House.

They say more than 8700 properties in Hungary were sold in December which is 35% more than the monthly average in 2011, and an estimated one-third of these were due to forced sales.
As the scheme allows transactions to be completed in January 2012, too, it is also expected to be a busy month for the real estate market in Hungary.
The overall home sales in Hungary for 2011 are estimated to be around 80,500, which is down more than 10% from 2010.

Via Xpatloop

Quotes and thoughts on real estate

“Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.”
Andrew Carnegie

“It’s tangible, it’s solid, it’s beautiful. It’s artistic, from my standpoint, and I just love real estate.”
Donald Trump

DISCLAIMER: I do not agree with or like all of the quotations listed below about real estate and property. I publish these here for various reasons- they made me think, they made me laugh, or they are just simply worth considering and pondering about.
Enjoy.

“Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.”
Andrew Carnegie

“It’s tangible, it’s solid, it’s beautiful. It’s artistic, from my standpoint, and I just love real estate.”
Donald Trump

“A man complained that [on] his way home to dinner he had every day to pass through that long field of his neighbor’s.  I advised him to buy it, and it would never seem long again.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Landlords grow rich in their sleep.”
John Stuart Mill

“Buying real estate is not only the best way, the quickest way, the safest way, but the only way to become wealthy.”
Marshall Field

“Every person who invests in well-selected real estate in a growing section of a prosperous community adopts the surest and safest method of becoming independent, for real estate is the basis of wealth.”
Theodore Roosevelt

“Real estate cannot be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away. Purchased with common sense, paid for in full, and managed with reasonable care, it is about the safest investment in the world.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Real estate is at the core of almost every business, and it's certainly at the core of most people's wealth. In order to build your wealth and improve your business smarts, you need to know about real estate.”
Donald Trump

“Everyone wants a piece of land. It's the only sure investment. It can never depreciate like a car or a washing machine. Land will double its value in ten years. In less than that. Land is going up every day.”
Sam Shepard

“Golf courses sell real estate and that's why they're built.”
Ed McMahon

“Now, one thing I tell everyone is learn about real estate. Repeat after me: real estate provides the highest returns, the greatest values and the least risk.“
Armstrong Williams
“No man but feels more of a man in the world if he have a bit of ground that he can call his own.  However small it is on the surface, it is four thousand miles deep; and that is a very handsome property.“
Charles Dudley Warner
“If property had simply pleasures, we could stand it; but its duties make it unbearable.  In the interest of the rich we must get rid of it.“
Oscar Wilde

“I told my mother-in-law that my house was her house, and she said, "Get the hell off my property."
Joan Rivers

“I've never lived in a building without my name on it.”
Ivanka Trump

“I made a tremendous amount of money on real estate. I'll take real estate rather than go to Wall Street and get 2.8 percent. Forget about it.”
Ivana Trump

"It is a comfortable feeling to know that you stand on your own ground. Land is about the only thing that can't fly away."
Anthony Trollope

“Don’t wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait.”
Will Rogers

“I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house.”
Zsa Zsa Gabor

5+1 tips to rent (or sell) your property this fall/winter season

 As temperatures dip, and leaves fall with the promise of winter ahead, real estate sales and rentals also cool with weather. But even in Budapest, Hungary, with a market that’s hitting bottom now, if you’re looking to sell or rent, not everything is lost.

Now, you may ask, with the incredible abundance of properties for sale and for rent alike, how do you plan to make your property go? Well, it is certainly not easy, and you can complain about the impossible market, but have you done the necessary steps to make your flat or house more compelling than the others? Here’s what you need to do to set your property apart from the competition:

1. Lighten up: fall is a time of less natural light, which as we all know, is the most important weapon against “winter blues”.  Now, you don’t want to cause your potential buyers or tenants to get a seasonal affective disorder just by entering your home, so make sure there’s enough light when you’re showing. Always open all the blinds and curtains, and turn on the lights on dark areas of the apartment such as corridors or pantries. If you can, try to schedule the showing at an hour when there’s still daylight, or, even better, if you can get lucky and show it on a sunny day, your home is almost sold.

2. Warm it up: one of the major turn-offs for buyers or renters is a cold apartment or house, and they won’t give the property the chance it deserves. By spending a little extra money on heating it up before showing and therefore making your home warm and inviting goes a long way. One important advice, though: don’t overdo it. When your prospective clients enter all bundled up in their winter coats, the last thing you want is to make them is sweat. I’d say keeping the temperature around 19-20 Celsius degrees would be perfect.

3. Maintain landscaping: While flowers aren’t exactly flourishing in this time of the year, there are several ways to make your home nicer and more appealing. If your property is a house, or in a small condo with a garden, make sure the grass is cut once a week, and pay special attention to clearing the leaves before the showing.

4. Move if you can: inhabited properties are always much harder to rent or to sell. This has several reasons, one of which is that most people have a hard time (meaning completely unable to) imagine a flat or a house without all the owner’s furniture and/or personal belongings in it. So move out of the apartment if you can, but at least hide all the personal belongings you can. The more neutral you make the place, the bigger the chance of renting or selling quickly.  

5. Make nice photos: taking simple but effective and nice shots of your property is essential. Think about it: when you start advertising your real estate, what is the first thing people will look at and decide if they’re interested at all? Exactly. The photos of the property you’re offering. So why not spend a little more time on making it as good as possible. I advise you get or borrow a good camera, because no matter how good your smart phone is, it’s not going to take the same quality pictures as a device specifically designed for taking photographs. Wait for a nice sunny day, make the bed, organize your house, get some fresh flowers, and start taking those shots. You can even enhance them on your computer pretty easily with circa the 3,000 software that’s out there, but be careful: if you overdo it, and lie too much about your real estate, people will be disappointed when they come and see the reality.

5 + 1. Pricing: Know the saying about the 3 most important factors in real estate? “Location, location, location”. There’s another 3 right here, when you actually want to sell or rent: “Pricing, pricing, pricing”. It cannot be emphasized enough that an overpriced real estate will sit empty for a long time, so it is imperative that you price your property reasonably. It is not an easy task, but if you’re uncertain, you can always  ask a real estate agent for an approximate price, or have an appraiser look at your apartment for a more accurate estimate.  

Obligatory "green card" for rental properties?

From January 2012 , residential property owners who wish to rent their properties in Hungary will be obliged to provide an energy efficiency certificate, also known as “green card” for their real estate.  

Sellers of properties have been required to provide this certificate since 2009, now it is time to go for the landlords, government reckons. Now owners who wish to rent their properties will be obliged to acquire and present the certificate to the renter before signing the contract. The certificate will need to be provided by an auditor, who, of course, for a small fee, will examine condition of the doors and windows, insulation, walls, and energy efficiency of the heating system of the property. After that, they calculate the energy consumption of the real estate and give it a rating from “A+” to “I”.  To comply with the regulations and to be called an “energy saving home”, the property has to achieve category “C”.

Properties that have a base area smaller than 50 sqm are exempt from this ruling.

So another serious time consuming and bureaucratic nightmare awaits property owners, but truth be told, this might be good news for the tenants: they do not have to rely any more on the words of the landlord when trying to guesstimate the prices of expected utilities, especially that of the heating bill.  It could also be beneficial to the owners, however, since a good certificate would increase the value and therefore it might affect the rental price of the property.

Now, Hungary would not be the incredibly successful and widely respected country as it is, if it didn’t have a loophole in every ruling. This is exactly the case here, too: providing this certificate is only required when the rental period is defined as more than one year long.

I wonder if we’ll ever see a contract for 13 months or more again…

You can check for more details on the site of the Chamber of Hungarian Architects (all in Hungarian).

Invitation to Property Investment Forum 2011 Budapest

I cordially invite you to the 7th Portfolio.hu Property Investment Forum 2011, the annual meet of leading real estate professionals, developers, investors, bankers, agencies, and other players in the industry. The conference will be held on 8th November, 2011, in the RaM Colosseum, Budapest, Hungary. According portfolio.hu, this annual meeting has become the largest real estate conference in Central-Eastern-Europe in the past five years. 

You can read more about this at our Budapest real estate website.