Cost of living Budapest

Hello,

I am still very fresh in Budapest because I am staying here just 2 mth, but I can tell you a little bit about flat cost. Renting cost for 2 bedroom flat are starting from 100 000 HUF + you neeed to add common costs around 30 000 HUF. About the food I can't say because I am eating mainly in offce canteen and the prices there are different than in normal restaurants or bars.

I hope that it help you

Thanks Formica, that little info on the rent could definitely help me .

Dear Nazeer,
I feel it is decent package for single.I am relocating there shortly.Surely you can manage well.

hello subash,

Good to know .. well when you are planning to move to Budapest ? and what makes you say its a decent amount, would like to know on what basis you said that  ?

Dear Nazeer,
I said on the basis of my visit to that place and the experience i learnt on searching house there.
You can get decent 2 bed house furnished with in 150 Huf ,when two are sharing,good enough.Food and other living charges depend upon your life style.To be lavish nothing is enough and if go for budgeted style,i think one can manage.
I hope i clarified my point.
Subhash

Thanks for briefing your point Subash, i have no clue about this country. So i had to thing twice before i accept this offer. .

Dear Nazeer,
Yes it is your choice,i am writting again as i found i made mistake in saying 150 Huf,sorry it is 150 k i.e 150,000 forints.
It is small nice country little economical than other European countries.If you like you can check the accomodation part at site called alberlet.hu
Good luck
Subhash

Dear Nazeer3d

I would say 350k HUF is a quite nice salary over here. I am happy to help you, but please give me some information what would you like to do? As you probably can imagine your costs are depend on your way of life.

The rents are very different, and the district 6 is not my favourite to live there, as Budapest so small - you will se, I would recommend the district 13 (takes 20 minutes to get to the 6 by public transport) and I would recommend a new builded studio or one bedroom flat for you in a nice area, those are bit more expensive, about 90-120k + common cost with gym and swimming pool in the house, and so (however when I was working as a real estate agent I manage to find studio flats for student in downtown for 60, those were nice enough but for students, so no swimming pool and this kind of things ). If you like I can recommand a nice Rental Agent (my friend) for you (here the tenants don`t pay just the landlords, so it is free for you) or even I can help a little for you in this, on one hand I remember when I was lost in London as I did not have any idea about the boroughs and other hand I can not imagine how difficult it is to manage it in Budapest without help of a local.

About the common costs, it is so much depends on your style. (My friend has 3500HUF electricity bill as she use that saver light bulbs, and has A category washing machine and frideg and so, but my other friend has triple, 10k HUF because she does not.) The mobile phone costs are a bit more expensive than you would expect, but I think you will get a nice contract from your Company and those are specials and cheapers, but have a look on the T-mobile or Vodafone or Telenor websites (lately there are two new services available Blue at the Lidl and the Tesco mobile, so 5 altogether.)

The public transport is best to buy a monthy ticket about 10k HUF, the petrol is 400HUF per litre, the parking is about 300-600HUF per hour, depends on the place of course.

A box of cigarette is 700HUF, a "pint" of beer is 500HUF (of course you can buy much more expensive beer at snobish places, sorry, no offense). What else? Gym monthly ticket avarage is 15kHUF, I have mine now for 13500, and unlimited. The food is also depends on what you do, but I have recently eaten meals in restaurants in downtown and both were 900-1200HUF, soup, dish and dessert, I was surprised though, but also a simple course can be 3500HUF as I had it in the Borsso restaurant recently (which was one of my worst experience ever, don`t go there ). McDonalds meal is about 1500HUF.

Theatre tickets about 3-5kHUF, the cheapest ticket for the Brian Adamas concert is 9kHUF. The Sziget Festival (Sziget means Island anyway) daily ticket is 13kHUF, the weekly is 55kHUF, check it out: http://www.sziget.hu/festival_english, the best European major festival, don`t miss it if you have the chance to go!

Don`t be shy to ask if you are particulary interested in something. I hope that I could help.

First, as the above said, let me clarify that many locals, even with university degree, would gladly accept this salary, including myself (I'd love to live in Bp.). Of course, the real comparison would be with those with similar IT jobs. Anyway, I just saw a statistics according to which the top 10% in per capita income starts around 180 kHUF/month, but not sure if this is absolutely correct (as official salaries are often lower than real ones). This is not the 'rich' but the reasonably well off. 
Assuming, you don't want to save anything, based on my own lifestyle, 1200 EUR would allow you a lifestyle including a rather good (not lavish) flat in a decent neighbourhood (perhaps not with amazing view or in the very centre; personal safety is not a really major issue in Bp. compared with, say, large US cities), decent warm lunch and a few mid-range evening restaurant meals per week and fun nights at the weekend (perhaps not with bottles of expensive champaign and 'friendly' girls - this is also not usual here among those I consider 'normal').
I am not sure if, with the above lifestyle, a car would be easily maintainable from that salary (I don't have one - neither car, nor salary:) but many people with lower salaries manage to maintain a car, but they have family. (I personally would recommend Budapest's good public transport + a foldable bicycle, combined with the occasional taxi ride, the latter costing 4-10 EUR).

A similar university graduate 'young professional' IT job in western Europe would probably pay (nearly) twice as much in absolute numbers, and buy you a slightly better living standard locally (but not necessary better quality of life, since it is not Budapest:-), the difference being bigger if you go 'abroad' for holidays. Or buying plane tickets home.
Differently stated, putting aside, say, 10% of your salary gives you different numbers, even if the local purchasing power is the same (sorry if I'm stating the obvious).

My personal bottom line is, if you are a young professional (still got some time until you have to support a family) and you feel the job would be good for your carrier development, the offered salary should certainly not put you off. In most 'young professional' situations, this aspect seems to me much more important on the long run (also financially) than the salary at present.

I (from Budapest) have been living in Berlin recently and can give a comparison with the German speaking world.
1200 EUR monthly budget in Budapest are comparable to the purchasing power of 1700-1800 EUR in Berlin, and to that of ca. 2000 EUR in Münnich or Vienna, as the latter are more expensive cities. This would be acceptable but not excellent university graduate salaries in these places, e.g. post-doctoral scientists in academic (university) basic research context are paid in this salary range, industry would typically pay more to science/technology graduates. Hence it is certainly enough to enjoy life there, but not to start buying a new Mercedes.

Getting slightly off-topic,  the major life-cost difference between these cities seems to come from rent costs. (In Hungary, most consumer goods are imported, so their prices are similar to that in richer places, while labour is still significantly cheaper). I would say, Berlin has twice the rent costs of Budapest, while Münnich or Vienna are roughly another 25%+ more expensive in this respect. I am estimating that super-expensive London or Paris have at least 3+ times the rents of Bp.
E.g. Paris: living in a shared flat should start at ca. 5-700 EUR p.m. In Oxford, UK, a room in a shared house seems to starts at ca. 3-400 pounds=4-500 EUR, London is still more expensive.(I applied for work in these places, hence I did a bit of search)
In Bp. we were trying to rent out our large 80+ sqm apartment in OK condition at the kind-of-central and kind-of-nice location - at Déli pu. - for roughly 150 kHUF eur all inclusive, which is just like what another comment said.

Based on my experience, I would estimate that a 1200 EUR monthly budget in Budapest is roughly comparable to that of 2500-3500 EUR (~2000-2800 GBP) in London or Paris, as long as you don't leave the country. (Obviously, different lifestyles involve different 'consumer basket', hence give different numbers) But if you go to the non-touristic countryside in Hungary, you get lower prices, but I'm not sure about getting along purely with english.

Uh, I better stop here before it gets even longer...

hello Maria/ fireroller

      Thanks a lot!  for such a detail post ... you guys almost covered everything i had to know about Budapest:p.

@ Maria- Well I'm a guy who likes to live a normal life nothing lavish. So i would prefer living a decent apartment maybe a 2 Bedroom house, one of  my friend would be coming with me ( we gonna work for the same company).  So a Apartment/studio which is within a 30 mins of traveling is good enough for me.Like you said District 13 would be good choice. i could definitely use a local person like your help once i am there. oh yea, I'm not going to shy away if i had to ask a doubt or some in particular lol .its so nice of you to come forward and help who willing to expatriate like me .

Currently I'm negotiating with my employer for a better package, Like Fireroller said it might be just enough to come and live there .. but its not just that, i would like to have a little saving at the end when i am returning back to my country.

Hopefully things go right and i can't wait to live in that beautiful city. Once again Thank you guys..

Yes, 350,000 Forints/month is very enough to live in Budapest. How much will it be after taxes?

Source:Personal experience, i have been living here for 6 years now. I spend about 150K forints/month and live a moderate happy life.

its a net amount/post tax.  hopefully i might end up with a little increase from that amount, if i negotiate.  Anyways its good to know that i can live a decent life in Budapest with that payscale.

Nazeer3d wrote:

its a net amount/post tax.  hopefully i might end up with a little increase from that amount, if i negotiate.  Anyways its good to know that i can live a decent life in Budapest with that payscale.

If it's your take home salary, then you will not just live a decent life but a quite good one. You can rent a very nice apartment for 100K forints/month and remaining you can use on foods, clothes, etc also u can save little money.

Than you can teach me, I would like to have some lessons, how to live happy life from 150K HUF!!! Anyway I am a girl, with hairdressers, cosmetics, and beautician services, maybe this is the secret!

masterboy123 wrote:

Nazeer3d wrote:

its a net amount/post tax.  hopefully i might end up with a little increase from that amount, if i negotiate.  Anyways its good to know that i can live a decent life in Budapest with that payscale.

If it's your take home salary, then you will not just live a decent life but a quite good one. You can rent a very nice apartment for 100K forints/month and remaining you can use on foods, clothes, etc also u can save little money.

hello Maria/ fireroller/ Masterboy123/ Simplyone/ Montvai

Thanks a lot! Detailed information. Very helpful to someone new. You covered everything I wanted to know about Budapest.

Hi All,

I am Hungarian expat living now in Moscow. Maria and Fireroller did an exeptionally good job describing the situation.
I would confirm that the solary is good, up to standards in my experiance (excpats working for international companies like IBM or Oracle). it is a junior salary though, middle mgmt gets twice that much with perks, so go for promotion .

Most expats (in fact all of them) loves to live in Budapest and don't want to leave the country . So, money is one thing but you only have one life to live. I would not plan too far ahead if I were you. With this assignment on your resume you might not return home gut take another assignment somewhere else.
It is important to emphasize what fireroller said that you are good as long as you spend domestically but if you looking for travel outside of Hun it might hit your budget hard.

About the rent comparrison... Paris and London might be expensive, but in Moscow 350K HUF just enough for the rent (1 bedroom, 55 sqm, city skirt not center, fully equipped). In budapest I lived in a garzon and spent no more than 120K / month including everything, all expenses. OK, I lived a modest life, I still do, but don't compromize on necessities.

So, good luck!