Property prices in Hungary

anns wrote:

quaint woodburning stoves only last a season or two

I have been heating with wood for most of my adult life. And I can say that an average wood burning stove purchased in Hungary for between 60-100 K HUF should last at least a decade without problems (our first 60,000 HUF stove did, and its 80,000 HUF replacement shows no sign yet of problems after 7 years). If a stove lasts less than that, either the stove was defective (get a refund -- you are probably covered under the typical EU warranty period), or the stove was abused (burning wood not seasoned for at least one or (and better) two years, tossing in logs and breaking the liner, over firing, chimney issues, etc.). 

You do not have to believe me. Feel free to get independent views from the folks over at hearth.com.

anns wrote:

insects and wasps like to chew the place up over the summer

Some preventative action you can take:

http://www.wasps.net/chewing-wood/wasp-deck-damage.html

Funny about using one room at a time, my husband says the same thing about shoes, how many pairs can a women wear at once!
Just "tripping" thinking about selling the city apt. and going country, a nice little house in a village that was kept up with only a few things to do  such as
doing nearly nothing.
Maybe a very small yard for growing a few flowers or whatever, nothing too big that will take up all my time.
I would love it if my son could come over, could support him and his wife for awhile but not exactly the best thing to make a young person depend on their seniors for support.
Maybe, just maybe if they both had serious plans on going to language school for a year or two then off they go... I don't mind being someone's back up but not sure I want to make anyone depend on me, resentments and disappointments always happen.
My son has worked before he was of age, he wanted to, I would never wish to make him weak by depending on us full time for support.
He enjoys taking care of his wife and I would hate to take that away from him.
Of course if we kick it, all our worldly junk his his to do whatever with.

klsallee wrote:

....I look at it this way. Why have a huge house? No one can be in more than one room at a time. So all the other rooms are, at that time, just being wasted. 

I dunno, we could all live large rooms with multiple beds but if you have kids, everyone will  eventually want and need privacy and to do their own thing.  It's just natural to have ones own space.  In our kids case, in their own mess, in their own rooms where at least we can all shut our own doors when we want to.

I think it's OK to have some stuff so long as it's very specific stuff and not junk - carefully chosen. Or have room for hobbies (in my case, fixing my car).  Cannot do that kind of thing in a tiny house (many of them look like glorified or adapted sheds).

Unless this is just downsizing in which case, then sure, I'd say smaller but not really tiny.

My son lives in a large house with 2  extra bedrooms, a loft area and a full bathroom that he never uses.
Plenty of space for us for when we visit him every other year or so.
I think it is such a waste for him to have all that extra room and pay for it when it is barely used.
Of course having kids in the house is a different story.
We always had 4 bedroom homes when I grew up but they were always way too small for the 8 of us, someone always had to share a room.
It's all what one gets used to, when I met my HU husband I told him my "sad tale" of having to sometimes share a bedroom with one of my sisters.
He just looked right through me like I was crazy, said how would you like sharing one room with your whole family of 5! That's how it was for him in the old days in HU.
The good thing about him growing up in such crowded conditions is he could have a band walk into a room and still be able to read or write without even noticing he wasn't alone.

fluffy2560 wrote:

klsallee wrote:

....I look at it this way. Why have a huge house? No one can be in more than one room at a time. So all the other rooms are, at that time, just being wasted. 

I dunno, we could all live large rooms with multiple beds but if you have kids, everyone will  eventually want and need privacy and to do their own thing.

Ah, but what you said and what I said are actually syngentic. If everyone is in their rooms, then "every" room is being used.

I was referring to those cases when it was not physically possible to use every room. Like a single person living in a 3 bedroom house/apartment. 

fluffy2560 wrote:

I think it's OK to have some stuff so long as it's very specific stuff and not junk - carefully chosen. Or have room for hobbies (in my case, fixing my car).

Sure. But fixing cars most people do in a garage. I do not consider a garage part of the house, even if it is attached to the house. To me, houses are where people live, not cars. 

But added to that, of course a hobby or "man cave" can be a room to my definition above. After all, if the wife is in the couples bedroom, and the husband in the man cave, still means total room use. So that room count is fine. To not be misogynistic, of course the wife can have her non-bedroom room too as an addendum to my "rule".

fluffy2560 wrote:

Cannot do that kind of thing in a tiny house (many of them look like glorified or adapted sheds).  Unless this is just downsizing in which case, then sure, I'd say smaller but not really tiny.

I think you may have a wrong impression about what is a "tiny house". But, no problem, because so do I  . That is, if it is on wheels, it is to me not a house, it is a trailer. In other words, a trailer can certainly be a home, but not a house. Unfortunately (in my opinion) the "tiny house movement" does not make that distinction. I prefer this definition from smallhousebliss.com:

1 bedroom houses up to 800 ft2 / 75 m2, 2 bedroom houses up to 1,100 ft2 / 100 m2 and 3 bedroom houses up to 1,300 ft2 / 120 m2.

klsallee wrote:

....
Ah, but what you said and what I said are actually syngentic. If everyone is in their rooms, then "every" room is being used.

Well, not necessary using it but having it available.   I suppose that's the purpose of an oversized place - paying for the space to be available if it's needed.

klsallee wrote:

I was referring to those cases when it was not physically possible to use every room. Like a single person living in a 3 bedroom house/apartment.

Oh, well, this is a problem in some countries - my own included - there's never any space to put anything as bedrooms are tiny, often too small to even fit a wardrobe (closet).  Usually two people in a 3 bed use the smallest bedroom to store their junk.   So they are using it but not occupying.  Actually that leads me to say we had quite a difficult job persuading our builders to make sure the attic/roof space was suitable to use as a storage area - complete with lighting and power.  I was thinking of putting stuff like empty suitcases up there - bulky but light.  No-one ever thinks about their storage needs. 

klsallee wrote:

...But added to that, of course a hobby or "man cave" can be a room to my definition above. After all, if the wife is in the couples bedroom, and the husband in the man cave, still means total room use. So that room count is fine. To not be misogynistic, of course the wife can have her non-bedroom room too as an addendum to my "rule".

What's the women's equivalent of a "man cave"?  Woman cave?  Nah, that's not right, woman's wigwam....open to suggestions...I'm actually in need of a solution for that now. We're currently terming it "the office".

I didn't know small homes actually had a definition.  I thought it was just whatever one thought it was.

I grew up in a house that was far too big for us but it was in a dilapidated condition so all the girls  shared a large bedroom and I felt sorry for my youngest brother who had to be on his own.
Being older and somewhat sexist I really don't mind if the men in my life dominate garages,  sheds and other storage areas and clog the space up with tools and what they consider to be stuff that becomes useful after time. Also,  especially in the hungarian countryside,  all my male visitors are forever reorganising the sheds.
One thing I have noticed though is that all my female friends do tend to dominate wardrobe storage married or not. I keep tons of winter clothing and have clogged up my spare room with it all so my visitors have to hang their stuff behind doors.
Now that I have less work pressures I would love to have an area where I could put my sewing machine out and even have a small loom. Art work also requires more space and when I lived in a tiny flat in the uk I had to restrict my style and do small  watercolours. It seems greedy but I prefer not to be minimalist which is the great thing about Hungarian properties because they tend to be fairly generous compared to modern UK homes.

fluffy2560 wrote:

What's the women's equivalent of a "man cave"?  Woman cave?  Nah, that's not right, woman's wigwam....open to suggestions..

Well, I was struggling with that too. So left it amorphous. And up to each person to define.

But, if anyone really, really, really wants to know, in our house, it is called the Situation Room..... (look it up  )

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

What's the women's equivalent of a "man cave"?  Woman cave?  Nah, that's not right, woman's wigwam....open to suggestions..

Well, I was struggling with that too. So left it amorphous. And up to each person to define.

But, if anyone really, really, really wants to know, in our house, it is called the Situation Room..... (look it up  )

Wow, Situation Room is an interesting term.   We've got a situation with the Fluffyettes.  We could get away with Office when it was just Mrs Fluffy and myself but now we've got the Fluffyettes I can only think to call it the Family Room except it isn't as it's our home office where we have desks, printers etc.  We do not even know where to put the TV.  Mrs Fluffy and I rarely watch it except for streaming YouTube and so on for the kids.

Situation room is a great term.
Wigwam, not sure if that is PC or not.
My mom was 1/4th Mohawk and I still remember every so often my dad would tell us to leave the entire house since she was on the "war path"!
Often we all had to leave the house so that being said I think the entire home belongs to the women/wife or female in the family, Of course that is an old Mohawk tradition, the men only owned their bows and weapons, everything in the long houses belonged to the oldest female in the family.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Situation room is a great term.
Wigwam, not sure if that is PC or not.

I forgot about your association with the Mohawk nation.  It possibly wasn't the most PC thing to post here so sorry about that if I put my foot in it (as I often do). 

I was actually thinking of hippies living in wigwams or teepees in a "new age" kind of way and of course, it began with W  (women's wigwam) so suited my literary purpose.

I shall pass Situation Room idea on to Mrs Fluffy.  Maybe she can give me a Sit Rep on the Sit Room.

Hey, no offense taken at all.
I sometimes am the most  un PC person around, other times I get on my high horse.
All in good fun.
Being half Polish, I have taken my fair share of abuse over the years... Those darn Polish jokes!

Hi, I am looking into buying a winehouse near Zalaszentgrót. It is 45m/sq with 1000m/sq garden. It is priced at 1,600,000HUF. Is this a fair price?

AdrianWHM wrote:

Hi, I am looking into buying a winehouse near Zalaszentgrót. It is 45m/sq with 1000m/sq garden. It is priced at 1,600,000HUF. Is this a fair price?

This is a new thing for expats as until recently foreigners were not allowed to buy these properties, due to their classification as agricultural. That seems to be about the going rate but it is hard to judge  price without knowing more about  a property.
Has it got electricity and water? what is the condition of the building and are there any properties nearby that are lived in all year round. There is not much crime in Hungary but I would feel vulnerable in a place with no neighbours, out of season.

AdrianWHM wrote:

Hi, I am looking into buying a winehouse near Zalaszentgrót. It is 45m/sq with 1000m/sq garden. It is priced at 1,600,000HUF. Is this a fair price?

Sounds far away.  Does it have any services? 

Mains water, gas, electricity, main drainage?  I would expect not. Perhaps electricity.  Maybe a well.

If you are thinking about building a house, you will probably only be allowed to have a house of 5% land area, which explains the 45m2 building.   That's because it's agricultural.

AdrianWHM wrote:

Hi, I am looking into buying a winehouse near Zalaszentgrót. It is 45m/sq with 1000m/sq garden. It is priced at 1,600,000HUF. Is this a fair price?

First consider there is not much in Zalaszentgrót. And it is at least a 30 km drive to anywhere interesting.

Otherwise, it is difficult to answer your question as stated, because there are too many issues at play. For example, most so called "Winehouse" are in poor repair and will need renovation. They were never really intended for anything but short living periods to "tend the wine". Even if renovated, they often have wet walls, which is difficult to fully correct, especially if the wall construction is "mud". Tear down and rebuild may make more sense in some cases. Also, does the house have water? Power? Not all such Winehouses do. Later is important, as per a new law, if you legally renovate such properties, and if it does not have a sewage line connection (and few, if any do) you often have to install a new type of septic treatment device (which requires power to run). Would need quite a bit of information about this property to really answer this question.

It's always a matter of taste and finance.  I'm lucky because my apartment was larger than I had expected.  And at the time it was perfect for me. At the end of the day it's up to me what I decide to spend my wages on.

Unfortunately prices have gone up since 2013 & I couldn't afford my place now. I like to have a lot of space for visitors to come and stay and for my many hobbies and work. I could also decide to share if I wished.
Nice apartments are one of the good features of the city.
  I love my huge kitchen diner and last summer I had eight people staying over at the same time and could have had a few, more.  In Dorset I only had a twirl around kitchen and tiny bedrooms but it was all I could afford at the time.
Personally I hate feeling cooped up and I  like to be sociable.
Recently property developers have been making apartments smaller in Budapest and those small places suit some people very well so I suppose they are the homes of the future.

In the countryside there seems to be much more variation in pricing.  Although I purchased a little holiday home an hours drive outside of Budapest quite successfully  I would advise anybody to seek as much local advice as possible because some buildings have never been classified as residential.

Looking at your post. Good reading and advice. I am architect and this is one reason I came here and bought Flat In Budapest. Have you had experience hiring people like painters, carpenters in the inner city or do you know of people that come from the country to work in the city? Any advice you can give me would be great. I do not speak Hungarian which I know is a big negative. Only thing I have is google translate. Funny I know but wanting to learn Hungarian as I plan on living here and travel through Europe making Budapest my central departure and return location rather than to fly back to the US.
Thank you and have a great weekend

Ed

Ebowens111 wrote:

Looking at your post. Good reading and advice. I am architect and this is one reason I came here and bought Flat In Budapest. Have you had experience hiring people like painters, carpenters in the inner city or do you know of people that come from the country to work in the city? Any advice you can give me would be great. I do not speak Hungarian which I know is a big negative. Only thing I have is google translate. Funny I know but wanting to learn Hungarian as I plan on living here and travel through Europe making Budapest my central departure and return location rather than to fly back to the US.
Thank you and have a great weekend

Ed

We've got plenty of experience with these people as we've been building a house.  Mrs Fluffy is Hungarian and without her, we could never have managed. You need someone to help you with this stuff.   Recently she seems to be hiring people from a web site where people are rated (bit like Ebay or Tripadvisor but for workers - I'd have to ask her).

I play almost no part in the hiring except paying the people.  Everyone we had from that web site has been pretty good.  But we've only ever found one person who was actually able to speak English to a good competent level.  We did find some people who spoke German but it was quite basic and we only found out they spoke German at the end of the work.

Ebowens111 wrote:

Only thing I have is google translate.

I agree with fluffy. That is not enough.

It is not just the language. It is the culture.

You can explain all you want about what you want done. The Hungarian will nod and seem to agree with you. But they are actually thinking for you all that time. And they often seem to think they need to "protect" you from your "wrong" ideas, and so they will do what they think should really be done, which is something different. Seriously. I am not joking. Had it happen. Many times. I know other expats who have experienced it. I even mentioned it my testimonial here at https://www.expat.com.