Getting a mortgage in Hungary as a Non-Eu citizen

Sorry,I don't have any real answers for you, only questions.
2 year work contract without a commitment beyond that from your job and you want to get a loan to buy property, why would you want to do that?
You must own property in Hungary now for at least 5 years or pay out a steep capital gains tax when you sell.
We paid cash for our flat although I would of loved to have bought something in another district or a  different sort of set up.
Never wanted to get into loans with banks over here even though my husband is a HU citizen. There is no such thing as going bankrupt here, they will go after you till your death bed and beyond to collect on any contracts you sign.
2 years flies by very fast, maybe you should go about landing a more stable job before thinking of being here long term, just saying, good luck.

Side note, it is allot harder to qualify for loans in Hungary then say in the US, they even have cut off limits due to age and other issues.
If you don't pay it back, they will come after your great-grandchildren to be repaid.

Hi,
I have an Undefined working contract, just my residence permit is 2 years for now, but it's automatically renewed if i want to stay

Malimigena wrote:

What i dont have is a Lakcimkartya(address card) but just a white paper with the address in it, but for the Bank is not enough.

Ask the immigration office if you can obtain a Lakcimkartya.

You can also try different banks, there are several FYI...

I think you're up against it.  There was a major issue a while back with Swiss Franc mortgages and lots of defaulters.  Despite stating the obvious - the property secures the loan - some banks aren't that keen on loaning to anyone who is relatively mobile where they'd have to repossess the property, e.g. can just clear off anytime and doesn't have  the links back here like family.  There's also I believe no personal bankruptcy law - you owe forever and cannot get the loan written off but they have to find you. It is going to be tough involving a HU bank.   Some HU banks are in receipt of state aid and had to be rescued in past years.  When I tried it was about 8 years ago and in the end I gave up trying to get a mortgage here in Hungary and made alternative arrangements. I don't know the current situation.

Of course there is personal bankruptcy, search for "magáncsőd".

For any significant loan you basically have to be fixed geographically. The 2 year residence permit will be a major obstacle, as on a normal wage, one cant pay back a serious loan in that timeframe.

The residence card is made at the local government office. You have to have the following documents for it (this is for the 11th district, but the requirements are universal):
http://kozigazgatas.ujbuda.hu/kozerdeku … ugyintezes
-signed contract by the owner of your home, that you actually live there
-Passport or ID card

Rawlee wrote:

Of course there is personal bankruptcy, search for "magáncsőd"....

Ok,  my info is out of date.  So yes, there is one.....now.   I would say "of course" doesn't fit here as these are recent events.

Looks like the Hungarian Personal Bankruptcy Act was passed 2015  and came into force September in 2015 or 2016.

Hungary has taken many years to put that in place - was always was an anomaly.  Never understood why that wasn't put in place in HU when HU joined the EU. 

I suspect it was not put in place because of the housing loans in Swiss Francs and an predictable subsequent collapse of HU banks if all the mortgagees declared bankruptcy.

News to us too, didn't know you could file for bankruptcy in Hungary,.
Still my husband also mentioned  the Swiss Franc fiasco.
I have heard if you are a HU citizen and make a promise to have a child or two or many it was even 3 within a certain time frame of about 5 yeas, the HU gov. will actually give you 10 million forints towards buying your first home or apt. You can also get a low interest loan for another 10 million under the same plan.
Don't know any takers personally but that is a sort of solution to the low population in Hungary.
Told my son maybe he should move back to HU and have some kids...
Good luck with it, maybe buying something and even later renting it out would be a positive cash flow in the future even if you leave Hungary when your job is done here.
Maybe you might even want to find a nice little HU lady and settle down here, no need for a large loan if you plan on having a family and living in Hungary.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

News to us too, didn't know you could file for bankruptcy in Hungary,.
....I have heard if you are a HU citizen and make a promise to have a child or two or many it was even 3 within a certain time frame of about 5 yeas, the HU gov. will actually give you 10 million forints towards buying your first home or apt. You can also get a low interest loan for another 10 million under the same plan....Don't know any takers personally but that is a sort of solution to the low population in Hungary. Told my son maybe he should move back to HU and have some kids...

There's a twist there Marilyn - you get money for 2 kids but not 3.  It's as though the 3rd and other ones are punished with no subsidy.  I have no idea what the rationale for 2 vs 3 is although presumably it's breakeven point for slow (?) population growth. I'd have thought it was as many as possible to average it out against the no-kids people. 

Some very odd policy people here with some hard to follow logic.

That is actually incorrect. you get like 2,5 million for 2 kids, and 10 million for 3 kids.
https://www.mkb.hu/lakossagi/hitelek/la … menye-csok

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

News to us too, didn't know you could file for bankruptcy in Hungary,.
Still my husband also mentioned  the Swiss Franc fiasco.
I have heard if you are a HU citizen and make a promise to have a child or two or many it was even 3 within a certain time frame of about 5 yeas, the HU gov. will actually give you 10 million forints towards buying your first home or apt. You can also get a low interest loan for another 10 million under the same plan.
Don't know any takers personally but that is a sort of solution to the low population in Hungary.
Told my son maybe he should move back to HU and have some kids...
Good luck with it, maybe buying something and even later renting it out would be a positive cash flow in the future even if you leave Hungary when your job is done here.
Maybe you might even want to find a nice little HU lady and settle down here, no need for a large loan if you plan on having a family and living in Hungary.

http://index.hu/gazdasag/2017/07/28/mar … nyeltunk/#

136billion HUF of this subsidy was given out by the end of july. That means 13600 families of 5, or even more if only families of 4 is counted.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Looks like the Hungarian Personal Bankruptcy Act was passed 2015

Yes, it is new. It seems, to my confused reading, the law is leans more towards restructuring most of the debt which still is to be paid to the creditor. But IANAL, so I really don't know.

http://www.lawyerissue.com/the-hungaria … uptcy-act/

And very few have tried or succeeded, it seems, especially given how many people are probably in need of bankruptcy relief.

https://dailynewshungary.com/far-980-fi … y-hungary/

fluffy2560 wrote:

I suspect it was not put in place because of the housing loans in Swiss Francs and an predictable subsequent collapse of HU banks if all the mortgagees declared bankruptcy.

Seems so, from the above lawyerissue.com link: one of the debts must be from a consumer loan agreement or an agreement financing the debtor's private business

But again, IANAL.

klsallee wrote:

.....
Seems so, from the above lawyerissue.com link: one of the debts must be from a consumer loan agreement or an agreement financing the debtor's private business

But again, IANAL.

Me neither a lawyer.   

From that snippet - and I didn't read the links - sounds a bit limited on the sources of debt - i.e. not mortgages - unless that's private business and a mistranslation. 

Again, perhaps protection of the banks.  I would have thought this would cover any sources of debt including debt to government.   

It seems unusual that a  "developed" country would have a very restrictive personal bankruptcy law - there should be some relief from debt.

I didn't read the link on bankruptcy law in Hungary either.
If it doesn't help out with the big ticket items like a mortgage then many people are still going to run into trouble if they should lose their job or have some other big issues in life.
We had a mortgage in the 80's for our home, neither of us like owning anyone a thing, never again have we ever borrowed any money from a bank or loan shark. cash and carry all the way.
It is far too easy to use credit as a crutch and before long one realizes they are in over their heads, interest eats them alive and it takes years to pay back the balance.
I miss my nice big S. Ca. home but paying off the loan in cash was a great feeling, nothing better then not having to work to pay for things you have already bought.
I often see so many young people using cards in the grocery stores, it is rather sad.
One day a young many was using his card for a 5,000 F purchase of food, his first card didn't work , nor his second card, he just left it all and walked out empty handed.
For a split moment my husband and I looked at each other like we both were about to suggest we would just buy the food for him but on second thought seeing candy bars and snacks were what he wanted to buy mostly we decided to do him a favor and not let him purchase junk food.
I do think however if it was a young family in need, we would of footed the 5 er for them, sad when people must use a card to buy food.
Maybe they wasted on new cell phones or whatever though, never know many people live like there is no tomorrow and don't worry about paying their own way.
Guess we come from the generation where no one helped us out and we never applied for a credit card for many, many years. gave them all up on Dec. 31 1999. No more cards for us, it is a free feeling to know you owe no one anything.

Why do you think bank cards are all credit cards? There is no difference between a debit and credit card here. Most people have debit cards, as personal loans dont work like commercial loans. Commercial loans go into negative balance, while personal loans are represented as a plus sum you receive.

His card was rejected most likely because the daily/transaction limit has been exhausted, because poor people dont go around buying junk food.

Poor people don't buy junk food? Guess you never saw the shopping cart of a EBT shopper.
Why all the negativity, anyways... We were going to spring for his lunch of snacks.
Don't people have to pay a fee to use debit cards? I really do not know.

Rawlee wrote:

There is no difference between a debit and credit card here.

Not correct. Even in Hungary a debit card debits what is on your bank account. While a credit line allows someone access to money they do not have with a promise to pay it back in the future (normally monthly to avoid fees and interest). And a personal credit line is not a "plus sum" in one's account. It is just an amount one can draw off (i.e. borrow from the bank) when and if needed (ergo, the interest and fees if you do not pay it back when your monthly statement arrives -- which banks hope you don't so they can charge you interest at a ridiculously insane APR).

For example: https://www.raiffeisen.hu/web/fwr-en/account-bankcards

It is simply that debit cards come with most bank accounts, while it is difficult to get a credit line and a credit card in Hungary. Unlike in the USA, for example, where credit companies throw credit cards at people.

I meant that they are not in any way special cards, they are like normal cards, even the account behind them is a normal account.

As I explained, a credit on an account is essentially a large sum the bank transfers to your account. You cant get an account that can go into the negative for personal usage (I have not heard of such anyway).

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Don't people have to pay a fee to use debit cards? I really do not know.

There are many kinds of taxes and fees associated with bank accounts. But while the law gives the employee the option of choice, the company will generally pay in the form it receives its income in.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Poor people don't buy junk food? Guess you never saw the shopping cart of a EBT shopper.

People on EBT receive it in such form that they cant be spent on everything. For example, it cant be spent on alcohol or tobacco. Poor people I know spend it on lower quality meat ("párizsi") or low quality bread, but not on junk food like McD or chips.

Rawlee wrote:

I meant that they are not in any way special cards, they are like normal cards, even the account behind them is a normal account..

There's a difference in the way they are treated at the bank even if they appear the same in format.   The regulations governing these payment types are also different.  So the similarities are relatively superficial where the background processing is concerned.

Obviously credit cards are borrowing instruments, can incur interest but they do not have to have an individual's bank account associated with them.  Credit cards are settled on a longer cycle than debit cards.   

Debit cards have a drawn down limit on the associated account (usually this is uploaded to the card processor daily). Any amounts are settled within a day or so according to the payment processors update cycle - this is the same as ATMs as these are not actually serviced by the bank but by contract ATM companies.   These days of connectivity, a direct check is possible on an debit capable account to check on the available balance for debit card draw down.

There are also charge cards (i.e. American Express) which are not debit or credit cards - there's no borrowing - the card account is settled in full each cycle.

Rawlee wrote:

As I explained, a credit on an account is essentially a large sum the bank transfers to your account.

This is just incorrect when dealing with credit lines and credit cards. As fluffy2560 already described.