Are you happy in Hungary?

Agreed 

Is there anyway to ignore a user posts?

There's someone that posts ramblings in nearly every thread and it'd be nice to not see these anymore.

TIA

I'm not happy in Hungary but I mainly blame myself. I feel isolated because I have failed dismally in my attempts to learn Hungarian and I hardly ever meet anyone who speaks English.  There is a lot I still like and appreciate about Hungary and the Hungarians  but it's not the right place for me.

It is sad that you are unhappy.
Is there any possibility that you can make a move? 
I love  Budapest because there is less of a language barrier and more interesting things to do.  But I also enjoy the solitude of the countryside and being able to garden. But I already realise that in a few years I will want to garden less.

However, I have come to the conclusion that I will always have a home in Hungary because I love my apartment and it is so central to travel, I will probably make a move to a more English speaking country when I am older.  I would also like to live near a nice beach again in a more consistently warmer climate.
Life is too short to be unhappy for any prolonged period of time.

I do understand how the language barrier can directly affect happiness.
When I am in Bp on a more regular basis, I'd be happy to do my best to share what I know about the language...

anns wrote:

It is sad that you are unhappy.
Is there any possibility that you can make a move? 
  I would also like to live near a nice beach again in a more consistently warmer climate.
Life is too short to be unhappy for any prolonged period of time.

Yes, I am moving to Croatia where lots of people speak English. My house in Hungary is up for sale but there has been no interest in it so far. I have bought a house just over the border into Croatia and I spend some of my time there doing renovation work. My current plan when I eventually get my UK state pension in 2027 is to sell my house in UK (which I rent out to give me an income) and buy an apartment or house on the coast of Croatia. I could use that to do holiday lets in the summer and stay there myself in the winter, as it stays a bit warmer at the coast.

Hello.  I'm looking to buy.  Stats. Location.  Etc.  can you provide in private mail through this?

fidobsa wrote:

Yes, I am moving to Croatia where lots of people speak English.

I think you made the right decision for yourself.

fidobsa wrote:

My house in Hungary is up for sale but there has been no interest in it so far.

South West Hungary I would think would be a difficult region to sell, or at least difficult to sell not at a loss. We expats tended to pay above local market value when we bought. And market values in many rural areas have not gone up much since (but it varies).

To add.  Buying a flat now in Budapest is insanely high.  I guess they are after foreign buyers?  Compare local wages and flats for sale 50m2 for 25m-40m Forint.

blonder wrote:

To add.  Buying a flat now in Budapest is insanely high.  I guess they are after foreign buyers?  Compare local wages and flats for sale 50m2 for 25m-40m Forint.

The government announced fiscal support, including grants and very low interest loans to people to buy housing who state they will have three or more children. Shortly after that, property prices rapidly increased. Non-market driven influx of capital tend to do this. It may also indicate a possibly unsustainable bubble in the long term.

klsallee wrote:

fidobsa wrote:

Yes, I am moving to Croatia where lots of people speak English.

I think you made the right decision for yourself.

fidobsa wrote:

My house in Hungary is up for sale but there has been no interest in it so far.

South West Hungary I would think would be a difficult region to sell, or at least difficult to sell not at a loss. We expats tended to pay above local market value when we bought. And market values in many rural areas have not gone up much since (but it varies).

Yes, I know I will probably take a loss but I think I did pay the market price when I bought it in 2011. It was not an agent that markets to UK buyers and my offer of about 20% below the asking price was accepted, as the seller was paying a mortgage on the house, which she no longer needed due to divorce. I had previously made a similar low offer on another house but that was rejected because it was an inheritance sale and the sellers had time to stick out for the best price.

fidobsa wrote:

.....My current plan when I eventually get my UK state pension in 2027 is to sell my house in UK (which I rent out to give me an income) and buy an apartment or house on the coast of Croatia. I could use that to do holiday lets in the summer and stay there myself in the winter, as it stays a bit warmer at the coast.

While I don't know your circumstances, I would suggest NEVER selling your place in the UK without replacing it with something else.  One needs a fall back.

As an example, lots of people in Spain find themselves priced out of the market and cannot get back in.  Their partner (if they have one) dies, they are alone, get infirm, then end up in the Spanish care system with no fall back to relatives, even to visit them.  Isolation is quite a problem there.

On return, one could could end up somewhere like Middlesborough or Skelmersdale (total dumps in the middle of nowhere to the uninitiated ).  If something happens to Mrs Fluffy when the kids are older and are doing their own thing anyway, I'd almost certainly want to go back to the UK (I might consider St Helena for a quiet life now they have an airport).

fluffy2560 wrote:

If something happens to Mrs Fluffy when the kids are older and are doing their own thing anyway, I'd almost certainly want to go back to the UK.

Or maybe a warmer member of the commonwealth like Bermuda or the Bahamas? 

Making a life plan 10 years into the future is a bit rocky.
With world events, etc. even a 10 month plan seems hard to figure out.
Of course everyone has their own way of viewing life and the world.
Don't forget, many Hungarians bought real estate in good area of the city when they change happened.
My MIL sold her interest in a 5th district flat in a nice house for only $800. back before the changes. Now that place is easily worth 45 million or more just for the location.
Our ex friend bought an apt. the same size  as ours in Buda and not the 7th district like we did.
They bought only 5 years before we did, they invested perhaps as little as one million forints because they BS'd the one old mother left  in the family to sell her place out in nowhere and they tossed in another $5,000 or so bucks and let her live in the flat while they worked in the US. Now that small place is worth at least 40 million because of the area, not because their flat is so great.
Not a bad investment on their part.
We paid over twice as much for the same sq. footage in a less desireable area and our place is worth only around 20 million, not 40.
Don't stress yourself about not being as good or as able as someone else, you never know what help they got to get where they now are.
Take pride in doing your best without help.
At least we know we can make it anywhere without needing to use an old grannie. Doing anything on your own is worth more then gold.

I suppose all we are establishing is that for many people they are happy in Hungary but wonder if things will change when we get elderly and may not  cope as well  with the language barrier.

Live it to the fullest now.  If you wake up one day anywhere and say it's time for a move. Move.
Precious years.

klsallee wrote:

blonder wrote:

To add.  Buying a flat now in Budapest is insanely high.  I guess they are after foreign buyers?  Compare local wages and flats for sale 50m2 for 25m-40m Forint.

The government announced fiscal support, including grants and very low interest loans to people to buy housing who state they will have three or more children. Shortly after that, property prices rapidly increased. Non-market driven influx of capital tend to do this. It may also indicate a possibly unsustainable bubble in the long term.

Oh seriously stop the political propaganda it hurts ,the price increase in Budapest started year 2015 and since those grants and loans only available for newly built property, therefore they would rather decrease not new property prices.

I think any family that is brave enough to have 3 or more children these days deserves all the help they can get.
if they get any grant or loan aid at all that will never offset the cost of raising a child for the "system". In the long run society benefits more from ones children then they parents ever can hope for.
More children equals more taxes coming in later from future workers and consumers.
We are so spoiled in so many countries, don't even know what it means to be hungry let alone think we deserve to be served on a silver platter just because we want to join the party.
The world has never owed anyone a thing and in this current dog eat dog system I doubt things will be changing any time soon.
Hard work is the only way to get a leg up , until the system changes prices for goods and services will just keep on getting higher, print more money and on and on it goes until it breaks for good.

panzer25 wrote:

Oh seriously stop the political propaganda

Perhaps I was simply not clear.

Yes, the housing grants and loans are for new construction. But that means that those who were living in an apartment in Budapest will take this money, and sell their existing apartments. Which are then purchased by others, perhaps property management companies, which then have the capital to renovate and return the apartments to the market at higher prices. And if this happens in significant numbers or in regions of the city, this inflates the general price basis, and like a tide raises all ships, there can be an overall price increase in all areas.

That is, economics is complicated. An action in one place can have unexpected ripple effects in other areas. Especially when governments make fiscal policies. Nothing unique. For example, the 2008 economic crisis was driven in part by housing policies set by the US government. So policy, politics and economy do converge.

And do note, if I wanted to spread political propaganda, I would have said something like the price increases were due to newly minted oligarchs snatching up properties and were willing to pay above market values because they can. Much like they are doing with the media. But I of course did not say that. 

Hope this helps.

It makes me happy that I bought my apartment in september 2013.  Because I could not even afford a half done up,  half the size place now.
Space at home is a luxury that many people can't afford anymore but I happily luxuriate in it.

Everyone is different I suppose.
We have lived in large places with 40 acres of land overlooking the ocean to 6 months of living in a hotel size room.
Never really mattered too much either way to me as I tend to live more in my head then in my surroundings.
As long as my "people" are near me, I am ok just about anywhere.
I knew a couple in Vegas who I thought sacrificed way too much in order to live the American Dream.
They were both from Romania, they left their child behind in Romania for over 6 years while they worked to buy a house, car, put in a swimming pool etc. I worked with the women, we made allot of money but the hours were hard, I did it for less then 6 months, just too exhausting to work at night, she had no choice but to keep working with no end in site just to keep her cute new Audi TT and large house, Her husband drove a cab, worked hard at it. Neither of them ever had a day off together and they both worked different shifts so one could be with their son who hadn't seen them for 6 years, he barely could speak any English and was about to go to school.
On the outside their lives looked nice and comfy but at what cost for comfort.
I wonder what happened to them after the crash in 08.

I very nearly bought a buy-to-let property in Budapest in 2012 but found CIB bank were offering a 7.5% interest rate so I put the money into that instead. That is the story of my life though!

fidobsa wrote:

I very nearly bought a buy-to-let property in Budapest in 2012 but found CIB bank were offering a 7.5% interest rate so I put the money into that instead. That is the story of my life though!

Do not be too hard on yourself. Hindsight is always 20/20.

I had the chance to buy quite a bit of Ford stock when it was $3 a share. I didn't for reasons I thought were prudent at the time. Look at the stock price today. C'set la vie.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Everyone is different I suppose.

Yep.

I was a proponent of the tiny house movement..... before there was a tiny house movement.

Less is more to me.

I liked that about Central Europe when I first came here. How much people could do with so little. Quality of life over having "stuff".

But, alas, times have changed. Now in Hungary it seems bigger is better. Ostentatiousness is the in thing.

Yes I am luxuriating in having space but it is always in comparison to the lack of space I had in London and on the south coast of the UK.
No one likes to be cramped up and that's where the term ran race comes from.  All cities reach an optimum size in my view.

We owned a house in Calif which was considered about an average middle class size.
One of the bedrooms was never used at all, had book shelves in there and my husband used the large built in closet with shelves . We would just close the door in the winter and never even heat that room.
I more or less lived in the den and kitchen and spent most of my time in the swimming pool and backyard.
I would only enter the extra bedroom to dust and air it out.
What a waste...
I think if I still had that house I would turn that room into home gym area.
In Hawaii we also had an extra room that no one used, in NM also a extra room that was just for storage.
Location means more to me then the size of a place.  We lived in a compact flat in Waikiki, felt like one long unless holiday. One of the best locations on earth to live, always nice outside and people are always happy, of course they are on vacation so why not smile.
That's close to my heart.

The sooner you get back there  to Waikiki
the better. 
Sometimes though when we return to places,  especially after a period of time,  they are not always the same. 
I am an artist and a therapist and I have many visitors so I appreciate space and it's one of the things that makes me happy and attracted me to settling in Hungary.
However I'm usually happy wherever I am.  Of course the language barrier,  bigger than expected bills,  lack of smiles and shorter winter days all make me irritable.  But I am often like a bird happy in my own nest.

blonder wrote:

If you wake up one day anywhere and say it's time for a move. Move.

Good advise.

Generically.

But many people have the statistical investments in a career, house, spouse, 2.5 children and a dog. So waking up one day and moving is not necessarily so simple for many of us. 

Yes it takes time and a lot of effort  but it is good advice if people are unhappy. My situation is that I am very happy but need to plan for in a few years time when I am older and may not be able to continue maintain a big garden.. But of course I love it for now