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    We want to live in Hungary, what are the cheapest places to rent or buy a house. What paper work do we need to do?        -@petervanakelyen

You are from Belgium right? So you have freedom of movement within the EU.

• Why Hungary?
• Will you be working or retiring?

What areas do you like?

• sea,
• City,
• countryside,
• mountains,
• lakes

We went on holiday in Hungary this summer and we were direct in love with the country. We will retiring.

The area we love is on the lake Balaton or Velence or maybe Tisza lake.

Peter

    We went on holiday in Hungary this summer and we were direct in love with the country. We will retiring.
The area we love is on the lake Balaton or Velence or maybe Tisza lake.
Peter
   

    -@petervanakelyen

It's really dead in Balaton come winter time - essentially things shutdown September when the kids go back to school.  Velence looks a bit dried up this year (I passed it yesterday).  Tisza is less "discovered" but further away from civilisation. All the main services are in Budapest.

If you don't speak Hungarian, it's quite difficult here. Nearly all the main forum contributors in this forum have Hungarian partners so have extra help getting things done.

        We went on holiday in Hungary this summer and we were direct in love with the country. We will retiring.The area we love is on the lake Balaton or Velence or maybe Tisza lake.Peter        -@petervanakelyen

It's really dead in Balaton come winter time - essentially things shutdown September when the kids go back to school.  Velence looks a bit dried up this year (I passed it yesterday).  Tisza is less "discovered" but further away from civilisation. All the main services are in Budapest.

If you don't speak Hungarian, it's quite difficult here. Nearly all the main forum contributors in this forum have Hungarian partners so have extra help getting things done.
   

    -@fluffy2560

We found that nearly everyone in Sopron spoke German as well, a few spoke English though.

            We went on holiday in Hungary this summer and we were direct in love with the country. We will retiring.The area we love is on the lake Balaton or Velence or maybe Tisza lake.Peter        -@petervanakelyenIt's really dead in Balaton come winter time - essentially things shutdown September when the kids go back to school.  Velence looks a bit dried up this year (I passed it yesterday).  Tisza is less "discovered" but further away from civilisation. All the main services are in Budapest.If you don't speak Hungarian, it's quite difficult here. Nearly all the main forum contributors in this forum have Hungarian partners so have extra help getting things done.         -@fluffy2560

We found that nearly everyone in Sopron spoke German as well, a few spoke English though.
   

    -@SimCityAT

Yes, that's true about Sopron and border areas. 

I'd say German is more on the wane in Balaton. Kind of surprising.   Seems like people speak English now if they do at all.   It's OK in holiday areas summertime but come winter, no-one is left who speaks English or German, they've all gone home and gone to their other jobs.

@petervanakelyen Hungary is still very cheap (on comparison). We lived here for 7 years (but due to increased property prices we left (good profit, I do not care what people say, but some cash is useful)

Where to live, depends on your preferences (we used to live close to Lake Heviz (special price treatment (EUR 200 per year for all year access) for residents).

You can review my posts, all in all I am quite happy, depends what you want.

Please look at Christof001 on YouTube on how live can be (but city life might be more interesting)

Last week we took the train to Balaton.

On the way home at the station an older man and my husband started chatting in Hungarian.

He sat with us on the ride home and they reminisced about the past, growing up in the commie days and how things are different now.

He got on a stop before Siofok, forgot the stops name.

He was an engineer and had a small weekend house at Balaton. Just went to water his flowers, long ride for just that task.

I asked how it was living there off season. He said there were a few oddballs, about 20 in all that lived there year round. Most liked their privacy which they do get then.

The stores only order enough supplies for a few people and if they run out one must go to a larger town to shop off season.

Balaton is huge investment for a short few months of the year.

This summer so far everytime we go there, we leave early because of the wind, great if you wind surf but not for swimming in open water, too choppy. 

We rented a villa in 200 at Velence for 6 months during summer and into the late fall.

Quiet is the word, our then 21 year old son was bored to death there, went to the clubs to dance at night near the lake but overall, it was slow.

My husbands school mate, now a wealthy man who owns many businesses in Velence does not even vacation there.

He leaves Hungary for his holidays.

I have not really hung out at the Tisza but my husband said it is very much country type people living there. Just a different mind set overall.

Most people purchase a weekend house and live generally in a larger town or city.

Sort of hard I would think to do unless you have allot of family who helps out with the upkeep or uses the property and does not leave it empty for months on end.

Many homes can be broken into if let empty for long.

Heard of people going home to find half their house gone, from sinks to roofs.

You might even find people have moved in behind your back.

If you buy a weekend house in a good area however, the police may patrol more often.

Happened in Velence when we stayed there. Our son came home from clubbing and we happened to be out and he had no key. He sat outside waiting for us to return the the police came by and questioned him. The house was right across from our wealthy friends home so that area was monitored more often then others are. Our friend is buddies with all the cops in town.Just about everyone knows him there.

Oh, that would be the year 2000, not 200 B. C. although I sometimes feel that old!

@cdw057 Thank you for your reply, what do you mean with € 200 all year acces ? Is it also nice living there on lake Heviz even in the winter ?

@Marilyn Tassy Thanks for reply. So you mean that it is not save to have a house or vacation house in Hungary, if you don't live there.

    @Marilyn Tassy Thanks for reply. So you mean that it is not save to have a house or vacation house in Hungary, if you don't live there.
   

    -@petervanakelyen

Well, I suppose it depends on your resources and if you can hire people to care for the place if you are not there.

The thing is with Hungarians they usually have family that takes turns using the weekend house or they live within a hour or two of there and can pop over all the time to check things.

They have some nice new condos there which I am sure are very secure but they are not cheap.

People bought these weekend houses back in the old commie days since they basically could not leave Hungary for a holiday, now they are free to travel anywhere .

My husband was born and raised in Hungary but even he after being gone for over 40 years is a bit of a stranger here. The mind set of the average Hungarians blows his mind.

He actually wishes to return to the states in our old age.

The medical system here does its best, I suppose but it is really lacking in many ways.

Many things to consider about coming here. It is not 3rd world but it is also not a first world country.

We used to visit here for 6 months at a time and even then it took us about 6 trips to decide to invest here.

We moved here really only because we had a place to stay here and we were tired of the US rat race.

Early retirement income was the thing that made us decide to stay here.

It is really nice at the lakes here but the season is so short and even then, like this year, it has not been perfect weather.

        @Marilyn Tassy Thanks for reply. So you mean that it is not save to have a house or vacation house in Hungary, if you don't live there.        -@petervanakelyenWell, I suppose it depends on your resources and if you can hire people to care for the place if you are not there.The thing is with Hungarians they usually have family that takes turns using the weekend house or they live within a hour or two of there and can pop over all the time to check things.They have some nice new condos there which I am sure are very secure but they are not cheap.People bought these weekend houses back in the old commie days since they basically could not leave Hungary for a holiday, now they are free to travel anywhere .My husband was born and raised in Hungary but even he after being gone for over 40 years is a bit of a stranger here. The mind set of the average Hungarians blows his mind.He actually wishes to return to the states in our old age.The medical system here does its best, I suppose but it is really lacking in many ways.Many things to consider about coming here. It is not 3rd world but it is also not a first world country.We used to visit here for 6 months at a time and even then it took us about 6 trips to decide to invest here.We moved here really only because we had a place to stay here and we were tired of the US rat race.Early retirement income was the thing that made us decide to stay here.It is really nice at the lakes here but the season is so short and even then, like this year, it has not been perfect weather.        -@Marilyn Tassy

Marilyn has it right.

I'm sitting in the Mrs Fluffy family house down at Balaton right now. It's very nice as it's 50m from the water, right on the lake.   The house is terrible but the plot is good.  It's really a kind of shack but made of brick.  My shed is better constructed.  The weather is pretty nice but it's changing a bit as we head towards Autumn.  It's cooler but hasn't really rained much for some months and it's a bit concerning.

A lot of houses are closed up already but all the cafes and restaurants are open.  I would say fewer people are here now - I think it's economic issues.  People don't have spare cash.  It's very expensive to own an asset you only use 3 or 4 months a year.  If retired I could imagine people living here from May until say, mid-October.

Mrs Fluffy's family have owned this house for at least 50 years, bought at a knock down price indeed during commie times.  And it looks like no-one did anything to it.  It's workable only in summer or maybe early Autumn - perhaps just to mow the grass or trim the trees.  Once it's closed up, no-one will come here over the winter.  It'll be left to nature.  One of many houses like that here. 

My estimate is that 70% of the houses are empty over winter.  But it would be easy to install some security measures.  A internet enabled burglar alarm,  remotely monitored cameras for security and metal shutters over windows/doors.  The chances of being burgled with those measures is close to zero.   There's one house near this one where they put boards over all the windows, bolted to the frames.  No-one is going get in there and steal their 30 year old TV.   

One thing which really annoys me about here is the Internet.  The service is appallingly bad.  I am using mobile Internet, we don't have a phone line here as it's not worth installing.  It's so bad here, I'm thinking of getting Starlink. We can be portable with that set up.

@fluffy2560

Do you mobile internet cubes with SIM cards?

    @fluffy2560
Do you mobile internet cubes with SIM cards?
   

    -@SimCityAT

Think some auto-correct there.

I'm using a

It has a SIM card slot and a memory card slot so you can use it as a kind of file server.  Not that we ever use it like that.

The big problem is the signal level.  It's simply atrocious.  It's an absolute dead spot here for Telekom.  Walk 150m up the road and it's fine. 

I've got a potential solution which is to rig up and external antenna and use a router which supports LTE and SIM cards to try and get a better signal.  At the moment, the MiFi router is in the attic as we can get a marginally better signal than downstairs.  The speed varies a lot with the time of day.  At 2am it's pretty fast.  6pm, it's terrible.

I know, I often sound like a , Debbie Downer when chatting about different subjects in Hungary.

I am a positive person, otherwise I would never of moved here to begin with but I am also very much of a realist.

Not made of money so have to have both feet on the ground at all times.

To move here from another country one might have to analyze the pros and cons.

At different stages in ones life, things that were once important are no longer important and others issues are.

To be honest, the only reason we are still in Hungary is out of habit and because we found a grove here that works for us.

We live very frugal here and are able to save for our next move, where ever that may be if ever.

If not, our son will be able to have a better life with us having been so cheap with ourselves.

When we were younger we probably would of put more importance on having a nicer apt. Now we really do not care that we need improvements in this old 124 years place.

Over all even though my husband is a Hungarian and speak the language without any flaws, people never seem to take us seriously and we always feel like tourists here even after nearly 15 years.

If you have never lived in another country it is worth knowing that in many ways Hungarians and perhaps people everywhere always will see you as an outsider.

If that does not bother you, that is good but worth knowing and expecting to happen.

Even my husbands brother and sister see him as some strange person who left and came back, they see him as a troublemaker of sorts.

People here can be very rigid in their ways.

Over all I think we enjoyed it here more when we really were just 6 month tourists.

If you stay too long, you get caught up with issues you never thought you would.

Finding your groove, as in groovy.

Actually a grove in Hungarian is a title of a nobleman.