Cost of living in Hungary

I will be migrating  to Budapest in a month or so.
I'm offered a gross monthly salary of 450000 HUF.
Can I have decent life with my family with this salary.


I would appreciate if anyone help me by giving a quick rounded figure for the following:

Monthly rent for a flat(1 or 2bedroom) in a decent place -
Monthly Food Expense -
Monthly Mobile phone expense -
Monthly Internet broadband expense -
Monthly Utility Expense -
Monthly public transportation fares (tram,bus,tube..etc)-

Please if anyone could answer these.....

Thanks in advance !

lonelysinned wrote:

I will be migrating  to Budapest in a month or so.
I'm offered a gross monthly salary of 450000 HUF.
Can I have decent life with my family with this salary.


I would appreciate if anyone help me by giving a quick rounded figure for the following:

Monthly rent for a flat(1 or 2bedroom) in a decent place -
Monthly Food Expense -
Monthly Mobile phone expense -
Monthly Internet broadband expense -
Monthly Utility Expense -
Monthly public transportation fares (tram,bus,tube..etc)-

Please if anyone could answer these.....

Thanks in advance !

We don't know anything about you, number of people in your family and intended life style or where you will live in relation to your work so these prices are generalised but within the ballpark. You can convert to HUF. You will pay plenty of taxes.

Apartment, 350 EUR
Mobile on contract 30 EUR
Broadband Triple Play 40 EUR
Utilities (Gas, Electricity) 80 EUR
Water 10 EUR?
Metro one ride 1 EUR
Food 200 EUR

Thank you for the quick reply

lonelysinned wrote:

I'm offered a gross monthly salary of 450000 HUF.

You may find your net (take home) income may only be about half your gross salary due to automatic deductions for income, retirement, medical and unemployment insurance taxes. You should ask your future employer to supply to you your expected net income rate after all deductions, not just gross salary.

And don't forget what income you do take home, more is lost to the 27% VAT tax on every purchase you make.

Taxes in Hungary take quite a bite out of your capital.

The average net income in Budapest is about 162,000 Ft per month so you will be relatively well paid even if half goes on deductions.

Can someone kindly provide an updated cost of living view. I am trying to find a furnished apt with 2 bedrooms (preferable) and 2 bathrooms on the pest side. Under 800eur including common costs and utilities. I dont understand any hungarian and i am having a hard time trying to search on the web as most that is in English takes me to super expensive places. Any help?

It might be worth trying this English speaking agency:

http://apartmentrentalsinbudapest.com/

I was looking at one time for a buy-to-let investment in Budapest. My plans changed so I didn't actually use their services but they were helpful in terms of advice.

Ndelgado79 wrote:

Can someone kindly provide an updated cost of living view. I am trying to find a furnished apt with 2 bedrooms (preferable) and 2 bathrooms on the pest side. Under 800eur including common costs and utilities. I dont understand any hungarian and i am having a hard time trying to search on the web as most that is in English takes me to super expensive places. Any help?

Did you check the "HOUSING" tab above? Or directly:

https://www.expat.com/en/housing/europe … -rent.html

Even if you do not see anything in your area or price, this can give you leads to many agents who probably speak English and can probably help you in your search.

P.S. Anything with two bathrooms for under 800 Euro may be hard to find.

hi guys,
I am interested in moving to Hungary.
im from wales so Im a country bumpkin and don't like cities or big towns so its the wide open spaces for me!!!.

i have seen some properties on right move for peanuts with a lot of land.
it seems that £15,000 to £30,000 buys you a tidy place with a few acres.
you wouldn't buy a patch of dirt for that price here in rip off uk.

i notice a few threads from a few yanks and Canadians asking about the cost of living in Hungary, come over here to the uk and try to live on the uk minimum wage.
i have been all over the world including most European countries that includes some eastern European ones, and the uk is most defiantly the mother of all shit holes.
unless your loaded in the uk  then you live a miserable poverty stricken existence.
where the country is driven by greed . you work in the uk only to survive not live!!.
i am a qualified multi skilled plant machine driver and i am earning the same now as i did in 1985 yes 1985 yet the cost of living here has risen 10 fold.
anyway rant over.
it seems to me that countries like Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia ect  are by deflation poor countries . and the wages are low compared to the uk and the states but i would rather be poor in a poor country than be poor in the 6th richest country in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!.

my only concern with living in Hungary is getting work im not thinking for one minute im going to earn hundreds of pounds a week i would be happy just earning enough to live on.
seems to me that when you go outside the big cites and towns everyone is in the same position .
i have enough money to buy a small holding cash in Hungary and have some cash left over but i would have to have sort of income.

i would of coarse live a basic life grow my own fruit and veg keep some chickens, have a wood burner, ect so its just the utility bills i need to pay for.
i don't mind what job i do as long as i can earn enough to get by.

I wouldn't come here and I already live here most of the time.  I only live here because of my family connections. You'd be far better off in places like Canada, Australia or New Zealand.  The language is difficult, the economics terrible and the politics simply dreadful.  If it's Europe that's important, Croatia is relatively unnoticed, by the sea, has fewer people, lower population density and nicer weather with similar house pricing. Quite a lot of Croatians speak good English but not all do. The language is somehow more accessible. Of course, it all depends where you are.  I'd do your due diligence on property ownership, the chances of being ripped off somehow is high. 

If you do decide to come here, do not sell your property back in the UK - if you have one there.  Rent it out and use the proceeds to subsidise your existence. You can always go back then in an emergency without being priced out the market.

I know of a couple of people who live in The Gambia entirely on the proceeds of their UK property rental income.  Amazing really.

Unless you can speak Hungarian I would say you are onto a loser if you expect to find a job in rural Hungary. There are ways to earn a living from home, things like writing novels, language teaching by Skype, writing software, proof-reading etc, so you might be able to do something on a self employed basis.

digger# driver1963 wrote:

it seems that £15,000 to £30,000 buys you a tidy place with a few acres.

There is a reason for that.

In other words, there is an old American saying: if you bought a diamond ring for a dime, you probably have a dime ring that is not worth 10 cents.

Most rural houses need to be renovated. It varies, but just assume doubling the price of the property to do a proper renovation on the house.

It is hard for even Hungarians to make a living in the countryside. Most youth I know from our village leave to a larger city or go abroad once they finish school. Few real jobs here of substance. The village where I live is become geriatric in its full time resident demography.

The main obstacle for work and income here, as already mentioned by others, is the language. The chances of finding employment in a labor field without speaking Hungarian are near or at zero. My main suggestion if you must have a local work income, to first look for work before you even consider buying property or moving to Hungary.

Self employment also has issues since you have to pay your taxes, hire an accountant, etc. so you will be paying around 70,000 to 100,000 HUF a month for taxes and other fixed costs before you even start to put money into your pocket. And don't forget the 27% VAT for everything you buy (highest VAT in Europe), which also deflates your relative buying power if you are poor than not (VAT is essentially a heavier tax burden on the poor).

Winter wood will cost you about 200,000 HUF a year (I know, since we use wood for heat). If you have a small house, heating with electricity might be the same price without the work wood takes.

For example, you could of course buy land and become a self employed farmer. I know some Hungarians who make a living farming in greenhouses on small plots. But then you have to know about farming (it is not simple, and will take years to learn how to do it profitably on a small holding). But even then you have to also speak the language, also you lack the local personal connection needed in Hungary to make business contacts and sales. Hungary is much about "relationships" in business, even small businesses, and many of those relationships started in elementary school on the football field. You could specialize on servicing other expats, but then you need to be somewhere where the expat density is high, and that is rarely in rural areas, so you would have to look for a rural place near a larger city where you can increase your job/client prospects (but in many of those places land will usually cost more).

Any of the above is doable, but to make it work don't fail to have a well worked out plan to minimize failure.

P.S. Personally, I would ignoring national politics. For one thing, many other wise awful places become nice places to live if you ignore politics, and you can not vote in the national elections anyway, or do much of anything about national politics, unless you become a Hungarian citizen (you can vote in local elections however if you declare Hungary as your residence country).

klsallee wrote:

P.S. Personally, I would ignoring national politics. For one thing, many other wise awful places become nice places to live if you ignore politics, and you can not vote in the national elections anyway, or do much of anything about national politics, unless you become a Hungarian citizen (you can vote in local elections however if you declare Hungary as your residence country).

BTW, EU citizens can also vote in the EU elections. Not that it makes any difference at all.

I agree with everything that's been noted here. 

National politics is a problem because of the damage that is being done to the economy and the simple weirdness of some of the legislation coming out of the parliament - anti-foreign investment in the retail sector is an example. I'm noticing plenty of empty shopping centre units these days. It's a decline. Rise of Jobbik is another example.

mmmmm,
thanks for the replies guys.
seems to me like Hungary is governed by a bunch of morons who are intent on keeping the country and its population in the dark ages!!.

as for the comment regarding looking for a property in Croatia as houses are about the same price as in Hungary,  I think you need to look at property prices in Croatia my friend!!!.
property prices are ridiculously high in Croatia.

I  accept that jobs are probably non existent in rural areas however there must be employment opportunities' in the cities and large tows otherwise the country could not possibly function!!.
so if you have a car then I would expect you would have some chance of getting a job?.

27% vat don,t bother me at all I have everything I need and if did need something I would simply go cross boarder and buy it there.

surly you  have construction there building, houses, schools, roads , bridges, ect in Hungary??.
do you have any infrastructure at all???.

do people still use oxen and carts for transport, burn candles for light and wash their clothes in a stream??.
I though Romania and Bulgaria was bad ( I have been there) but Hungary seems worse!!!.
looks like I will not be going then,.

digger# driver1963 wrote:

seems to me like Hungary is governed by a bunch of morons who are intent on keeping the country and its population in the dark ages!!.

Yup, that about covers it.

digger# driver1963 wrote:

as for the comment regarding looking for a property in Croatia as houses are about the same price as in Hungary,  I think you need to look at property prices in Croatia my friend!!!.
property prices are ridiculously high in Croatia.

Ah well, like here in HU, everyone in Croatia is an opportunist, especially those online. Some of them think a sugar daddy is about to drop by and pay over the odds. You see property here with For Sale signs on all the time, even for years.  They aren't really interested in selling at a reasonable price.  They also want to avoid agents and their fees.  Many people here have a massive mental block on the concept of market value.  They often price things they want to sell at the amount they need, not what it's worth.  That's why things never sell.  The way to find decently priced things is to drive around and look at the signs. 

digger# driver1963 wrote:

I  accept that jobs are probably non existent in rural areas however there must be employment opportunities' in the cities and large tows otherwise the country could not possibly function!!.
so if you have a car then I would expect you would have some chance of getting a job?.

Yes, you could get a job but it would be low paid because as far as the locals are concerned, you're a liability if you do not speak Hungarian.  People here are heading for the UK because wages are 3 x higher (at least). Cross border workers go to Austria mainly but that entails speaking at least basic German.  I was in a industrial tools place today in a "German" village nearby and the younger guy there spoke English to an OK level for discussions. But when he showed me documentation for a specialist item, it was all in German.  That's not a problem for me but it might seem quirky to outsiders.  Same sort of thing comes up in Croatia and the area. My neighbours here in HU do not speak much English but a lot of them can converse well enough in German. 

digger# driver1963 wrote:

27% vat don,t bother me at all I have everything I need and if did need something I would simply go cross boarder and buy it there.

It's a killer as it applies to lots of goods and services with few breaks. It creates real distortions and encourages tax evasion, reluctance to improve the housing stock and a lot of DIYers. You can save about 8% by going next door to Austria. You will eventually need to buy some things.  There's not really an economy of scale here - UK market of 62 million but only about 10 million here.

digger# driver1963 wrote:

surly you  have construction there building, houses, schools, roads , bridges, ect in Hungary??.
do you have any infrastructure at all???.

Yes, we have those of course but these are built by large corporations like Hochtief and Swietelsky (see Swietelsky under tender.  Houses are usually either self-build or small scale construction by individuals hiring small companies (<10 employees).  There's no large corporate house builders creating estate type housing here.  That's something quite unknown and would be a nice change to see if integrated with financing.  I cannot see it changing much.  Property seems to be family owned and people hardly move.

digger# driver1963 wrote:

do people still use oxen and carts for transport, burn candles for light and wash their clothes in a stream??.
I though Romania and Bulgaria was bad ( I have been there) but Hungary seems worse!!!.
looks like I will not be going then,.

Yes, they do that in Romania.  They also do it in some places around Hungary as well for sure. It's not that bad here but  yes, they do use donkey carts in some places. 20 years ago they were very common to see and a terrible road hazard.  The better thing to do is have a place here but work elsewhere like Dubai on contract  during the winter and come back here for R&R on their off season,  Living here full time without say alternative income stream like a decent pension would be quite difficult.

Despite all the negativity, the weather is absolutely excellent today.  Very warm and sunny.  Far better than Blighty in the summer and much more reliable than that typical UK cloudy dullness.

If you come over here, rent a place for a few months, see how you like it.

hi fluffy,
thanks for the sensible response.
I suppose Hungary cant all be negative.

there are positive's and negatives in all countries rich or poor ones.
take the uk where I live, ok you have a free national health service, a welfare state and plenty of housing. however the cost of living is ridiculous!!.
basically I am working to pay bills and exist, im fed up with it and just want to get away from this rat race. the uk is now most defiantly a police state, we are not governed anymore we are ruled, we the average house price is 20 times what you can earn in a year.
there are jobs but slave wages .
I see no future for me and my wife here anymore as it will only get worse, so I want to leave before this government take off me he little I have left!!.
like I said in my last post I would rather be poor in a poor country surrounded by other poor people than be poor in the sixth richest country in the world.

I think we will travel to Hungary in the next few months and drive around and look at the various properties for sale, the surrounding areas  and the prospects of finding any employment.

if you do know of any construction companies operating in Hungary I would be gratefull if you could pass their names on to me.

digger# driver1963 wrote:

.....however the cost of living is ridiculous!!.
basically I am working to pay bills and exist, im fed up with it and just want to get away from this rat race. the uk is now most defiantly a police state, we are not governed anymore we are ruled, we the average house price is 20 times what you can earn in a year.
there are jobs but slave wages .
I see no future for me and my wife here anymore as it will only get worse, so I want to leave before this government take off me he little I have left!!.
like I said in my last post I would rather be poor in a poor country surrounded by other poor people than be poor in the sixth richest country in the world...

I appreciate the frustration.  I left the UK for the first time a long time ago for similar reasons.  The UK suffers from the same shite as here - the political class is all based on self-interest, corrupt thinking and all those negative kind of words one hears about those types.  Here, it's even more of a banana republic here now since the last election.  I would suggest you will experience the same frustrations here as there eventually.  The only thing you can do is abstract yourself from their BS.

If your age is not against you, I would seriously consider moving somewhere like Canada or Australia or even the USA.  These are enormous countries with fantastic natural resources and will never be poor and will have a far higher quality of life than here.  I do realise these countries - apart from the USA - have severe age restrictions on permanent immigration.  If you have another nationality (or are from Northern Ireland), you could always do the US green card lottery.  My own preference would be for Canada despite the weather.  The fees though for emigrating are absolutely awful though.  But if sponsored, well, great.

I know a few international Hungarians (who left here years ago) and while they romanticise Hungary somewhat, nearly all of them do not want to come back.  They visit, realise it's not what they remember then go back again.  Those that burnt their bridges, returned, realise they made a mistake and want to escape. Hence, I'd suggest not burning bridges, but keeping a foot in the door back home.  Then there's there's an escape option.

digger# driver1963 wrote:

mmmmm,
...as for the comment regarding looking for a property in Croatia as houses are about the same price as in Hungary,  I think you need to look at property prices in Croatia my friend!!!.
property prices are ridiculously high in Croatia.

I have given up on Hungary because I have failed dismally in my attempts to learn Hungarian and hardly anyone speaks English. I still have the house in Hungary but hope to sell it eventually. I have recently bought a house just over the border into Croatia, about 80 km from the Hungary one. The house in Hungary cost about 20,000 Euros in 2011 but the one in Croatia was somewhat cheaper at 14,000 Euros. Both are fairly big bungalows with various farm buildings and whilst the one in Hungary seemed superficially to be in better condition they will probably both turn out to need roughly the same amount of work and money to get them properly sorted. I already know more people in Croatia than I do in Hungary simply because so many more Croatians speak English. If you compare rural Hungary with coastal Croatia for property prices you will conclude that Croatia is expensive but if you compare like with like they are actually very similar.

fidobsa wrote:

.... I already know more people in Croatia than I do in Hungary simply because so many more Croatians speak English. If you compare rural Hungary with coastal Croatia for property prices you will conclude that Croatia is expensive but if you compare like with like they are actually very similar.

Yes, absolutely.

I've worked extensively in Croatia and I've travelled there on holiday as well. It has excellent motorways, coast and it's not far at all from Budapest. I am always stunned how good some of them are in English. Even in the smallest shops I've been in, people have been able to converse just fine.  I've been in only one place where I had to use German instead. Remarkable really and a lesson on how to do it properly. Hungary could learn a lot from what is going on there language learning wise. 

The education system here is weird.  My kids are bilingual English/Hungarian but other kids in the school are being asked to choose which language they would like to study in the primary school.  The choices are German and English.  My kids do not need English lessons of course as they are completely fluent in either language. Extra lessons in German are free. But English lessons must be paid for (and it's a lot of money).   So what's that about then?!

Hi everybody,

Can we please discuss on the cost of living in Hungary only?
If you wish to exchange information on an another topic, please create a new thread on the Hungary forum please.

Thanks

Priscilla

I live in the country  near the slovene   austrian border.
i come to Budapest every weekend.

Prices have not gone up.
it is just there is less of everything


Less restaurants
smaller  menus   which is good.

Less in the shops. prices same

Foreigners tell me they do big shopping across border
near eisenstadt

Difficult to get people to do small jobs

Most young people work abroard.

One or two factories like wood industry are really
busy but how long will the wood last.

Tourism remains  dull.

They have to get away from german diet.

My basic thinking is many less people about..

Autoroute is expensive   and cumbersome   but i go
on train now...

One tip I would like to pass on regarding supermarket shopping is to never assume that buying the large size of an item will save you money. in Hungary the reverse is often true. Often you will find that the price labels on the display will also show the price per kg or litre. This is very handy for comparing costs of similar products in differing  pack sizes.The way to keep food bills down in Hungary is to buy the basic ingredients and make all your own cakes, biscuits, soups, stews etc.This is simply because that is how most Hungarians operate so factory prepared ready to eat foods don't enjoy the same economies of scale that they would in UK.