Best place to buy home for 75 million forints near Budapest

That's a lot of money for here.   You could build or renovate a house here for that easily.

Buda is safe everywhere really.  It's not Detroit or Oakland.

My own faves border where I live -  Districts II, IIA, III and XII. 

Further outside of Budapest - Budakeszi,  Budaors, Torokbalint, Szentendre, maybe Solymar or further in maybe Kelenfold for access to Metro 4.

Diosd, Erd, Biatorbagy, Telki, Paty, Pomaz are a bit characterless and not that great but often chosen by families as cheaper out there.   Not Csobanka.

Depends on what's wanted - uphill/country, city, family, individual, retired, drive/not drive, access to BKV public transport or MAV station, schools, distance to airport etc.

My own criteria was a family house with access to schools, alternate transportation, quick departures to road network further West and easy to get to the airport.

For 75 Million HUF ($300,000) you could buy a small apartment in Budapest, and a large villa within an hour or two drive of the city.  Best of both worlds. Just saying......

Or  for lots more you can get a blingfully furnished faux French chateau-type house.   

I know exactly where this house is and I know the reason why it won't sell without a total makeover.

Over priced, ridiculously furnished, in a hard to reach location and a terrible design out of the Escobar school of architecture. Some one needs to tell them that all that glitters is not gold.  It's been on sale for years to my knowledge already.

As contrast this place is more LA than Budapest.  Apart from the stupid Jacuzzi,  it's more 2018 than the Bling Palace example.  If they had a sauna - aaargggh - then it wouldn't sell either.   People might even fill in the pool.  Waste of money.

Real estate agents here really have no idea.  They should learn how to dress a place.

Thank you for your comments!   The French villa is really not that bad if that is your taste.  It is not mine, but it seems to have some nice features.  It is also located what seems to be a good area according to your previous note.  I could see contrasting the heavy decor with some contemporary light furnishings, instead of the heavy/stuffy/dark style...  The price, about USD 1.2 million would be quite reasonable for something like that.  In the Los Angeles area in a similarly good location, you could expect to pay around $4 million or more. 
For me, here is two that I found... 
The one in the city, Lipotvaros, comes furnished and is exactly my taste, except I would decorate it with my own large paintings and use the second bedroom as an office/art studio.  A little pricier than I would like, but doable...
https://matthewdanielsrealty.com/listin … ent-36899/
I used to live in District VI, Terezvaros before and know Pest quite well, I am not sure about other areas like Buda and the outskirts of Buda.
Here is one I like as well, which is more in my price range...  https://www.tower-investments.com/property/55154
Finally, this is the one I LOVE!  Again, over the budget, but could possibly be worked out...  https://www.tower-investments.com/property/05620 - not sure about the area.  It is in Pálvölgy...  Do you know anything about that area?
Thanks!

Panni36 wrote:

Thank you for your comments!   The French villa is really not that bad if that is your taste.  It is not mine, but it seems to have some nice features.  It is also located what seems to be a good area according to your previous note.  I could see contrasting the heavy decor with some contemporary light furnishings, instead of the heavy/stuffy/dark style...  The price, about USD 1.2 million would be quite reasonable for something like that.  In the Los Angeles area in a similarly good location, you could expect to pay around $4 million or more.

Obviously the place I illustrated is not a place suitable for everyone's taste.   This style of house is very typical of the post-change of system from the early to mid-1990s.  A lot of noise and not much substance - the columns will all be painted concrete - cheap. 

The current style is more in line with the modern style you gave links to.   My main thoughts are to consider the time of construction as standards varied.  Builders then were known to cheat, cut corners and  use inferior materials.  Usually there's not enough insulation and you can find gaps around the window frames.  All of this increases your operating costs during the winter. 

I lived in a brand new flat and with a couple of years, all the external render fell off.  Typical scam is say, 6 bags of sand to 2 bags of cement but they skim off a bag of concrete for use somewhere else.  Result works for a couple of years then the render falls off and the builders are long gone.

Panni36 wrote:

For me, here is two that I found... 
The one in the city, Lipotvaros, comes furnished and is exactly my taste, except I would decorate it with my own large paintings and use the second bedroom as an office/art studio.  A little pricier than I would like, but doable...
https://matthewdanielsrealty.com/listin … ent-36899/
I used to live in District VI, Terezvaros before and know Pest quite well, I am not sure about other areas like Buda and the outskirts of Buda. the Los Angeles area in a similarly good location, you could expect to pay around $4 million or more.

There are nice places in Pest but Buda is generally nicer to look at with the hills and forests with more individual houses.  But I'm biased as I've always lived in Buda.   

One should not obviously compare LA prices to Buda.  In high cost countries, these places might seem cheap but they are just market prices because it's not LA or London or Paris etc.  One could buy a mini-mansion in Balaton out in the sticks for 75M HUF but what would one do there? A big fat nothing much.   

Panni36 wrote:

Here is one I like as well, which is more in my price range...  https://www.tower-investments.com/property/55154
Finally, this is the one I LOVE!  Again, over the budget, but could possibly be worked out...  https://www.tower-investments.com/property/05620 - not sure about the area.  It is in Pálvölgy...  Do you know anything about that area?
Thanks!

Looks nice. I actually lived nearby there, slightly to the right, overlooking Arpad Hid for the first 4 years I was here (near Nyreg Utca).  It's OK but of course, it's quite hilly.  During the winter they didn't really clear the snow and I had to abandon my car several times until the weather cleared up.  But otherwise it's very much the burbs.

Clearly this property has been staged for sale - there are no personal items there.     I'm a suspicious person when it comes to property. 

Some points which I noted:

1)  EU directive is that all properties must have an energy certificate/document. If you are interested, you could ask them to send it to you.  Then you'll know a lot more about the construction.  As a certificate costs about EUR 300, they might not have actually carried it out as they may do it if someone buys the place as it's only required at that point  - before the sale, not after.  It's the sellers obligation! Not the buyers!

2) The other thing I saw in the picture was the bars on the windows and shutters - security is unlikely to be a problem anyway but worth thinking about. We even have these, cameras and an alarm system and we live in what people think is an "upmarket nice area".

3)  The stairwell in the distance appears to have those glass bricks. It'll be cold in the winter as they offer zero insulation.

4) What are they covering up under the steps?  They've put some branches there to cover up something.

5) Best to inspect it multiple times and even get your own inspector in to verify any construction issues (then you could obviously argue for lower price).

fluffy2560 wrote:

Some points which I noted:

2) The other thing I saw in the picture was the bars on the windows and shutters - security is unlikely to be a problem anyway but worth thinking about. We even have these, cameras and an alarm system and we live in what people think is an "upmarket nice area".

I find the shutter windows simply a cultural thing. As are bars on the lower "basement" level. I have seen those shutters on the side of houses that get external visual traffic, such as those windows facing a road or similar to prevent prying eyes. Yet such shutters are oddly missing on other windows not exposed to such traffic. I see no generic correlation between them and security per se. More a privacy issue. I have also seen them closed fully 24/7 on some houses. Not even sure why people simply don't just brick over the holes and be done with it.

fluffy2560 wrote:

3)  The stairwell in the distance appears to have those glass bricks. It'll be cold in the winter as they offer zero insulation.

Agree. This was a very much "in thing" to do some years ago, walls of glass brick. More so than today. Same with the "jacuzzi" baths (seen in the bathroom photos). Not done so much now, as they simply break and are hard to repair (especially when tiled in like in this house).

fluffy2560 wrote:

4) What are they covering up under the steps?  They've put some branches there to cover up something.

Bare earth probably. The stairs don't allow enough light to allow much grass to grow there. But, that is trivial to other real problems. What I saw was clearly new sod in the "sitting area". And those stained wood boards as a boarder were clearly staged. This area is just screaming for water problems. The hill in the back prevents drainage. I would expect that area to be a mushy swamp in the spring after the ground thaws. And the concrete near the house looks discolored --- possible water issues. Which can affect the house walls and foundation.

My side note: Call me anal compulsive if you wish, but those tiles in the bathroom would drive me nuts. Uneven. It really is not a problem to find the center line so that the cut tiles actually are the same size on each side of the floor. I have lost track of the number of times I have seen such careless tiling in Hungary. Even in the most expensive houses where is certainly should not happen. Seriously, they just do not seem to "get it" here.

Panni36 wrote:

Finally, this is the one I LOVE!  Again, over the budget, but could possibly be worked out...  https://www.tower-investments.com/property/05620 - not sure about the area.  It is in Pálvölgy...  Do you know anything about that area?
Thanks!

If you have not already done so, I would suggest you also review some Hungarian language only sites. And maybe consider to hire a land agent to find you a property. The web sites with properties in English will almost always cost (a lot) more. There is a de facto "expat/foreigner/investor tax" for non-Hungarian speakers, which you should certainly not be paying.

In short, English only sites will not uncommonly fiscally screw you.

klsallee wrote:

...

fluffy2560 wrote:

4) What are they covering up under the steps?  They've put some branches there to cover up something.

Bare earth probably. The stairs don't allow enough light to allow much grass to grow there. But, that is trivial to other real problems. What I saw was clearly new sod in the "sitting area". And those stained wood boards as a boarder were clearly staged. This area is just screaming for water problems. The hill in the back prevents drainage. I would expect that area to be a mushy swamp in the spring after the ground thaws. And the concrete near the house looks discolored --- possible water issues. Which can affect the house walls and foundation.

I thought it looked artificial grass, rolled out like a carpet. 

Interesting that the other places do not have steps into the garden.  Presumably they have agreement from the house committee to do that.   I thought about the hill and how the water would run down towards the house. 

Incompetence abounds here.  I also live on a hill and I insisted on having a French drain around the edges of the cellar area to take any run off away from the building.  I had to really argue with the builders about it.  I had to watch them like a hawk.  They even tried to install drainage to run UPHILL!!!

klsallee wrote:

...
My side note: Call me anal compulsive if you wish, but those tiles in the bathroom would drive me nuts. Uneven. It really is not a problem to find the center line so that the cut tiles actually are the same size on each side of the floor. I have lost track of the number of times I have seen such careless tiling in Hungary. Even in the most expensive houses where is certainly should not happen. Seriously, they just do not seem to "get it" here.

Yup, shoddy. 

Hard to find a tiler who can actually get the tiles flat or consistently angled for drainage.  We have dips in our balcony tiling outside so water pools in the dips. Superficially it looks fine but I expect we'll end up having to have it redone within a few years.

fluffy2560 wrote:

They even tried to install drainage to run UPHILL!!!

Sadly, this just adds to others stories I already know about.... 

fluffy2560 wrote:

Hard to find a tiler who can actually get the tiles flat or consistently angled for drainage.  We have dips in our balcony tiling outside so water pools in the dips. Superficially it looks fine but I expect we'll end up having to have it redone within a few years.

Often the substrate is not level or smooth. Self leveling cement is available, but not used much here. So all done by had, and often not floated well enough to a level the surface appropriate for tiling ("meh -- good enough" is too common here, and paint covers a lot of sins). So the tile is bound to be uneven, or, worse, the thinset is not applied correctly so the tile cracks or pops off over time. The tiler can correct for it.... but.... well..... that does not usually happen.

Everyone I know either has problems with their tilers here, else they do not know construction and have to redo it later.

Quite frankly because of the above, I do all my own tiling. And I correct for the surface errors.