Anyone got any experience of the Hungarian property market? We're looking to buy an apartment in Budapest. Does anyone know of any good agents or can you warn us of any dodgy ones to avoid.
Avoid Arena estates! I bought a apartment off them which I paid a 30% deposit on ,the rest to be financed with a mortgage as they advertised and told me was possible with this development.I bought it off plan and it took about 1 year to finish.When I tried to sort the mortgage out the developer would not accept a mortgage ,they refused to deal with me and the company I was going to use to help with my mortgage.I have still not found out the reason for this as Areana estates are reluctant to say why but I heard from a third party that they had a lawyer involved to try and get the developer to accept a mortgage.Eventually they agread to accept a mortgage .My contract said I had 90 days to pay for my appartment but half of this time had been wasted with this hold up.By the time my bank had sorted my mortgage out it was going to be over the time limit . My lawyer managed to get the developer to allow extra time and hopefully this will be sorted this week.Because of these idiots I could of lost over £20000 altogether plus it has cost me more money to sort out.I tried to speak to a director and got the usual brush off that they are in a meeting and are not in ,I could hear them in the background on the phone telling the girl I was speaking to say this! Everything they told me before I bought the appartment concerning furniture prices, rental rates etc have turned out to be way out.Originally I was going to buy through a Hungarian company (Areana is English owned) called Capital Eyes but they charged a fee for there services at the time.Last time I looked at there web site they did not charge a fee any more and also offered discounts on furniture.They speak excellent English have a good knowledge of the propertys for sale and gave realistic figures for rental prices etc...hope this helps.
I'm not being snobby (because I've just moved into a new build development in Europe myself) but Budapest has shedloads of decent existing property surely?
It's easy to be cynical but it's no surprise perhaps that some new build development companies there may be in the business of taking candy from babies.
