Lawyer's addressLövőház utca 20/A.
1024 Budapest Hungary

Attorney's phone number Tel.: +36 1 316 9233
Law office's fax number Fax.: +36 1 336 0107
Attorney's office e-mail info@drlittner.hu

Project to alleviate Budapest housing crisis

napi.hu, 27.08.21 – Budapest Housing Agency may start its operation as soon as in 2022 to increase the pool of council properties available for rent and alleviate the housing crisis of the capital. The project is jointly run by the Municipality of Budapest, the Utcáról Lakásba Egyesület and Városkutatás Kft. with the help of international partners like the Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation in Barcelona and Habitat for Humanity Poland. At first, the Agency would expand the pool of council housing by private rental properties. Apart from the approximately 3700 vacant municipal and district council apartments there are many unused private residential properties in Budapest. These would be rented by the Agency below market price from willing owners who would be exempt from personal income tax in return and would also be freed from the expenses and risks of renting a property. At a later stage the project would include vacant council homes, too, and, provided that the Agency can drum up EU or government funding, it would buy or construct residential units to expand the affordable pool of council housing of the capital.

Only a few are granted social housing in Budapest

napi.hu, 29. September 2018 – According to data collected by an NGO only 5 per cent of all residential properties in Budapest are owned by one of the local governments or by the Metropolitan Local Government of Budapest. The national average is around 2 per cent while back in 1989, at the time of the change of the political system, 50 per cent of all apartments were owned by the municipalities. The percentage of residential apartments owned by the district local government is the highest in Districts 1, 8, 9, and 13. The largest number of apartments owned by the local government are in Districts 3, 8, 9, and 13.

There are at least 2500 vacant social housing apartments in Budapest. The majority have a bathroom and a lavatory, some have a bathroom only (without a lavatory), or neither a bathroom nor a lavatory, while some are termed as “emergency housing” suitable for temporary purposes only. According to the information supplied by the local governments at least 20 per cent of these apartments are in a habitable condition, i.e. there are at least 500 vacant social housing apartments.

Last year at least 346 apartments were sold by district local governments in Budapest and only as few as 31 were purchased or built. In contrast, at least 6700 families applied for social housing to one of the district local governments of the Hungarian capital.