How can I buy a house in Hungary?
The following list applies to buying a house or land in the in-zone area in Hungary (in a village, town or city).
(if you are planning to buy an agricultural area (many farm houses are on agricultural area) or forest, there will be information about that at the bottom of this page)
1, First you will need to negotiate the price of the house you decided to buy. The majority of house prices on the website are not fix, so there is some room for negotiation. We are the middle person during the negotiation process too of course.
It is also important to agree on other details too such as: what goods you would like to keep from the house and if you would like to take over the house empty etc.
It is best to write even the small details in the contract of sale even about keeping furniture, fire wood and their value etc.
2, Once the contract has been written by a lawyer, all parties need to check the contract for mistakes, first the Hungarian version and then the Dutch language version.
It is important to note that contracts of sales nearly always include a deposit in Hungary. This amount is usually 10% of the total value of the house, but not more than 30%. These are the rules that apply to the deposit: If the buyer withdraws, the buyer will lose the deposit as compensation to the seller. If the seller withdraws, the seller must pay the buyer the double deposit as compensation.
3, There are different ways to sign the contract:
3.a, You can come to Hungary to sign the contract in person at our agency’s office in the presence of the lawyer (who made the contract) and the seller. You may pay in this case via bank transfer or cash.
3.b, If you do not want to come to Hungary for signing the contract, you can sign the contract online in presence of the lawyer who made the contract (using Skype). In this case the video is kept by the lawyer for the coming 10 years. The contract needs to be posted to Hungary first to the sellers (who also sign online with the lawyer), then to the lawyer who signs it and stamps it. You only need to transfer the deposit to the seller when you received the version of the contract signed by all parties.
4, How the remaining amount is paid for the house is always an agreement between the seller and the buyer. We suggest that 80% (in case of 10% deposit) is paid sometime between paying the deposit and the final payment. The third payment (the remaining 10%) should be only paid when you take over the house in the condition you were expecting according to the contract of sale. In the contract a penalty fee is often included to protect the buyers from buying a messy house. According to this, the sellers need to pay the penalty if the house is not emptied on time (it can be deducted from the last 10% payment). If you can not come to Hungary to check the house’s condition, we can take photos for you to ensure you are getting the house in good order.
5, When the seller received the last payment from you, the lawyer will start finalising your registration at the land registry as the new owner.
6, On the day you pay the last payment, our agency will transfer the utilities to your name within 14 days. You can decide to pay your utility bills online or you may use cheques at a post office. Congratulations! At this point your are the owner of a Hungarian house.
The entire buying process takes a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of 60 days. (However, this applied only to in-zone land. Buying agricultural land or forest is a longer process.)
7, You will receive a certification from the land registry saying that you are the new owner.
8, Within 4 months you will receive a bill from the Hungarian NAV about the wealth acquisition tax (4%) that you will soon need to pay.
How can I buy a farm house, vineyard or agricultural land in Hungary?
The procedure for buying a property in the outskirts in Hungary is the same as described above, with one big difference:
You need to sign the contract the same way as it is mentioned above, however the following process makes gaining full ownership a longer process (6-7 months maximum):
1, Once the lawyer starts registering you at the land registry after signing the contract and paying the deposit, interested local citizens may use their pre-emptive right to buy the property.
2, if no one makes use of their pre-emptive right, this will be recorded in an official document by the municipality. This procedure may take up about 30 days.
3, Once Provincial Land Registry has checked all the data, an approval is sent to the Agricultural Commission. This part of the procedure can also take up to 30 days.
4, The Agricultural Commission writes an opinion about the sale and send it to municipality. This may take up to 30 days.
5, The village municipality needs up to 30 days to finalise the process.
6, At this stage the land registry can register you as the new owner of your house in Hungary. This may also take up to 30 days.
At this stage the property is official yours. If anything goes wrong with the purchase in the process, you will get your deposit back.
We have been in the property business for 8 years in Hungary and sold many agricultural plots. So far we have never seen anyone using their preemptive right. Therefore, it is very unlikely that you would not be able to gain ownership the choice of your property.