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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Budapest: Time to investAfter more than 2 years of political pressure and administrative obstacles of different kind, it appears that the foreigners can at last enjoy the liberty of buying real estate in the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. So the investors can go to the country looking for relatively cheap by the European standards properties but they always have to remember that Hungary like any other former communist country has some specifics that can surprise the buyers. The problems for the foreigners began in 2000 when the Hungarian Prime minister Victor Orban called for reconsidering the existing property laws and for imposing stricter regulations on foreign ownership of real estate*. The Prime minister then argued that an unrestricted access of foreigners to the market would make Hungarians foreigners in their own country. As a matter of fact so far less than 1% of all properties in the capital have been sold to foreign nationals. Orban's proposals 2 years ago followed a decision by the Budapest Office of Public Administration (OPA) to set a quota on property deals in a single year by foreign nationals on a country-by-country basis. In fact since the end of 2000 the head of OPA has been blamed for arbitrary denying non-Hungarian citizens permits for purchasing real estate in the capital city**. As a result the foreign nationals have been advised by some local realtors to establish a company for buying a property, especially when they want to purchase several properties at a time. Now the Office is reported to have liberalized to some extent its procedures making it easier for foreigners to buy a property in Budapest. Administrative rulings obstructing property purchases by foreigners have been nullified by Court decisions. More than that, the new head of OPA decided that there would be no longer national quotas for buying properties, and that in case of denial of permit, the OPA must prove that the purchase would violate the welfare of the society. The principle of mutuality*** won't be relevant any more. So when it comes to buy only one apartment in the city, the local realtors advise to go to the market as individual buyer without establishing a company. When the goal is to resell the property soon, it's more convenient to do it as a company. The foreigners are also advised to obtain bank credits from their countries of origin before arriving on the real estate market in Hungary. In theory they can do this also in Hungary but they should wait for several months before the loan is given. By this time the property they have wished to buy would have been sold to someone else.
- - - ** - Hungarian law says that a non-Hungarian citizen must apply for a permit from the local authorities in order to purchase property in the country. *** - Is allows permits only to foreigners, whose countries allow Hungarian citizens to buy properties.
(In this article some facts and data are kindly provided by Casaro Hungary Ltd. - Real Estate Investments) --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Hungary.
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