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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.

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Three years ago when asked to point out the place in Europe where the real estate investment should have a higher return in middle term I preferred to look at Dublin, Ireland. Today, after the high-tech balloon that stimulated the speculations in Dublin has ruptured, maybe we should take a look somewhere to the East. Not to the Far East, but to the countries that during the last decade have proven to be safe investments in good times as well as in bad times.

Some people think that the Hungarian capital city of Budapest has already reached its limits of price increases and that the foreign investors should look to find another "Budapest" in Eastern Europe. Having in mind the actual price levels in the city compared to the other major European urban areas and the fact that Hungary is invited to join the European Union in 2004 maybe we should think again about whether to buy a property there.

With prices varying between $1,600 and $600/sq.meter depending on the location and luxury apartments reaching $1,900/sq.meter, Budapest still offers a vast room for rewarding those who decide even now to buy a piece of it. To understand how fast the prices have risen in Budapest, we have to look not so far to the past when communism collapsed in Hungary in late 80's. When the capitalist oriented reforms began in the country, the prices in the capital didn't exceed $200/sq.meter. To realize how far and how up these prices can go from now on, we should compare Budapest with some other major cities in Central Europe, such as Berlin and Munich (Germany), Milan (Italy) or Vienna (Austria). The prices there are 2-3 times higher than in Budapest and this comparison takes account of the luxury as well as of the ordinary properties. Compared to some of the most expensive European cities in terms of property prices like Paris and London, where the costs are 5-6 times higher, Budapest looks really very inexpensive.

Within Budapest (more exactly within Buda and Pest, which are situated at the opposite sides of the river Danube), there is a strict demarcation of areas and some local agents say that the price often reflects the district location* rather than the quality of the property. The foreigners so far preferred to buy properties in district V (Pest) but as the prices there reached the average of $1,500/sq.meter they have turned their attention to the more affordable districts VI and VII (both in Pest).

And finally here is some additional good news for the investors, which is coming from the world of politics. The Budapest city mayor Gabor Demszky from the centrist Alliance of Free Democrats has won his fourth term in office, which confirms the political and economic stability in the country. For me even a more important fact in this election is that the candidates of both radical left- and right-wing parties received together less than 20% of the votes. So there are no political dangers on the horizon for the investors.

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* - The districts in Budapest are designated with Roman numerals - I, II... V... X etc.

(Some facts and data in this article are kindly provided by Casaro Hungary Ltd. - Real Estate Investments)

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Hungary.