Basement Flat in Budapest: What You Can Legally Do
Updated July 2026. What changed this year: on 22 July 2026 the government confirmed it will not relax the rules. Those rules keep most below-grade spaces off the legal housing market, despite a tight supply of flats. My first place after leaving home was a basement...
Short-Term Rentals in Budapest, District by District
Updated July 2026 District VIII is the latest to reach for the brakes. This month Józsefváros began drafting its own caps on short-term lets, following District VI, which banned them outright on 1 January 2026. That is what makes short-term rentals in Budapest a...
Hungary Work Permit Reform: What’s Proposed?
Hungary work permit reform is back on the table, but nothing has changed yet. A coalition of immigration, legal and business organisations wants to replace the fragmented system introduced in 2024 with one default work permit, the EU Blue Card and a small number of...
Közös Költség: Common Costs in Hungary
If you’ve ever looked at a property listing in Hungary, you’ve probably come across közös költség, or common costs. It’s a monthly fee paid towards the running of an apartment building, but what it actually includes depends entirely on the building....
I’m Anikó Woods, a Canadian-Hungarian who’s been knee-deep in life here since 2017 - bureaucracy, culture, and everything in between.