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...
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...
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. That's where much...
Lake Balaton property is entering a new phase. The post-pandemic buying frenzy has cooled, demand has fallen sharply from its peak, and buyers are behaving differently than they were just a few years ago. Yet the most interesting shift is not the slowdown itself. It...
Snow’s begun falling in the far southwest, blanketing fields in a way that reminds me of crisp Canadian winters - quite different from our usual damp Budapest January. With cold weather settling in, it’s the perfect time to tackle those holiday empties through...
It’s 19 December, and Budapest has slipped into that familiar pre-Christmas state where everyone seems to be doing three errands at once. Andrew and I are trying to wrap things up before the pace slows. Christmas Eve will be at my mother’s, as it always is, and...
We’ve just come out of a long weekend of remembrance for the 1956 Revolution, and I ended it with something more joyful - celebrating my mother’s 80th birthday at DNB Budapest, surrounded by family and the kind of food that makes you grateful to live here. The Danube...
I was genuinely surprised when I first learned how inheritance works here in Hungary. Having lived in Canada, the US, and the UK, I’d always assumed that if you left a will naming your spouse as your sole heir, that would be that. Simple. But in Hungary, the law has...
As watch the bins being hauled out this morning - first chilly one of October - I realised our street in Budapest looked a little more alert than usual. Lids properly shut. No artful pyramids of recycling. It’s not paranoia: MOHU waste collection rules 2025 kicked in...
It’s mid-August, and in Budapest we’re still wiping away the sweat after the hottest summer on record. Yet, while I’m watering the plants and dodging tiny flying gnats, my thoughts are already turning to radiators, bills, and boiler checks. Such is life here: autumn...
I’m Anikó Woods, a Canadian-Hungarian who’s been knee-deep in life here since 2017 - bureaucracy, culture, and everything in between.
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