Budapest among Europe’s best cities to spend your post-work years

It can be difficult to choose the perfect place to retire, whether you are looking for a quiet seaside town or the cultural life of a historic city. To help those looking for the perfect place to retire where they can enjoy a full-value and comfortable environment, Moneypenny has revealed the best places to retire in Europe based on a number of factors, including average cost of living, required retirement savings and variety of amenities. Budapest is among the best places to spend your post-work years.

Of course, for some of us, one of the key parts of our retirement plan is to potentially up-sticks and move to an entirely new city, one that can perhaps better facilitate our hobbies or simply for a change of scenery, moneypenny.com wrote.

But with so many cities across the UK and Europe, how do you decide which city to retire to when the time comes? To lend you a hand answering this question, we conducted extensive research to uncover the cities in the UK and Europe which offer the best overall retirement experience!

By taking into account numerous factors, including average rent, cost-of-living index, number of green spaces, and how many cafés there are, we were then able to rank the top cities for spending your golden years in.

You may read about the best citied to retire in the United Kingdom HERE.

The best cities to retire in Europe

For those who have their hearts set on emigrating to a country in the EU when retirement time comes, we also ranked the top five cities for retirement in Europe.

For this, we used the same criteria as we did when researching the UK but there are also some key additions, namely the average retirement age and the percentage of healthcare access. These factors help to give a feel for how each city treats its elderly and what you can expect if you were to retire there:

1. Sofia

The capital of Bulgaria, Sofia has a cost-of-living index of 41.2 and a total score of 5.5. This is due to an average rent of £322.36 and utilities of £108.27 a month, which means your minimum retirement savings only need to be £126,301 (the lowest out of our UK and EU rankings).

Sofia has 69% access to healthcare, 27.85% green space, 25 fitness clubs, 2 golf courses and 246 cafés. With a male retirement age of 64.8 and women usually retiring when they’re 62.17, people can generally enjoy their nest eggs earlier than those in the UK.

2. Budapest

Hungary’s capital, Budapest, comes in as the second-best place in Europe to retire. The cost-of-living index here is 43.8 and the city’s total score is 5.1, which comes with a typical rent of £385.27 and utilities averaging at £120.90.

To retire here, your savings will need to be at least £175,420, with both men and women retiring at 65. Green space coverage is 20.03%, healthcare access is 74%, and there are 31 fitness clubs, 4 golf courses and 691 cafés.

Are you considering spending your post-work years in the Hungarian capital? Photo: FB/MTÜ

3. Zagreb

You may notice a pattern at this point, as all of the top 5 European destinations for retirement are capital cities. Zagreb in Croatia has a slightly higher cost-of-living index at 46.5 and a total score of 5.1, plus you’ll need at least £238,852 to retire here comfortably.

Men in Croatia tend to retire when they’re 65 and women a year and a half earlier at 63.5, at which point rent will cost a relatively high £444.30 and utilities £154.93 a month.

Healthcare access in Zagreb is actually the lowest of our top five European cities at 59% but green space is the highest at 53.77%. There are also 11 fitness clubs, 4 golf courses and 146 cafés for you to spend your pension at.

4. Bucharest

At number four it’s Bucharest in Romania. The city’s cost-of-living index is 41.4 and the total score is 5.0, which is thanks to a quite low average monthly rent of £304.50 and utilities of £123.35.

This means that you’ll need only £152,707 in savings to retire in Bucharest, which is a city with a relatively high 74% access to healthcare but only 16.44% green space (the second lowest out of the 50 EU cities we researched).

Still, men in Bucharest retire at 65 and women at 62, at which point they can make full use of the city’s 6 fitness clubs, 1 golf course and 311 cafés.

5. Rome

Last on our list but fifth overall, Rome has a cost-of-living index of 54.6 and a total score of 4.9. This city is the most expensive out of our top five, with an average rent of £565.15 and utility bills coming to £180.18 per month. You’ll also need a lot more saved up if you want to retire in Italy’s capital city, as the minimum recommended pension pot is £316,497.

When it comes to the retirement lifestyle that can be expected in Rome, healthcare access is 68% and there’s 43.03% green space coverage. Add to this a total of 79 fitness clubs, 13 golf courses and a whopping 1,052 cafés, giving men and women plenty of opportunities to relax and socialise when they retire at 67.

Read also:

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