Budapest among the best cities for bargain lovers

Copenhagen, Denmark is the best city for bargain lovers in Europe. Recognised as the green capital of the world, the city scores first for its highly rated flea and street markets, antique stores and outlets.

That’s according to the latest study by Confused.com (Q3 2022), where research reveals the best cities in Europe for bargain hunters. To do this, the experts created a points-based index system evaluating the volume and quality of markets, antique stores and factory outlets in 51 European countries. They gave each country a bargain index score out of 10.

This study reveals the hotspots offering the best deals for vintage furniture, unique home items, antique jewellery and branded clothing. And whilst bargain lovers are looking for just that, it’s essential that they get the right amount of contents insurance when obtaining these one-off pieces.

Read alsoHungarian international airport to close in October

The results:

Budapest ranks fifth best city for bargain lovers

Budapest, Hungary, is the fifth-best city for bargain lovers in Europe, scoring 7.04 out of 10 in the bargain hunters index. The quality of the Hungarian capital’s antique stores (4.40/5) scored over 17% higher than neighbouring country Tallinn, Estonia (3.65/10). Bargain hunters in Budapest benefit from a higher variety of stores with 80% more markets than in Bucharest, Romania (0.15 per 100,000 people). The quality of factory outlets in the Hungarian city also scored highly in the study with an average rating of 4.11 out of 5. This is over 20% higher than Germany’s capital, Berlin (3.27/5).

Latvia — Riga, Latvia is the second-best city for bargain lovers in Europe, scoring 8.12 out of 10 in the bargain hunters index. With the country’s growing interest in sustainable shopping practices(1), Riga has the highest-rated antique stores of all the top 10 countries analysed (4.81/5). The capital scores 24% higher for its antique stores than neighbouring country Estonia (Tallinn, 3.65) which ranks 30th in the overall results. For those looking for discounted clothing outlets, Riga also scores highly with an average rating of 4.21/5. Bargain lovers are spoiled for choice in the capital, as Riga is home to the highest volume of outlets (0.67 per 100,000 people). This is over three times the number of outlet stores than in the capital of neighbouring country Sweden (Göteborg, with 0.19 per 100,000).

Read alsoBudapest transport company introduced new ticket packages for tourists

The third-best city for bargain lovers is Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with a bargain index score of 8.09 out of 10. Amsterdam boasts the second-highest average rating of the top 10 for its clothing outlets (4.49/5), outranked only by Porto, Portugal (4.73/5). This marks the Dutch capital as one of the ultimate cities for discounted clothing. Bargain hunters can find high quality antique stores in Amsterdam (rated 4.49/5). As well as a great variety of stores to discover, the city boasts the second-highest number of antique shops of all 51 cities analysed (2.42 per 100,000 people). This is almost 5 times more than London, United Kingdom (0.50 per 100,000 people) and over 6 times more than Berlin, Germany (0.38 per 100,00 people).

Methodology

1. Confused.com conducted this research with the aim of identifying the best countries for bargain hunters. The purpose of this study was to find the hotspots offering the best deals for vintage furniture, unique home items, antique jewellery and branded clothing.
2. To do this, the experts created a points-based index system which assesses the volume and quality of flea and street markets, antique stores and factory outlets in 51 European countries. Each country then received a bargain index score out of 100; which was rounded and presented as figures out of 10 for this press release.
3. Firstly, population data was scraped from the Natural Earth Populated Places(2) dataset to curate a list of the top European cities together with their estimated population size.
4. For each city, the number and ratings of antique stores, flea & street markets and factory outlets were collected from a reputable online review site. The data was then used to calculate numbers per capita, numbers per 100,000 people and an average of the weighted ratings.
5. A final index was calculated based on the above metrics, ranking Each European city by taking the average percentage rank of the numbers per 100,000 and the weighted ratings.
6. All data was collected in July 2022 and is correct as of then.

Source: confused.com