Budapest’s hotels targeted by foreign investors at extremely low prices

The currently closed hotels of Budapest have become the main target of foreign investors who think they can get a building for half or a quarter price during the pandemic; however, hotels insist on their pre-Covid prices. Accordingly, no deal has been made yet, but what can be expected later on?

Just like everywhere in the world, as a result of the pandemic, tourism has practically ceased in the Hungarian capital as well. The hotels are closed, the staff are sent away – with very few exceptions who try to keep their employees until the end of the virus. Therefore, it would be logical for the hotel owners to offer for sale their unutilised buildings which do not bring any profit in the current situation but instead cost a lot due to their maintenance.

Based on this line of thought, a multitude of foreign investors emerged in the hotel market of Budapest; however, no business has been done so far.

“There is no crisis, just blocking!” – this is how Tamás Flesch, the president of the Association of Hungarian Hotels and Restaurants, thinks about the situation, and as a co-owner of the Continental Group, he runs a hotel management company. According to the tourism expert, such sales are not indispensable to be realised yet due to the current credit moratorium; thanks to which, the development loans do not have to be repaid yet, so there is nothing to force the owners to sell. According to Flesch,

this situation is so stable that no large sales can be expected in the upcoming weeks or months.

The tourism expert also added that the ongoing hotel constructions in the capital will not stop either, because the sector is confident that life will return to normal next year and tourists will return to the Hungarian capital. This is reassured by the fact that numerous hotels are still being built in the downtown of Pest bordered by the Danube and the Grand Boulevard.