Danube region flooded with Germans and Dutch, factories brimming with Filipinos

One in twenty buyers in the Hungarian property market is foreign, with the Transdanubian and Lake Balaton regions being particularly popular. At the same time, the Hungarian labour market is also flooded with migrant workers, especially from the Philippines.

Foreign buyers in the Hungarian property market

Roughly one in twenty buyers on the Hungarian property market are foreigners, accounting for 4-5% of the 5-6 thousand properties purchased each year. László Balogh, chief economist at ingatlan.com, said these are not just investments, many live here or spend most of the year in Hungary.

People from different countries come to our country with different preferences 24.hu writes. Chinese, Vietnamese, Israeli and Russian buyers are concentrated in the capital, Budapest.

While Germans (30% of foreign buyers), Dutch, Swiss, Austrian and Belgian buyers prefer to look for property in the countryside. The most popular areas are in the Transdanubian and Lake Balaton regions. They mostly come not to work or study but to settle down. Many of them are retired people who receive their pensions from their home country, which allows them to live their best lives in Hungary.

Foreign workers in Hungary

At the same time, the number of foreign workers in Hungary is rising. Due to labour shortages, more and more guest workers are arriving, with the number currently reaching over 100,000.

So far, workers have mostly come from neighbouring countries, but this trend is changing and in the near future workers will come from further afield, typically from third countries.

As far as the length of stay is concerned, according to the legislation, the residence permit of a guest worker entitles the individual to stay in Hungary for a fixed period of up to two years, which may be extended for a maximum of one year, for the sole purpose of employment.

Experience so far shows that migrant workers move on after two years. The problem is that there is currently a serious labour shortage in Hungary, with 78,000 people missing from the labour market.

Contrary to popular belief, employing guest workers is not cheap, as they have to pay a great deal of additional expenses, making it on average 30% more costly to employ a third-country national than a local worker.

According to vg.hu, foreign workers are most likely to find jobs in logistics and agriculture in Hungary. The proportion of Filipinos is extremely high, with 80% of the population working abroad.