Almost here: Hungary launches “historic” home loan scheme in September
The “most important” home purchase programme since the change of regime in Hungary some 35 years ago will launch on 1 September, state secretary Miklós Panyi said at a weekly government press briefing on Wednesday.
The 3pc fixed-rate Home Start credit for first-time home buyers is expected to help “tens of thousands” of young Hungarians, Panyi said. He added that the scheme offered security, free of exchange rate and interest rate risk, over the maturity of the loan, up to 25 years.
Panyi said the interest subsidy on the credit would save borrowers HUF 60,000 on instalments on a HUF 20m loan, HUF 90,000 on a HUF 30m loan and HUF 150,000 on a HUF 50m loan.
He noted that higher earners would be eligible for bigger loans, adding that a borrower who earns gross monthly HUF 600,000 could take out HUF 26m of the credit. He said the 10% down payment for the scheme would broaden accessibility to the home market for young Hungarians.
Gulyás: Government to approve industry, workplace protection plan within two weeks
The cabinet will approve an industry and workplace protection action plan that seeks to mitigate the impact of the tariffs agreement between the European Union and the United States within two weeks, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said at a weekly press briefing on Wednesday.
Gulyás said the foreign affairs and trade minister had started consultations with big companies impacted by the tariff agreements. He added that the agreement would put Europe at an economic disadvantage and contained pledges that the European Commission had no right to make, as they were in the scope of the power of member states.
He said talks with ten big companies had taken place, and those companies took a similar or identical stance as the government’s on the negative impact of the EU-US tariffs deal. The EC needs to clarify its mandate to reach the deal and explain how it aims to fulfil a pledge to make USD 750bn of strategic purchases from the US, he added.
Gulyás: Ruling against Bosnian Serb leader destabilising factor in Balkans
The court ruling against Bosnian Serb president Milorad Dodik is “clearly a destabilising factor” in the Balkans, Gulyás said. He told a regular government press briefing that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had met Dodik on Tuesday.
“We believe that the dangers are significant, and that the Balkans is once again a powder keg that could become a war hotspot,” Gulyás said. “The more war hotspots there are in the world, the greater the risk of a world war.”
Gulyás said the Hungarian government considered the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina “absurd”, arguing that the stability of the country and the Balkans as a whole would be strengthened if the West pulled out of the region. He said it was “unprecedented” for the Dayton Peace Agreement to be used for creating a criminal law for sentencing a president and removing him from office.
He said Europe’s interests lay in a stable Balkans region whose countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, could be integrated into the European Union. But the latest developments, he said, were undermining the existing stability and creating instability with “unpredictable consequences”.
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