The Tisza government is scrapping the Orbán government’s 300 billion forint office deal in the Zugló district of Budapest, PM Péter Magyar said on Facebook on Monday.
Péter Magyar found irregularities concerning the Zugló office building contract
“The Tisza government is withdrawing from the purchase of the Zugló office complex and will demand the return of the more than 300 billion forints in public funds already paid by the [previous] Orbán government,” Péter Magyar said. He added that during the legal and financial review, the Hungarian National Asset Manager (MNV) found numerous breaches of contract, with nearly half of the closing conditions unmet.
The Zugló local council’s pre-emption right on the properties remained in place, even though the contract required this burden to be removed before closing. “That is why we are now withdrawing from the contract,” Magyar said. Magyar said the energy crisis clearly demonstrated the consequences of a government delaying for years investments that truly served the country’s security and the interests of its people, while spending hundreds of billions of forints “enriching business circles, relatives, and friends” close to it.
Public money should have been spent on Paks upgrade
“The safety of the Paks nuclear plant could have been significantly strengthened with a timely investment of a few tens of billions of forints. The energy crisis we now face could have been avoided,” he said. The Orbán government chose to spend 700 billion forints of public funds on “building and purchasing new, overpriced office buildings instead of investing in energy security or health care”, he said.
“A government’s true priorities are always revealed by how it spends our public money. The Tisza government chooses the security of the Hungarian people, functioning public services, and infrastructure resilient to crises and challenges.”
“The more than 300 billion forints (cca EUR 820,000) in public funds already paid by the Orbán government is enough to replace all the suburban trains, build hundreds of wind farms, or construct significant energy storage capacity,” he said. “This unnecessary multi-billion office investment was, in reality, a symbol of Fidesz governance,” he added.
“We will not move into the legacy of the Orbán system“
Magyar said the “panic-stricken” NER (system of national cooperation under the previous government) was doing “everything to hold on to the money” they had accrued during Fidesz’s time in power, and were in for a “potentially lengthy legal battle”. “We will not move into the legacy of the Orbán system. Not into the Carmelite Palace, not into the Tiborcz-circle office buildings. And we will reclaim what can be reclaimed. We will spend the Hungarian people’s money on things that truly serve the country’s security: functional hospitals, reliable railways, strong public services, and an energy system prepared for the challenges of the future.”
The Zugló office complex is a real estate development in the area behind Bosnyák Square. Originally intended as a new district centre, the mega-investment was built by the Bayer Construct Group. According to the 2021 November residential forum presentation, the Zugló City Centre was designed as a mixed-use development, including green spaces, public areas, offices, a commercial street, and residential buildings. The project was planned in four phases.
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In 2021, the government declared the Zugló City Centre project a nationally strategic investment, and six additional decrees later defined the construction rules, urban design requirements, public space development, and land use, exempting the project from local regulations.
The completed project, which has since been completed, now covers nearly 7 hectares behind Bosnyak Square. It includes seven large office buildings and the Zenit Corso shopping centre, which opened in autumn 2025. The state purchased the completed buildings for 244 billion forints to create a new government quarter.
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