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Hungary

As we get older our priorities usually change. Health provision, security, ease of transportation and being able to fund a life style better than when living in the UK. To that mind, having experienced life in all four corners of the world and having been retired abroad for 19 years (8 in Spain), I would view Hungary as a good choice for many reasons.
If below retirement age you can buy into their health service for around £20 a month. If retired and you take up residence then the NHS is free and includes free dentistry as well. The NHS is comparable with UK but more importantly, timely. I stepped on a rusty nail recently, phoned my GP who said go to A&E. Drove to the town hospital, was seen by a Doctor, tetanus jab and out the door in 15 minutes. Yesterday I phoned the village dentist and told him a loose, amalgam filled molar was playing up. Come down now he said as I'm going on holiday tomorrow. 5 mins to his surgery, straight into the chair, injection, wait 10 and examination of remaining pegs, then extraction and out the door. I can't imagine being able to phone your doc or dentist in the UK. Hospital food is dire and you have to take your own kfs and toilet rolls but the treatment very good with modern equipment and the money is spent at the front end.
Most if not all villages have a GP, Dentist, Post Office, Pubs, Restaurants and shops.
Public transport is cheap and free for pensioners. Any train, tube, bus or tram at any time anywhere in the country. Car tax is a local one and in my village is about £30.
Large 4 bed detached house on quarter acre with garage with all mod cons in a decent village around Lake Balaton will cost anything between 50 and 150K depending on condition. My council tax is £60 pa.
Food, booze, fags and eating out is cheap, the motorway connects with the rest of Europe (I can drive to the Chunnel in about 15 hours), It takes me about 5 hours to the Croatian Coast, 2 to Vienna, 7 to Venice.
Children are polite and always speak, it's generally a safe and clean environment with cold but dry winter's and hot summer's. Zero alcohol tolerance driving. The language could be a problem but most professionals speak English and it is taught in school but in everyday life I find that a mix of pointing, a little German, Hungarian and English does the trick.
Around 300 Brits live or have holiday homes in various locations around the western end of lake Balaton.

I hope this gives an insight to life in Central Europe. Feel free to pm me if you have any personal questions.
 
I've got a place there - not far from the Lake. Live in the UK but get out there a few times a year. Been there on and off for 17 years and got a working grasp of the language.

Do you live there full-time? Do you need to earn money?

I've considered it but think I might get bored - I'm 25 years off retirement age, but guess I could sell UK assets and have enough to do nothing there for a few decades.
 
I've got a place there - not far from the Lake. Live in the UK but get out there a few times a year. Been there on and off for 17 years and got a working grasp of the language.

Do you live there full-time? Do you need to earn money?

I've considered it but think I might get bored - I'm 25 years off retirement age, but guess I could sell UK assets and have enough to do nothing there for a few decades.

We live here full time and been retired for 19 years. Pensions go a long way here and as wages are low you would find it difficult to find employment unless working for yourself. House prices are on the up, mainly because Germans are fed up with Merkel and her policies so emigrating here. More self- supporting Europeans also incoming. Something to do with Hungarian strong anti illegal immigrant policies I suspect.
 
I travelled there when it was behind the Iron Curtain, I thought it was a wonderful country and the people are lovely, kept in touch with a few of them
I might go back one day
 
As on overseas property owner I would say rent dont buy for the first year , you will find unbelievable levels of corruption and bureaucratic crap in most of Europe , as a tenant you can up sticks and off any time you feel like it.
Brits are often seen as a source of income by many back woods communities throughout eastern Europe.
 

It's cheap but nothing unusual over there. House prices have been static or falling for a while. Estate agents are a relatively new concept there - most sales will be done privately. Best to visit, drive around the areas you like and look for houses with for sale (elado) signs on them. Labour is cheap so don't be put off by something needing work.

There was a Ben Fogle tv series recently that visited a couple who had upped sticks and moved to the back end of nowhere in Hungary.
 
Yrs ago we bought an F Reg Renault Traffic which looked like just Zak Dingles van

Bloke told me to buy property in Hungary....

Van had swastika's craved into the steering wheel, no proper key, but went link stink....
 
Are you a secret agent?
NO
I was visiting the country with my younger brother , we stayed with friends, and took messages from the expat Hungarian Community
we visited a Massive store in Budapest, you could buy a complete motorcycle engine, pretty cool that
and we stayed at lake Balaton and saw Shooting stars and drunk Germans walking arm in arm singing
some of them seemed to treat it as a second home !
I drunk Magyar Bikaver and was violently sick much to the amusement of the family we stayed with ( I am intolerant to alcohol)
I rode a Motorcycle into the lake
and dried it back out
and I eat Gypsy meat at the local cafe
and real Goulash
what a life
oddly our cases were considerably lighter when we came back !
 

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