How to Sign a Lease in Hungary

We found a flat! It's in an amazing area of town. In District V Belváros, which is the inner city, downtown area. It is the absolute center of Pest. And it is literally 2 minutes from the University and even closer to the major Metro stop.

On Thursday, my roommate and I went to sign the contract. They require us to put down the 1st half of the safety deposit in cash--which was very annoying, since as study abroad students, our only source of readily available Hungarian Forints are from ATM machines, which have a set value of how much you can take out on a daily basis.

Everything is dealt with in cash in Budapest--except for in tourist areas and major shopping centers. They take Visa, Mastercard. American Express (which I have) is limited. We will be paying our rent completely in cash. Most places, however, only accept cash. As someone who usually never carry cash and rely on cards, I find it particularly interesting to suddenly find myself with a bulging wallet of three different currencies.

On Friday, we returned to the management agency to sign the lease. With our second half of the safety deposit, the common cost, and first month's rent. Thankfully, they were kind enough to keep the lease bilingual. But the lease signing requires the presence of a witness. At first the management agency (which is ran out of a converted apartment in a residential building, apparently very common in Hungary) insisted that one of her colleagues be the witness, but we managed to get the director of the study abroad program to come instead. Just in case.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to move in until Monday.

In Hungary, they change the lock every time a new resident moves in. They also hate short term renters. Which means that a 4-month lease is as short as it can be from 90% of the rental agencies. But with the slow global economy, Hungary was hit particularly hard (they ever quite recovered from their Communist economic past to begin with), these days renters will rent anything.

Flat prices are up for negotiation, especially in struggling new developments which stands empty for months on end. If you know the right agent to take you to the right people. It's a city run on money--the lack of it, the excess of it, the pursuit of it.

(It also appears that most houses are owned by "Westerners" not native Hungarians. The apartment building we are renting is owned by an Irishman, managed by a Hungarian rental agency. It is the case with most buildings we saw. The building would be owned by an American, or an Australian, or a Brit, but runned by small Hungarian agencies.)

Apartment Hunting in Budapest

Excuse me. I meant "flats." I think everyone here becomes immensely confused when all the American study abroad kids say "apartment." Ever since my first night here on Monday, all of us has been trying to find a place to live that is closer to the university and therefore also near downtown Budapest, where it would be more convenient and more fun.

The dorms are good, only too far away from everything. It requires a 35 minute commute on a bus and then the metro. My first day using public transportation in Budapest was a little nerve wracking (thankfully a friend took me in). Everything was in Hungarian; all the stops have unpronounceable names; people moving all around you. The stations seemed like sprawling underground labyrinths to me.

Trying to find a flat in the city is one of the best ways to explore the city. I'm getting my bearings a little. Budapest is busy and alive. I love being brought around the city and given a little peek into people's lives.

Many older buildings were built almost 100 years ago. They use to be palaces, back when Budapest had been the capital to an important empire. The doors leading into these old-world buildings are always hidden between shop windows and underneath graffiti. If you didn't know they were there, you would walk right past them without giving them a second look.

But as soon as you walk in, you are greeted by high vaulted ceilings and courtyards, often with a garden. These flats in old converted palaces have high ceilings and double doors; they look like they have been taken straight from the turn of the 20th century: like echoes of old-world splendor and wealth. Dusty iron wrought gates and railings, dilapidated chandeliers, cracked spiral marble staircases. The building itself is truly a vision of the old-world falling into, giving away to the demands of the modern world.

The interiors of these flats, however, are bright, clean, and decidedly new-world: flat screen televisions, internet connections, antique mahogany furniture juxtaposed against IKEA creations. (This is the first thing I learned about Budapest: it is a place truly caught between worlds, the old and new, the East and West, development and stagnation.)

My current roommate in the dorm and I are going to live together again. (This is another thing to know about Budapest: it's always easier to find a 2-bedroom apartment than a 3- or 4-bedroom.) I think we might have found the perfect place but I don't want to jinx it!