Visiting Hungary as a tourist can entice you to the idea of moving to the country. It happens, yes, although it can also happen that you get a job offer here. In fact, most people who I know who came to the country to study or to work, stayed for longer than originally planned. However, as a tourist you only see the magic of the country, or the magic of that city you visited. In the case of Hungary’s capital, Budapest, it enchants its visitors with culture, history and visual gratification. If you are considering moving to Hungary for a short term (1-2 years), this list might be interesting, but perhaps not highly important. On the other hand if you are planning a longer term, the decision involves more research, consideration and planning.
If you already decided, but have not arrived yet, I recommend you to go through this other guide: Step-by-step guide: how to move and settle in Hungary
Coming back to this one, this list gives you a summary of Hungary´s big picture in 2023. I selected the topics based on everything I heard from foreigners since I arrived back in 2006, but also based on the changes the country experienced in the last couple of years.
Self-awareness
Whether you are considering Hungary as a digital nomad, or to study, to work or to connect with your roots or to reunite with your family, the decision process is best if accompanied by some self-awareness. If after researching you feel Hungary is for you, go ahead. But if you feel you should not come, better to stay still. That is my personal recommendation. I personally know many people who, despite challenges, love living in Hungary. And I also know people who after 3 months of living here went back to their countries disappointed and frustrated.
Disclaimer: all my writing is mainly from a Budapest point of view because of 2 reasons. I always lived in Budapest and second, most foreigners live in Budapest.
I will start with the pros and then the cons:
Pros
1 Labour shortage
Last year, after more than a decade in the corporate world, I changed from telecommunications to tourism. I was working in a multinational as a Project Manager for years, but now I am a Tour Guide, Travel planner and Inmigration Consultant. Even after a year of being inactive as a Project Manager I get calls and emails from HR people who see my profile in LinkedIn. Labour shortage is real in Hungary, and this is not new, but now it is worse than ever and this cannot be solved in a couple of years. The labour shortage in Hungary and in some other European countries is a big problem and it will take years and years to be solved because it is tightly connected with the demographic crisis. I will not go into boring details here but the bottom line is that if you decide to come to Hungary, you will have plenty of opportunities for work and for growth.
2 Low Corporate Tax
Besides labour shortage, Hungary has the lowest corporate tax in the European Union, which has attracted and will continue to attract foreign companies to establish in the country, thus creating more jobs. A couple of examples of multinational companies established in Hungary: Audi, Bosch, Mercedes-Benz, BlackRock, SAP, Wise, Tata Consultancy Services, Samsung, Unicredit, Citigroup, Microsoft, BT, Nokia, Diageo, BP, Vodafone, Suzuki.
3 Labour laws
In general labour laws in Hungary are employee friendly and the vast majority of organisations respect those laws, especially multinationals. For example, you have 20 base working days of annual vacations and they increase with your age and also depending on how many children you have. Another example, when you are on official sick leave, you still get paid a percentage of your salary. In the case of 1 or 2 days of sick leave, this doesn’t seem as important, but in case you get sick for 2 weeks, it is important. Another example, the official maternity leave is of 24 months and in that period you also get a percentage of your salary. Additionally, the company where you were working is obliged by law to hire you back. As a last example, after the probation period companies cannot fire that easily without compensation. They can only lay off an employee without compensation after 2 warnings, and both need to be documented with evidence.
4 Job opportunities
Opportunities in Hungary are diverse and getting a job is relatively easy. It is not easy though and much depends on what languages you speak. The truth of the matter is that both white and blue collar workers will find job opportunities. Some professions are limited because of the language though, for example doctors will need to speak an advanced level of Hungarian. Another example is accountants, although accountants can work in multinationals as well. The languages with the most demand in Hungary are: English as a base language of course. In a multinational, where the majority of foreigners work, no Hungarian language is needed. Besides English, if you speak German, French or Spanish, opportunities will rain. Let me emphasise something. If you speak only German, or only French or only Spanish, it will be difficult to get a job. If you speak only English, that is no problem, but if you speak English and apart from that any of those 3 languages, you will be able to cherry-pick.
5 Low cost of life
Although unfortunately it is not as cheap as 2 or 3 years ago, Hungary continues to be one of the cheapest countries in Europe. Budapest, its capital, even if it has the highest cost of living in the whole country, compared to other European cities, it is still cheap. How cheap? There is a lot to be written in an article to answer that question, so I will better refer you to Numbeo which is a cost of living index website. With that website you can compare the costs of living of pretty much any country.
6 Hungarian forint
That a country, member of the European Union, has its own currency, is a double edge sword. But let’s not go into economics, and let’s put it from your own perspective. In general, Hungary is cheaper because of the forint. Now, if your income is in euros, but you spend in forints in Hungary, you will have a stronger personal purchasing power. By the way, Hungary is a member state of the European Union, but ever since it joined in 2004, it has not introduced the euro. The government has 2030 as an estimated year to introduce it, but that will depend on whether it complies with the conditions to adopt the currency.
7 Travel hub
Because its strategic position and geography, travelling from Hungary to pretty much anywhere in Europe and other non-European countries, is relatively fast, cheap and simple. It can be by car, or by train, or bus, or plane. It doesn’t matter what you prefer, Hungary is in the centre of Europe, it is mostly plains and it has 7 neighbouring countries. If you move to Hungary and you like travelling, or need to travel a lot because of work, it’s going to be easy.
8 People are open minded and welcoming
Hungarians are open minded and welcoming, but only after a while, most times that will not be the first impression. They need time and they will love you if you are authentic, courteous and humble. At the beginning though, they will seem close, very formal and perhaps you might even feel they dislike you. Despite that impression, in the mid or long term, they are friendly, loving and welcoming people. In one of my walking tours a tourist from Spain told me it was his eleventh time in Budapest and he always came back because it’s his favourite city. The first time, he came in a student exchange program 21 years ago and he is still friends with a Hungarian he met at that time. Having said that, in the short term Hungarians might not seem friendly, but in the long term, they are very loyal friends.
9 Low bureaucracy for expats
Once I watched a video about moving to Germany and the process of getting a residence or work permit as a third-country national. According to that video, the process to get a permit goes through 7 different ministries. In other words, it is highly bureaucratic. Now, if you look up in Google what are the easiest countries to get a work permit, Germany will come in the TOP 10 list. Contradicting? Yes. Anyway, after some more research, I didn’t find Hungary as one of the easiest, nor as one of the hardest, so I guess it is average. I would not say it is easy, but definitely it is not as complex. After helping many people to get residence permits, I can describe it as somehow tricky because of a variety of details and because of the language. If one makes a mistake in the application or the documents, that will generate a seemingly never ending and slow e-mail ping-pong between the applicant and the Immigration Office, which for some people can be stressful, moreover much time will be lost.
I have a variety of articles about those processes for EU citizens and also for third-country nationals, please see below:
- Guide to all types of visas and residence permits in Hungary
- Hungary: all types of visas or residence permits for students
- Work in Hungary: guide to get the residence permit for work
- Hungary: all types of permanent residence permits explained
10 Work life balance
In Panama, most people work from Monday to Saturday. Saturdays people work until midday only. This is not all industries, but most. I mention and compare to Panama because I am panamanian. In Hungary Saturdays are not a working day, and in many sectors there is an unwritten rule of leaving the office at 1 or 2 o clock on Fridays. Saturdays and Sundays are for leisure and family. There are always exceptions to the rule depending on your profession and position, but here it is not a habit to call employees after working hours or during the weekend.
11 You can live and work in English
In some countries in Europe, even though many desperately need foreign workforce, it is extremely difficult to get a job without speaking the official language. Hungary is not like that. I myself learned the language, but it was never a requirement for any of the jobs I got in the last 17 years. And I know many people who don’t speak the language and like me, never needed it for work. Is it useful to learn Hungarian? Yes, Hungarians love when foreigners learn the language, even if only a couple of words, so I would learn only the basics to get some more smiles in my daily life. Obviously if you want to learn it, all the way to advanced level, no problem. I did not rush, I learned it in 7 years going with the flow and do not regret it at all.
12 Transportation system
All foreigners, at least in Budapest, are fascinated with public transport and I am not an exception. If you live in Budapest, where most foreigners live, you just don’t need a car. Public transport is superb and you will get around pretty much anywhere within 30-40 minutes. Apart from that it is cheap, only 25 euros or 30 dollars for the monthly pass which gives you unlimited travel. It cannot get better than that.
13 Safety
Hungary, according to the Global Peace Index, is on the TOP 20 safest countries in the world. That is an index calculated based on the following indicators: number of internal and external violent conflicts, level of distrust, political instability, potential for terrorist acts, number of homicides, and military expenditures as a percentage of GDP. Hungary is in fact number 18 this year, together with countries such as Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Japan and Switzerland.
14 Home office
Even before the pandemic, home office was common in many multinational companies. Not in every type of company though. However, after 2020 it became widespread. You will be able to read in many job listings that the company has home office as a policy. Remote work is not so common nonetheless. In other words, most times you will need to go to the office once or twice a week. You will not be able to work entirely remotely like in other countries where you can live 300 or 400 kilometres away from your office (like in another province) and never go there. That is rather rare.
Politics
I do not categorise this topic as a pro, nor as con. Why? Because for some people it might be a pro and for others it might be a con. There are people moving to Hungary because of the current government and also the other way around. There are people leaving the country because of the government. And I will leave it there. If you would like more information, research or contact me to schedule an audio or video call.
Cons
1 Low salaries
To state salaries are low (or high) in a country is not an easy task. Of course, I can say the minimum salary in Hungary is one of the lowest of the European Union, because it is like that. But most probably you are not moving to Hungary for a minimum salary. Perhaps it is more helpful if I tell you that the average monthly net salary is around 1000 euros (398 000 Hungarian forint). That is what you can make working in an average position in a multinational company. But, a salary means nothing if not compared to the cost of living. Renting a small apartment in Budapest for example is around 390 euro (150,000 Hungarian forint).
To conclude this topic, forget everything that I just wrote and keep in mind that it will all depend on what job offer (and salary offer) you get from the company you apply to. The best salaries though are in the following industries: energy, finances and information technology. It might be that for your profession, in the company you are working for, and adjusted to cost of living, you will be earning more than in other Western European cities famous for having high salaries.
2 Inflation
Within the European Union, this year Hungary scores the highest inflation with 24.5% while the EU average is 7.0%. Last year the official figure was 26.2%. This is one of the reasons the country is not as cheap as it used to be 2 years ago. The Hungarian National Bank, as many, many national banks, has increased the interest rates a lot, but it didn’t help much. When will inflation improve? I do not dare to say.
3 Language
Even though I wrote you don’t need Hungarian language to live and work in Hungary, some people don’t feel it that way. Let me tell you a real life example. You are in a supermarket and you are allergic to lactose. You are unsure whether a product has or doesn’t have lactose and you ask the staff. The person you asked doesn’t speak English and because of that, it doesn’t feel comfortable and is not as nice with you. That transforms into an uncomfortable situation and you end up that day in a bad mood thinking: I am paying and they do not help me or perhaps you even think Hungarians are racists. If you are the kind of person who takes this type of situation to the bottom of their hearts, then the language might be a great difficulty.
4 International food
There are 3 things I miss the most about Panama. First my family, second food, and third nature. It is impossible for me to bring my family here and also impossible to bring panamanian jungles and beaches here. So, food sounds as the only thing I can perhaps bring or get. But no. I can get some things, like yuca or plantain, or mango, although the flavour is not the same. However there is stuff that I will never be able to get or cook. Ingredients are difficult to get or just too expensive if bought regularly. My only fortune is that I love all types of food including Hungarian food. Not everything though, I will never eat pasta with poppy seeds and powdered sugar. Never. I will eat for sure, and many, many times, Hungarian potato casserole.
Thing is that international food is not as popular here, although it has improved a lot in the last 5 years, but not for everybody. For people from big countries like India, China, Italy, the United States, France and so on, it is a bit easier to get stuff. But for people like me, from a tiny country, it is close to impossible.
5 Budapest versus other cities or the countryside
Any other city or town in Hungary is completely different to its capital, Budapest. There are foreigners who love living close to the Balaton lake, or in Debrecen or in Győr or in Pécs, but the truth of the matter is that anywhere that is not Budapest, opportunities are lower or at least different. And I am not only talking about job opportunities, I am also talking about health care services, schools, nightlife, cultural events, leisure activities, etc. My recommendation is that if you are going to move to a city that is not Budapest, research double in what interests you. For example, if you are coming with kids and moving to a medium size town, if possible, check schools before deciding on moving to Hungary.
6 People – close minded and not welcoming
In the pros, above, I wrote that Hungarian people are open and welcoming. So, why would I write that Hungarians are closed minded and unwelcoming. Yes, you guessed it, because the first impression will be that they are close and unwelcoming. In other words, I wrote this to emphasise a bit more that with many Hungarians you will not feel welcome, but if you have patience, in a couple of months you will feel very welcome. What is my advice? In general, just don’t take it personal and be courteous even if someone is not courteous with you. Believe me, it will pay off.
7 Rental prices in Budapest
Rental prices have been increasing in the last years, yet they are cheaper than in many european capitals. I will not explain much, here are the average numbers:
In the city centre:
Small apartment (30 metres): 350 to 500 euros
Medium size apartment (60 metres): 450 to 650 euros.
Large size apartment (90 metres): 600 to 800 euros.
In the outskirts (30 minutes from the city):
Small apartment (30 metres): 250 to 350 euros
Medium size apartment (60 metres): 400 to 475 euros.
Large size apartment (90 metres): 500 to 600 euros.
8 Public education system
There is a shortage of teaching staff in Hungary, but for many years. And on top of that, the government has been introducing some reforms which allegedly could further impact that shortage. This means that the few teachers who stay in the system will have more work, and the quality of the education could be impacted negatively.
By the way, I am not sure whether this could impact private schools as well. That is yet to be seen.
9 Health system
Similarly, there is a shortage of healthcare professionals and the reason for them leaving their professions is the workload. That is perhaps the reason why I have heard many friends or acquaintances of mine in the last couple of years talking about hospitals being slow.
One thing though, many multinationals have in their standard benefits package private health insurance.
10 Weather
Explained very shortly, Hungary´s winters are cold, summers are hot and spring together with autumn are unpredictable with a combination of rain, heat, wind and cold. Good thing about Hungary is that you can appreciate the beauty of all seasons. What do I mean by that? Simply put, Hungary is not like for example the United Kingdom with rain. However, in the next topic I will tell you something that I believe is useful to know about winters here and it deserves to be treated separately.
11 Dark winters
Winters in Hungary get dark, but it is not enough for me to leave it like that, right? It also depends on where you come from. If you are from the north of Europe, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you are not, then let me explain. There is a period of around 2 and a half months when Hungary gets dark at around 5 in the afternoon. In fact, between January and February, sometimes it can get dark at around 3:45 in the afternoon. This means that you get out of the office (if not in home-office) and it is already night. Like real night. Pitch black night. This results in depression for many people. I did not feel it ever strongly, just lightly and not for months and not every year. But for some people as early as November this strong or light depression starts and it goes until March sometimes.
12 Anti-foreigner sentiment
What you see in the news in your country might paint a different picture of another country. The Hungarian government has debated a lot with the European Union leaders over migrant quotas since the Syria crisis up until these days and so because of the media, you might think Hungarians don’t like foreigners. Even though it might seem like that, I think Hungarians genuinely like foreigners. Do Hungarians want foreigners to flock to their country? No, I do not think so. But that doesn’t mean Hungarians are in fact racist. Are there racist Hungarians? For sure, but are there not racists in every country? My personal opinion is that Hungarians like foreigners, that is my personal experience.
13 Customer Service
Although I do not see that way (entirely), I have to accept that in Hungary customer service, regardless of the reason, is not as good. Foreigners notice this quickly when moving to the country and complaint a lot about it. Usually the phrase -the client is always right- is not a thing here. Or let me put it in another way, people serving you or providing you assistance will not always do everything for you to be happy after you come out of the establishment.
Conclusion
In this article I wrote for you a variety of personal anecdotes, also my opinion as well as statistics. With it, you now should have a good picture of the country´s current situation. Let me wrap the article up in this way. Best things about Hungary: jobs, safety, work life balance and the immigration processes being not as complicated. Worst things: inflation, and separately the rental prices increasing, plus the health and education systems.
Do you need more information or have specific questions?
Let’s schedule a call!
Sources:
https://dailynewshungary.com/pm-orban-wants-to-settle-300-thousand-migrants-in-hungary/
https://taxfoundation.org/corporate-tax-rates-europe-2022/
https://bradfordjacobs.com/countries/europe/hungary/employee-benefits-in-hungary/
https://www.penzcentrum.hu/karrier/20230523/az-angol-mar-a-multe-itt-a-bizonyitek-ezzel-a-nyelvvel-szakithatod-a-legnagyobbat-a-magyar-piacon-1137123
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Hungary
https://xpatloop.com/channels/2023/06/hungarys-path-to-euro-adoption-aiming-for-2030.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fKhUyF0xbM
https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/16668127/2-17052023-AP-EN.pdf/624d29d7-5a2f-db4a-def2-f9deb1b8136a
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20220128-2
https://www.ksh.hu/gyorstajekoztatok/ker/ker2303.html
https://www.statista.com/statistics/416139/full-time-annual-salary-in-the-uk-by-region/
https://www.simplegermany.com/what-is-a-good-salary-in-germany/#Average_Gross_Salary_In_Germany_By_Location
https://www.mnb.hu/Jegybanki_alapkamat_alakulasa
https://ingatlan.com/
https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/article/2018/hungary-shortage-of-teaching-staff-in-public-education
https://www.euronews.com/2023/07/19/i-didnt-want-to-be-silenced-how-hungarys-new-law-affects-teachers
https://abouthungary.hu/news-in-brief/deutsch-hungary-will-not-implement-brusselss-flawed-migrant-quota-scheme
