The potential of Budapest’s historic properties

• Historic residential buildings in Budapest
• Benefits of historic properties
• Renovation might be required
• FAQ

Historic residential buildings in Budapest

Budapest has a long history, with many historical buildings still in use. Naturally, these include residential buildings, mostly apartment houses in downtown Pest, built in the second half of the 19^th century as rentals for various social classes.

• Rental palaces (bérpalota) typically had 7-8 rooms, meant to attract the higher classes, the bourgeoise and aristocrats.
• Rental houses (bérház) typically had 1-2 rooms, meant to attract the less wealthy city folks, including the working class.

The two share several architectural traits unique to this era of residential buildings in Budapest, such as:

• Open walkways (called “gang”) above the inner courtyard lead to the individual apartments (hence the name “gangos ház” for these types of buildings)
• High ceilings (3-5 meters, or 10-16 feet)
• Tall windows
• Herringbone parquet
• Plaster cornices
• The buildings often have two sets of stairs, one wider in the front, and one narrower somewhere in the back “for the servants”
• Bigger apartments often had two entrances: one main entrance, and one for the servants, next to the kitchen.
• In bigger apartments, inner rooms are sometimes accessible only from other rooms.

After World War II, many of the bigger apartments were split into several smaller ones to make room for more families. Since each apartment needed to have a kitchen and a bathroom of its own, these splits often resulted in lopsided floor plans. Sometimes apartments ended up with long dark corridors or with very small kitchens.

Benefits of historic properties

Most of these historic properties are located in downtown Budapest, in a central location close to busiest bars, theaters, museums, and other cultural institutions. The city center is pretty walkable itself, while it has excellent public transport to the outer part of the city.

Apartments in historic buildings feel pretty spacious thanks to the high ceilings and the tall windows. If the ceiling is high enough, a loft can be added to one or more rooms to increase floor space.

The thick brick walls are great insulators, which makes a difference especially in summer when the apartment can stay cool even during the hottest days. They can also be pretty quiet: having noisy neighbors is rarely a problem thanks to the walls insulating sound too.

A large historic apartment can also be a representative space, especially important if you often host events and entertain guests.

Renovation might be required

When purchasing an apartment in a 150-year-old house, some renovation might be in order, whether you want it to be your next home or a lucrative rental. Up to date services, modern layouts, and carefully selected furnishing can enhance a historic property’s appeal and value.

• Making electrical upgrades is almost certainly a must
• The herringbone parquet gives character to the apartment, and it can be easily repaired
• The same goes for plaster cornices
• Take a look at heating options. Historic buildings often don’t have central heating but gas boilers or gas radiators. If you are doing a major overhaul, installing floor heating might be a good options for reducing energy wasted heating the ceiling.
• You might want to redesign the floor plan to make it more suitable for modern lifestyles (e.g. rearranging wet rooms to make room for a bigger kitchen)

To make the most of a historic property investment, it is important to combine original architectural features with modern comfort and functionality.

Make the most of your investment

Turning a historic property into a modern living space that meets current living standards can be a challenge. If you work with a local partner like Helpers who can assist with every aspect of the investment from purchase through renovation and furnishing, you can avoid costly detours while saving time and effort in creating a truly attractive living space.

Let us help you get started. Helpers offers a free consultation for real estate investment, during which you can tell us about your goals and plans in Hungary as well as the ideal property you imagined. Based on that, we will present you with a personalized portfolio of possible properties that best match your criteria.

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