BUY EAST, 2008. spring

What’s to buy in Budapest?

Hungary’s capital is not the real estate bonanza it was a few years ago, but experts belive that there’s money to be made- if you know what to buy.

"...Balmy predictions of a 10 percent rise int the avarage price of new-builds have developer Danny Bercovich beaming. As managing director of the SL Properties Group, Bercovich and his team have been busy constructing some 1,500 new apartments in districts 3, 13 and 14. „We still belive there is enough market here to do residential complexes, „he said.„ There’s not the bonanza that we saw a few years ago where the moment you built something, it was sold. There are a lot of options today. People are more selective. This is good. We belive that by building the right product, by investing in firstclass materials for the long run, it will sell itself..."

Off-plan salers for SL’s apartments have been going well, Bercovich reported. Part of the appeal, he said, stems from his group’s commitment to "build neighbourhoods" around their developments, adding not only shops and fitness centers, but also large swathes of parkland. István Park, in district 14, is built around 3,000m2 green inner courtyard. It also helps that SL is an international builder whit decades of experience in urban housing development. While the most popular new builds have tended to be located on the Danube’s western bank in Buda, such as the Engel Group’s Sun Palace in District 3, SL has focused its efforts on harvesting the lower tier of the market in Pest.