Some developers are apparently responding to the plunge in prices for new flats in Budapest by reducing the comfort levels of the properties they build. According to a piece last week in napi.hu picked up from newswire MTI, developers have been moved to cut corners by a plunge of around 30% in prices for flats over the past year.
One source offered up to illustrate the sad but probably inevitable new trend is the SL group, which is behind the Narancsliget project, and whose executives said several local developers would be building flats with lower levels of comfort to contain costs. Chief among the cost-saving gambits are smaller rooms and the ditching of individual heating systems for those that serve the entire building.
According to the article, this year it is expected that 100 to 120 new apartments will be sold in Budapest each month, and that there are 3,000 to 4,000 completed apartments currently sitting on the market, many of which will likely have to have their prices cut to be sold.