Housing estates of Budapest before and after the renovation programmes

Abstract

The authors analyse how the status of the one and a half hundred housing estates built during state socialism has changed due to the renovation programmes of the 2000s and the recent real estate boom. Not only the "traditional" sources of differences are analysed, the impact of the renovations of the last two decades is also explored. The article points out that the renovation depends more on the type of walls and less on the construction period. The number of flats also have an important impact: half of the large buildings and only a small proportion of the smaller buildings are insulated. The renovation has resulted in a price increase only in a small part of the housing estates. The renovations finished before 2013 proved to increase the purchase prices by 2017, which suggests that the renovations have a delayed price effect. The geographic location of housing estates has a strong impact on the purchase prices. Not only the distance from the city centre influences the prices, it is also important whether the housing estate is located on the rightor on the left side of the Danube and, in the latter case, in the Northern or in the Southern part of Pest. The price difference between these two parts of Pest increased during the 2013-2017 housing market boom and changed a bit the ranking of housing estates by prices. Differences within the housing estates are also examined on the basis of four case examples. The authors point out that the most important status differences are connected to the noise pollution; they are less influenced by the height of the building. The study emphasizes that the physical characteristics are not sufficient for explaining the status differences among housing estates, the use of other-mainly social-indicators is also necessary.