UPDATE:

We, as a coalition of over 30 civil society organizations, trade unions, research institutes continue to demand the withdrawal of the bill submitted by László Böröcz, Member of Parliament, aiming at the compulsory privatization of municipal housing at a deflated price.

By the deadline for submitting amendments for the bill in question, none had been submitted either from the initiator of the bill or from FIDESZ. There were, however, leaks in the press about a possible amendment by the governing party: the government would change the original proposal so that the mandatory privatization of municipal housing would apply ‘only’ to housing in the World Heritage area of Budapest, for sitting tenants who have had a contract for at least 5 years.

This amendment was handed in a mere day prior to the  Committee on Legislation's sitting, leaving very little time to discuss potential changes to it before the final vote on 14 June, or for civil society organisations to effectively mobilize against the changed proposal.

The amendment also represents a violation of public interest and therefore remains unacceptable, as:

-          it affects the most valuable properties of the national built heritage, which are also located in areas of the capital with the highest property prices;

-          these areas, and their valuable property stock, are highly exposed to property speculation by a narrow interest group, while in the last 10 years historic monument protection has practically disappeared in Hungary. As a consequence, the professional renovation of residential buildings under heritage protection is not ensured and, in extreme cases, their demolition cannot be prevented (as there have been examples of this in recent times). This could even lead to the loss of World Heritage status of some areas;

-          it continues to represent a mishandling of municipal public assets, preventing the municipalities from fulfilling their local social and housing policy responsibilities in the districts concerned;

-          it would allow not only those tenants to buy their flats who were unable to do so during the first mandatory privatization period of 1993-1995 (because of certain restrictions that were in place at the time), but also tenants who have recently acquired the right to rent such apartments. The latter group, even with the envisioned 5-year occupancy limit, can in itself be regarded as property speculation, especially as a significant proportion of such tenants have acquired their homes through fictitious exchanges. The proposed 4-year ban on alienation does not fundamentally affect the unacceptability of the proposal, since it still represents a loss of public assets and does not prevent property speculation from taking place, but merely postpones it in the short term.

Therefore we ask the MP József Böröcz and the Hungarian government to withdraw the proposed amendment to the Housing Law.


If you agree, please fill the form below to sign the petition in the name of your organisation.



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A proposed amendment of the Hungarian Housing law, submitted by a MP József Böröcz, member of the governing party, Fidesz, would force municipalities (at the request of tenants) to sell their housing units to inhabitants at 10-30% of the market price. This amendment would reinforce the worst aspects of the privatization wave of the early 1990s, and would mean the end of the current social housing system, without offering a new alternative. It would  further deepen the current urban housing crisis and increase already existing housing inequalities.

The proposed changes in the Law will:

- unfairly advantage higher income tenants occupying public units in good condition, many of whom came by these units through political favours in the first place;

- unfairly advantage all sitting tenants, who will by random chance be awarded a huge asset - compared to thousands of households waiting for access to public housing (thus reproducing the unfairness of previous waves of housing privatization);      
 
- leave the worst-quality dwellings in the property of municipalities with the most vulnerable tenants, resulting in a financially and socially unmanageable situation for  municipalities; dumping all recent municipal efforts to improve and expand the publicly owned housing stock;

- force low-income tenants to take risky financial decisions  (indebting themselves with risky or expensive loans) in order to take the opportunity of buying the dwelling they live in;

- create new opportunities for speculative entrepreneurs who will use the position of economically vulnerable tenants to acquire cheap real estate;

- create a financial risk for poor owners-to-be who will have difficulties to maintain the dilapidated housing stock they will buy (around 80% of the current municipal stock requires refurbishment);

- rob municipalities of their current tool to aid families in their housing difficulties, especially those threatened or affected by homelessness;

- eradicate the already limited opportunities for those in severe housing need to access affordable municipal units;

- worsen spatial segregation through the dissolution of subsidized housing stock, pushing low-income residents out of the city;

- drive Hungarian housing policy even further from European trends of affordable and modernised housing provision;

- undermine the potential of the Renovation Wave, the flagship initiative of the European Union to boost energy efficient retrofits, to guarantee a just energy transition by renovating units of the social housing sector. This privatization act would prevent the possibility to renew the home of low-income households in a systematic way.

Through all these effects, the compulsory privatization of municipal housing units to sitting tenants will worsen housing conditions and increase inequalities.  These politically motivated and deeply unfair changes to the Housing Law must be prevented.

Therefore we ask the MP József Böröcz and the Hungarian government to withdraw the proposed amendment to the Housing Law, which aims to achieve the rapid and unfair privatization of public housing. Instead, we would welcome a socially engaged, economically and environmentally sustainable vision for the development of public housing in Hungary. We would like to see that the government is committed to provide affordable housing for all persons in need. Affordable, publicly owned housing is the answer for a variety of housing problems - and we encourage the Hungarian government and MPs to improve and broaden this sector instead of destroying what is left.

If you agree, please fill the form below to sign the petition in the name of your organisation.