Balázs SZABÓ, Geographical Institute, RCAES, Hungary
Mortgage financing and residential construction stopped, housing market was almost frozen during the recession period that started in 2008 and ended only in 2014 in Hungary. Since then, several new players have emerged and many of the old ones have changed their behaviour. The suggested paper aims to identify the most influential actors and to explore the complex impact they have on urban dynamics. The city of Budapest serves as a case example of how these actors shape the restructuration process.
In the post-socialist cities, where owner occupied housing had become dominant as a result of privatisation in the early 1990s, the housing market was driven by the local buyers of dwellings. This significantly changed with the emergence of new actors in Budapest in the 2010s, those who buy flats for business purposes: either to rent them out to long-term tenants or to host tourists (through Airbnb since the middle of the decade). Some of these investor type buyers are foreigners. They are blamed for the rising housing prices because they are regarded as financially strong actors. The group of foreign housing buyers is not homogeneous, it includes the affluent western investors, the Asian businessmen, and the citizens of the neighbouring countries. The authors focus on the different behaviour of the foreign and local housing buyers in order to explore the socio-spatial context of their contribution to densification and urban sprawl.
Another focus of the paper is the role of different actors in the housing construction. The authors try to compare the impact of the foreign purchases and that of the public support to the construction industry and the direct money transfers to families buying new flats. They also analyse the connection between the composition of buyers and the location of new housing complexes in the inner city, around the city centre or in the transition zone of Budapest.
Mots clés : housing market|foreign investors|urban dynamics|gentrification
A104298bs