An undersecretary for the Ministry of Justice, Mariann Vízkelety, said some 1,000-1,100 evictions could be expected between July and December of this year, up from 708 in the first half of the year. According to Vízkelety, the inhabitants of 30,544 apartments or houses could be evicted after the successful auctioning of those properties, if the tenants are unwilling to move out of their own accord.

According to Magyar Nemzet, the majority of such tenants will voluntarily move out rather than face the humiliation of forceful eviction.

Vízkelety said she hoped legal changes adopted in March, which require that foreclosed properties be sold for no less than 100 percent of their appraisal value, will mitigate the wave of evictions.

Politics Can Be Different (LMP) co-chair Ákos Hadházy urged a special session of the National Assembly be convened in August to discuss the eviction of victims of Hungary’s foreign currency mortgage crisis. The MP said that last year set a record with more than 3,000 evictions, and 10,000 evictions had already been initiated this year.

Hadházy called for the indefinite extension of a moratorium on evictions, which expired in March 2016. The ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition boycotted the special session.

According to data provided by the Ministry of Justice, some 900,000 foreclosures are currently pending or under way. When adjusted for interest, the value of those liens amounts to some HUF 3.2 trillion (USD 12.5 billion).

Source: The Budapest Beacon

Republished with permission