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Hungary.

How Hungary sells residence for investors (golden visa): 2 programmes, 1 of them open today. Every number and rule below links to the document it comes from.

407
numbers
128
prices and rules
29
events
35
documents and articles
Residence·Open·since 2024

Guest Investor Program

Sells the right to live in the country (a “golden visa”), sometimes leading to citizenship later.

Official name: Hungarian Guest Investor Program (vendégbefektetői vízum és tartózkodási engedély)

Lowest price for one person: €250,000

Units of a qualified Hungarian real estate fund, held 5 years. Alternatives: EUR 1,000,000 donation to a foundation-run university (t-0acf83b0be); the EUR 500,000 property route (t-bfb4bb20e7) was removed from 30 Dec 2024 and seems never to have operated.

Notes from the research

Act XC of 2023, ss. 16 and 22: six-month guest investor visa, then a 10-year residence permit renewable for 10 more, with the right to work. Routes: EUR 250,000 in units of a qualified Hungarian real estate fund held 5 years; EUR 1,000,000 donation to a foundation-run university; EUR 500,000 residential property until removed on 30 Dec 2024. Security vetting by the Constitution Protection Office; fund managers need clearance. Law in force 1 Jan 2024, but the first fund manager qualified only in Oct 2024. No official statistics are published; press reports from OIF data show very low take-up.

Prices and rules

Ways in that apply today (minimum amounts)
Fees today

What is measured

  • Investor visa applications5
  • Investment funds eligible for a programme3
  • Investor visas issued2
  • Applications pending1
  • Applications received1
  • Applications turned down1
  • Applications withdrawn1
  • Security-service recommendations to refuse1
Residence·Closed·2012–2017

Residency bond programme

Sells the right to live in the country (a “golden visa”), sometimes leading to citizenship later.

Official name: Hungarian residency bond programme (Letelepedési Magyar Államkötvény, settlement bond)

Lowest price when it closed: €300,000

Price at closure (31 Mar 2017): EUR 300,000 face value of residency bonds per applicant, for applications filed after 1 Jan 2015 (EUR 250,000 before, t-36b425f7c7). Intermediaries' service fees (reported EUR 45,000-60,000) excluded.

Notes from the research

Residence permit in the 'national economic interest' under s. 28(3)-(11) of Act II of 2007 (added by Act CCXX of 2012) for holders of at least EUR 250,000 (EUR 300,000 from 2015) of five-year securities sold by private intermediaries approved by Parliament's economic committee (eight in all, mostly offshore; one per country); the intermediaries bought discounted zero-coupon euro bonds from ÁKK. Settlement (permanent residence) permit after six months, directly from July 2016 per Index. ÁKK: EUR 1.844 billion face value issued 2013-2017 in 11 series, all repaid by 2022. BMH: about 6,500 investors and 13,300 family members. Residence route only; normal naturalisation rules applied.

Investor-programme bonds outstanding
€0€500m€1bn€1.5bn€2bn20142016201820202022

Prices and rules

Rules while it was open

What is measured

  • Investor-programme bonds outstanding156
  • Golden visas issued122
  • Implied annual cost of investor capital22
  • Extra financing cost of investor-programme bonds20
  • Investor residence permits revoked17
  • CBI government bond purchases10
  • Investor-programme bonds as a share of state financing9
  • Investors approved, not counting family members6
  • Investor-programme bonds repaid6
  • Intermediary fees charged per investor4
  • Income of programme intermediaries4
  • Investor-programme bonds sold (count)3
  • Licensed programme agents2
  • Applicant share2
  • Application grant rate2
  • Applications turned down2
  • Investment by programme investors2
  • Agents deregistered or not renewed1
  • Applications received1
  • Dependants approved1
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Timeline

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Sources

The 35 documents behind this page

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