Valuation on Budapest Flat, Help

I am having a bit of a dispute with the partner i bought a flat with in Budapest over valuation, they wish to buy me out of my half of the flat. I am looking for some advice or some peace of mind in knowing if i am getting shafted or not. As i don't live in Budapest or speak Hungarian very well they have been arranging the valuations.

We have had two different valuations and they have used wildly different methods to value the flat and unsurprisingly arrived at wildly different values around 3 Mil in difference. Both looked at the flat and one gave a price based on looking at average offers of similar flats in the area. The same evaluator apparently also quoted a market price 3 million lower (based on the official sale prices quoted for tax purposes). The second evaluator only based the value on the official tax sale returns.

To me this way of calculating the value of the flat seems flawed as Hungarians are liable to undervalue the property to avoid higher tax. Is this the normal way valuations are calculated in Hungary? if so it effectively means the flat has lost approx 1.5 mil over 4 years despite some fairly major refurbishments.

I am relying on the partner to provide information, has anyone been through a similar situation or can anyone recommend a valuation firm?

Thanks

HU valuers use slightly different methods, but the main idea is that the apartment will be judged according to the official prices of recent sales of similar properties (typically within the preceding five years) but other elements such as rental yield can be taken into account also.

If it's a market value that you need, then professional valuation might be of limited assistance. It might be more useful to also get it valued by estate agents and see if there is a discrepancy.

Hi Nuts,
Tower property Budapest are advertising valuations on their website,the fee is 399 euro,and they say they will give you a 15 page report.
www.towerbudapest.com

The standard valuation fee in Budapest is 30,000 ft. (around 115 Euro).

Hi thanks for the advice, it seems that the valuations that we have had are based on the official prices. The problem with estate agents is that they are liable to give wildly optomistic valautions and i can understand that. Their is a big difference between the price at which it goes on the market and the price it eventually sells for.

Anyway i am in negotiations and awaiting a third valuation, from what i am gathering here i need to be negotiating somewhere between the offical estimation and the theoretical advertisted prices, to get a fair deal?

Edit: Budapest, can you recommend someone that does valuations in English around the 115 euro mark?

30,000 ft. is the normal rate for Budapest valuers at the moment. Anyone I have used has charged this rate. They will all give an extensive report of between 10-20 pages. I have had good experiences with the following company:
EURO-IMMO EXPERT INGATLANÉRTÉKELŐ ÉS SZOLGÁLTATÓ KFT.
District VI, NAGYMEZŐ UTCA 4.
Telefon: 0036-1-343-0627

Budapest estate agents tend to be more realistic than Irish equivalents - particularly the agents who deal primarily with the Hungarian market.

Thanks again Budapest, i'll hopefully avoid having to make a trip over but thanks for the recommendation.

You shouldn't have to travel over, but you will need to provide the valuer with an original property sheet, which is less than 30 days old (tulajdoni lap) as well as a layout of the apartment. Your solicitor should be able to provide the property sheet.

The average price in Budapest at the moment is about EUR1500. So based on a 270 exchange its about HUF 400,000 more or less. However people are offloading property at about EUR 1200 if they really need to exit.