From the beginning of next year, the so-called "Golden Hungarian Visa" program, approved by the Government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, will start in Hungary.

By buying real estate in Hungary, the investor will get the right to a ten-year stay in the country, and will also get a Hungarian passport, which will allow him unrestricted movement in the Schengen zone. A condition is the purchase of real estate with a value of at least half a million euros.

The second option for obtaining a ten-year residence permit and a Hungarian passport is to invest at least 250.000 euros in real estate investment funds issued by the Hungarian National Bank. The third option is a public donation of at least one million euros.

The law does not state that this practice should not apply to citizens of the Russian Federation and Belarus. At the same time, Russia has been waging a war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine for more than two years, and the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko supports Russian aggression.

As the Index.hu portal points out, the greatest interest in this program has so far been shown by the citizens of China.

- The Chinese are still interested in real estate in the capital, noted Oran Ben-Ezra, an expert in real estate sales in Budapest.

Some new properties in Budapest are too expensive even for foreign buyers, so they are looking for cheaper options on the outskirts of the city, he added.

Hungary will also benefit from the Golden Visa program. The state and the Hungarian National Bank will benefit in the short term from the arrival of foreign investors and this will boost the real estate market, Ben-Ezra said.

But Russians and Belarusians have been able to enter the European Union through Hungary since July of this year. They can register in the country as foreign workers with a national identity card and then enjoy free movement within Schengen.

András Rac, a Hungarian expert on the Russian Federation, said that with this step Hungary opens the labor market widely for Russians and Belarusians. Rac sees this as a major security risk.

Hungary has decided that from July 8, 2024, citizens of eight countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Belarus, Moldova, Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Ukraine - will be able to work on its territory under favorable conditions.

The request for a national identity card can be submitted for two years, but then it is possible to re-submit a request to extend its validity each time for another three years without any further restrictions.