LMP urges right to decent accommodation to be enshrined in Constitution

Mate Kanasz-Nagy, deputy group leader of LMP, told a press conference on Monday that “homelessness should not be criminalised” and the government should withdraw support from a “system of short-term lease”. He also urged re-introduction of a rent subsidy to tenants and assistance to ailing debtors.

Kanasz-Nagy insisted that social housing wasa sector neglected by the government, adding that the housing crisis impacted “hundreds of thousands”. High property prices prevent many people from buying and “fewer and fewer can pay for their accommodation”.

Rentals are extremely expensive, especially in Budapest and other cities, he said. Rents in Budapest amount to half the average salary, which “will have extremely grave social consequences,” he said.

According to Kanasz-Nagy, Hungary currently has some 600,000 vacant properties, 100,000 of which could be involved in a a national programme to “help many families,” he said.