From the 2026 budget audit
The state is selling property — while also buying more
3.9 billion forints to expand the state's property portfolio, in a chapter whose entire reform logic is to sell down what the state already holds.
Roughly 930 Ft per taxpayer per year — 3.9 billion Ft to grow a portfolio the reform programme intends to shrink.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: new properties entering the state portfolio. The unseen: the taxpayer funding fresh acquisitions while the same chapter sells 18.5 billion Ft of existing property — buying and selling simultaneously, with the taxpayer bearing the cost of both sides.
Objection
"Some acquisitions are necessary to consolidate holdings and make larger disposals possible."
Answer
Narrow strategic acquisitions that enable a larger divestment are transaction costs of selling, not portfolio growth. The phase-out halts new expansion while honouring signed contracts; acquisition that genuinely serves divestment survives that test. What ends is open-ended portfolio growth funded by taxpayers in a chapter whose direction is reduction.
Share if you think a state selling property should stop buying more at the same time.
The analyst's verdict
Property investments, purchase of property and other assets
Rationale
This line funds the state *buying* property and other assets — that is, the state expanding its portfolio. The analytical direction of the reform programme is portfolio reduction: divest the non-strategic holdings, shrink the management apparatus, return capital to taxpayers. Fresh acquisition spending runs against that direction. The chapter already shows the state is a substantial property *seller* — 18,500.0 millió Ft of budgeted ingatlan-értékesítés revenue — so the portfolio is being actively traded; this line is the buy side of that trading book. There can be a narrow genuine case for acquisition (consolidating a holding, acquiring a parcel needed to make a divestment block saleable), but acquisition at scale, in a chapter whose reform logic is divestment, is not a default Keep. Classified Phase-Out over 2 years to allow in-flight purchase commitments to complete while ending new state-portfolio expansion.
Transition mechanism
A 2-year linear phase-out. Purchase contracts already signed are honoured; new acquisition is halted except where it is instrumentally necessary to execute a divestment (assembling a saleable block), which is a transaction cost of selling rather than portfolio growth. Year 1 saves 1,950.0 millió Ft.
Affected groups
Counterparties of in-flight purchase contracts are protected by the 2-year run-off; no party relies on the state continuing to acquire new property.
Free Society Institute
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