Budapest Torpedoes ‘Mini-Dubai’ Property Deal in Blow to Orban

(Bloomberg) — Hungary’s government accepted the capital’s pre-emptive right to purchase a vast plot in Budapest, which Prime Minister Viktor Orban originally wanted to sell to an Abu-Dhabi based developer to build a skyscraper-studded neighborhood.

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The cabinet will publish a decree on Thursday that recognizes Budapest as the buyer of a dilapidated railyard and shifting the financial responsibilities for the purchase to the cash-strapped municipality, Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas told reporters.

Plans for the multi-billion dollar development, which locals had dubbed “mini-Dubai,” had become a political hot potato for Orban ahead of elections in a little over a year’s time. The opposition-controlled capital had lashed out at the splashy project, saying that Hungary, which is struggling with a housing and cost-of-living crisis, needed more affordable rentals than luxury homes.

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