Homes for rent in Szentendre

Szentendre is a town of about twenty-six thousand people on the right bank of the Danube, twenty kilometres north of the centre and the terminus of the H5 HÉV. It does not border Budapest; Budakalász sits between it and district III. The baroque old town, built by Serbian merchants in the 18th century, is the reason most visitors come: cobbled lanes, seven churches, galleries and museums for the artists who settled here from the 1920s, and the Duna-korzó along the river. Behind it the town climbs into the Pismány hills and spreads west into Izbég.

For residents the town works as a place in its own right. It has a hospital, several primary and secondary schools, a Skanzen open-air museum on the edge, supermarkets and a retail zone on route 11, a weekly market, and a cycle path to Budapest along the river. Summer weekends bring crowds and parking problems to the centre; the residential streets above and beyond it are quiet all year. It is the most sought-after town north of the city and rents are the highest on the HÉV line.

Szentendre has both houses and flats. Houses range from restored old-town cottages and 19th-century townhouses to 1970s to 1990s family houses in Izbég and the lower streets, and larger newer houses on the Pismány slopes with views over the Danube bend. Flats are in three places: older townhouses in and around the centre, often with character and quirks; the Püspökmajor estate of 1970s and 1980s panel blocks with one and a half to three-room flats at the lower end of the price range; and newer low-rise developments near the HÉV and on the Budakalász side.

Old-town flats need checking for damp, heating and parking, which is restricted in the centre. Panel flats on Püspökmajor have district or gas heating and lifts in the taller blocks. Hillside houses on Pismány often sit on unpaved lanes; ask about winter access.