Flats for rent in XX. Pesterzsébet

Pesterzsébet is the old town of Erzsébetfalva, absorbed into Budapest in 1950 and still built like a self-contained place. The centre is Kossuth Lajos tér with the town hall, the market hall a few streets away, and Kossuth Lajos utca as the shopping street. Around it are blocks of flats from the 1960s to 1980s; behind them, in every direction, the district is family houses on a regular grid of streets.

The Kis-Duna, the Ráckeve arm of the Danube, forms the eastern edge. Vízisport utca has rowing clubs, the iodine and salt-water bath, and a long bank you can walk or cycle for kilometres. The western edge is Helsinki út and the Csepel Works across the Gubacsi bridge; the northern edge is Határ út, which is where the metro is.

It is quieter and slower than Kispest, with fewer panel estates and more houses, and a little cheaper per square metre. Shops cluster in the centre and along Nagysándor József utca; big-box retail sits around Határ út and the Soroksári út side.

In the centre and along Ady Endre utca the stock is four- and ten-storey blocks with 1+2 half-room and 2-room plans of 50 to 60 square metres, district heated, some insulated in the last fifteen years. The rest of the district is family houses: older single-storey houses with a garden, 1970s two-storey houses often split into an upstairs and a downstairs flat, and here and there a small new terrace. Split houses are common in listings; check whether the utilities are metered separately and who controls the heating.

Newer small condominiums have gone up on the streets near the centre and by the river, 40 to 70 square metres with gas boilers and a parking space. They cost more but are the easiest to run. On the riverside streets ask about the flood defence and the age of the damp-proofing in older houses.