INDEBTEDNESS OF HOUSEHOLDS
Household indebtedness is one of the important manifestations of how global financial processes lead to dispossession and socio-spatial inequalities. In the context of the Hungarian housing market, debt is an invisible but suffocating pressure on many households, which influences possibilities of livelihood beyond the issue of housing. In the framework of the Bertha Challenge in 2019-2020 we investigated this issue; connected relevant organisations working on the ground; and made information about household debt more broadly accessible through booklets and press appearances.
Reports
Household Debt on the Peripheries of Europe
2020. Bródy, Luca Sára and Zsuzsanna Pósfai. Periféria Working Papers 3.
This English booklet follows the structure of the workshop we organized in November 2019, and discusses the structural similarities of household indebtedness on the peripheries of Europe with many case studies. It can be used as informational document for the wider public or as resources for popular education done by organizations working with issues of housing and / or indebtedness. Our aim with this and the working paper entitled The Indebtedness of Households in Hungary is to make complex processes and structural factors behind indebtedness more transparent and understandable.
The Indebtedness of Households in Hungary [A háztartások eladósodása Magyarországon]
2020. Bródy, Luca Sára and Zsuzsanna Pósfai. Periféria Working Papers 2.
This Hungarian booklet is based on the research we conducted between July - December 2019, and also on input from participants at the December 2019 workshop. We particularly recommend it to agents engaged with indebted households.
The Financialization of Housing and its Effects on Households [A lakhatás financializációja és ennek következményei a háztartásokra]
2019. Pósfai, Zsuzsanna. Demnet Foundation
In collaboration with DemNet Foundation we produced a pamphlet about the financialization of housing, and what this means for households; with a focus on Hungary.
Workshops
The indebtedness of Hungarian households II. [A háztartások eladósodása Magyarországon II.]
September 25, 2020. Budapest
This was a follow-up event of the December 2019 workshop which beyond mapping out the practices of debt management also aimed to present the third issue of Periféria Working Papers on household indebtedness to a professional audience.
Questions of housing finance in Hungary [Lakásfinanszírozás]
September 4. 2020 Budapest
We organized a workshop with actors of the Hungarian housing market, where we discussed our research results relating to the Hungarian system of housing finance. Then, corporate actors presented on the following topics: historical and macroeconomic aspects of housing finance; the effects of housing finance beyond the role of banks; and the possibilities of an institutionalized rental housing sector. Our aim was to initiate dialogue between researchers, policy makers and corporate actors on the topic of housing finance.
November 22-23, 2019. Budapest
Together with engaged researchers from Southern and Eastern Europe we discussed structural similarities in how the indebtedness of households unfolds on the peripheries of Europe.
The indebtedness of households in Hungary [A háztartások eladósodása Magyarországon]
December 14, 2019. Budapest
We invited representatives of various organizations working with indebted households on the ground. The aim was to receive input and from them, to share our research findings, and to start building a debt-related local network.
Publications
2021. Jelinek, Csaba, Zs. Pósfai, Á. Gagyi, and A. Vígvári
In: Mikus, Marek, Rodik, Petra (eds.) (2021) Households and Financialization in Europe: Mapping Variegated Patterns in Semi-Peripheries
Conferences
Dependent housing financialization in Hungary through the case of household debt
May 21. 2021. Czirfusz, Márton and Zsuzsanna Pósfai. Cluj: Thirty Years of Capitalist Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe: Inequalities and Social Resistance
Press appearances
People pushed towards mortgages without providing relief for many [Lakáshitelbe tolják az embereket, pedig ez sokaknak nem jelent megoldást]
November 21, 2020. G7 podcast
Indebted households [Eladósodó háztartások]
September 03, 2020. Klub Rádió - Bonyolult dolgok
After pandemic there will be serious issues with household indebtedness again [A járvány után újra komoly bajok lesznek az adóssággal]
May 29, 2020. Pósfai, Zsuzsanna. index.hu: Where is the money?' [Hol a pénz?] podcast series. Episode #28
Crisis management of the Orban government: debts instead of social support [Orbánék válságkezelése: támogatás helyett adósság]
May 20, 2020. napiPartizán#31
How will housing conditions change after the pandemic? [Hogyan fogunk lakni a járvány után?]
May 15, 2020. Glamour- women's magazine
Loans and debts of households before, during and after the pandemic [Hitel és háztartási adósság járvány előtt, alatt, után]
April 16, 2020. Éva Magazin - women's magazine [Hegedüs, Barbara]