Who Pays the Lawyer in a Property Sale in Hungary in 2026?

When you buy or sell property, you are making one of the biggest financial decisions of your life. Countless questions arise along the way, but one of the most common and most important is: who pays the lawyer in a property sale? The cost of drafting the sale and purchase agreement (adásvételi szerződés) and handling the procedure can be a significant item, so it is essential to understand the rules, the customs and the potential pitfalls.

This guide will help you navigate the question, whether you are dealing with a resale apartment or a new-build project.

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The Most Common Question: Who Chooses and Who Pays the Lawyer in a Property Sale?

Before going into the details, let us establish the most important fact: in Hungary, no law prescribes who must pay the attorney’s fee for a property sale and purchase agreement. How the costs are borne is entirely a matter of free agreement between the parties.

In practice, however, a strong custom has developed, which differs for resale and new-build properties. The unwritten rule is generally that the lawyer’s fee is paid by the party who engages the lawyer to handle the matter, although for new-build properties developers often pass the fee on to the buyer. Let us see what this means for the different types of transactions.

Who chooses and who pays the lawyer when buying a resale property?

In a classic sale of a resale apartment or family house, in the vast majority of cases the buyer chooses and pays the lawyer.

The reason lies in the contractual dynamics between the parties. The buyer typically pays the purchase price in instalments (e.g. earnest money, followed by one or more instalments of the purchase price) and takes on significant financial risk until the full amount has been paid. The seller, by contrast, performs their most important obligations – handover of possession and issuing the statement consenting to the registration of the buyer’s ownership (the so-called registration consent) – only once the full purchase price has been received.

This starting position is unbalanced for the buyer, since their money is already with the seller while the property is not yet in their name. Hungarian custom has therefore evolved so that the buyer has the right to bring in a lawyer of their own choosing, who also protects the buyer’s interests in the contract throughout the performance process. Since the buyer engages the lawyer, the buyer also pays the fee.

Who chooses the lawyer when buying a new-build property, and what can the buyer do?

The question of who pays the lawyer in a property sale works quite differently for new-build condominium projects. Here, almost without exception, the seller (the developer) chooses the lawyer, and the buyer has no say in who the legal representative drafting the contract will be.

The reasons for this are both logistical and legal. Handling the legal side of an entire project (e.g. a condominium with several dozen apartments) is an extremely complex task:

• The lawyer must deal with the legal status of the plot and the encumbrances related to the project loan.
• They must prepare the deed of foundation of the condominium.
• They must coordinate the building registration procedure and the assignment of separate parcel (topographical lot) numbers to the individual units (apartments).
• They must ensure that all the sale and purchase agreements concluded for the apartments are consistent with one another and with the project as a whole.

This complex task can only be carried out efficiently and securely by a single lawyer or law firm familiar with every detail of the project.

Does the buyer pay the seller’s lawyer?

Although the lawyer is engaged by the seller, in practice developers almost always pass the lawyer’s fee on to the buyer. This creates a particularly problematic situation:

• The buyer pays for a lawyer they did not choose.
• This lawyer is engaged by the developer and in practice tends to focus primarily on their client’s interests, which often results in extremely one-sided contracts that are disadvantageous to the buyer.
• The buyer is therefore paying for a service that primarily serves the legal security of the seller rather than their own.

In such cases it is strongly recommended and justified for the buyer to also engage their own independent lawyer to review and comment on the draft contract prepared by the developer. This lawyer’s fee is, of course, paid by the buyer. The buyer may therefore end up having to pay two lawyers’ fees. In such cases, we always advise our clients to try to negotiate with the developer and refuse to pay the seller’s lawyer’s fee, arguing that it should form part of the project costs.

How Much Is a Lawyer’s Fee in Budapest?

The lawyer’s fee is a matter of free agreement, but typical fee models have developed on the market:

• Percentage fee: The most common model, where the fee is a certain percentage of the property’s purchase price. In Hungary this generally ranges between 0.3% and 1.5%. The higher the value of the property, the lower the percentage rate. As an example, at our firm, under transparent pricing, this fee is around 0.3% of the purchase price, while the market average is typically higher.
• Fixed fee: For lower-value properties or very simple transactions, the lawyer may charge a predetermined fixed amount for the entire procedure.

How much is the lawyer’s fee at our firm?

For a simple sale and purchase agreement, you can expect the following net fees at our firm:

• Purchase price: HUF 50 million Lawyer’s fee: HUF 150,000
• Purchase price: HUF 60 million Lawyer’s fee: HUF 180,000
• Purchase price: HUF 70 million Lawyer’s fee: HUF 210,000
• Purchase price: HUF 80 million Lawyer’s fee: HUF 240,000
• Purchase price: HUF 90 million Lawyer’s fee: HUF 260,000
• Purchase price: HUF 110 million Lawyer’s fee: HUF 290,000

What Does the Lawyer’s Fee Include?

It is important to clarify that the lawyer’s fee does not simply cover printing out a two-page contract. A comprehensive service generally includes the following:

• Legal advice throughout the entire process.
• Obtaining and analysing in detail the title deed (property sheet), and reviewing the legal status of the property.
• Professionally drafting the sale and purchase agreement, reflecting the interests of the parties in a balanced way.
• Countersignature of the contract by an attorney.
• Submitting the documents required to register ownership and the duty data sheet to the land registry office (which forwards the data sheet to the National Tax and Customs Administration, NAV).
• Liaising with the other party’s legal representative, the real estate agent and, where necessary, the buyer’s bank.

Whose Interests Does the Lawyer Represent?

The attorney countersigning the contract who handles the property transaction – regardless of who engaged them – is obliged to take the legitimate interests of the parties into account in a balanced way when drafting the contract. Their task is to create a balanced, legally compliant document that guarantees a secure transaction for both the seller and the buyer. Professional ethics also require this.

This balance is easier to achieve in the sale of a resale property. In a new-build project, where the seller’s lawyer has to handle several dozen identical contracts, there is much less room to accommodate the buyer’s individual needs. This is another reason why it is advisable for the buyer to bring in a second, independent lawyer in such cases.

In summary: Who pays the lawyer in a property sale? The lawyer’s fee is an essential investment in your legal and financial security. In a typical resale property transaction, the buyer chooses and pays, whereas for new-build projects it is worth consulting your own legal representative in addition to the lawyer provided by the developer.