UAE eyes €5bn regeneration scheme in Budapest

17 March 2024

Hungary’s foreign affairs and trade minister Peter Szijjarto, right, announced the plan on Wednesday at a press conference with Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, his opposite number from the UAE (Peter Szijjarto, via X)

Hungary and the UAE want to cooperate on a €5bn regeneration programme in Budapest, Hungary Today reports.

Hungary’s foreign affairs and trade minister Peter Szijjarto announced the plan on Wednesday at a press conference with Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, his opposite number from the UAE.

It sees Emirati developer Eagle Hills regenerating the area around the derelict Rakosrendezo railway station in the capital.

The plan may involve a Dubai-style skyscraper.

There will also be €1bn of improvements to public transport, with an extension of the M1 metro and the development of four or five hubs.

The plan is to regenerate a 130ha area between Budapest’s 13th and 14th districts, centred on the derelict Rakosrendezo railway station (12akd/Public Domain)

Szijjarto said it would be a “major urban development project with complex tourism, economic, business, and sports functions”.

The Hungarian authorities have been contemplating this project for some time.

In December, construction minister Janos Lazar described it as a “new millennium city centre”.

Lazar said: “We would extend Andrassy Avenue. It would create the capital’s most important axis, a new millennium city centre after the old one, by developing the Rakosrendezo station.”