Landscape architect about Orbán estate: The garden alone probably cost more than a million euros

On Wednesday morning, Member of the Hungarian Parliament Ákos Hadházy published a video about the estate in Hatvanpuszta linked to Viktor Orbán's father. According to the MP, he was able to enter the property without any problems. The owner, Győző Orbán, and his son, the Hungarian prime minister both claim that the property is just a farming estate and not a luxury mansion, as many people, including Hadházy, claim.

In the video posted by the MP on Wednesday, a few tractors can indeed be seen, but most of what is shown is a beautifully landscaped area with trees and flowers, as well as two swimming pools.

We spoke with a professional garden- and landscape designer to find out whether this is what a garden on a farmstead usually looks like and how much someone would have to pay to have such a beautiful park for themselves. Based on Hadházy's video, the expert (who requested to remain anonymous) told us that building such a garden would certainly cost several hundred million forints.

"Even a quick glance at it reveals that this is a high-quality, well-built garden, built in a deliberately archaic style," the landscape architect told Telex. According to them, this is the kind of development that the contractor would certainly like to see published in professional journals, but it is most likely not possible, as the identity of the owner makes it a sensitive issue.

The expert added that the buildings definitely look like residential buildings, which contributes to the fact that to both laymen and experts, the estate in Hatvanpuszta looks more like an aristocratic manor house than a farm.

This is important to mention because, according to the landscape architect, land laws and local development regulations – among other things – limit the kinds of construction projects that can be carried out on the property. "In this area, one cannot officially describe this as a manor house. Anyone who does not build a farmstead has to lie both to the architects and to the contractors," the expert said.

The area presented in the MP's video has a mixture of farm buildings – such as those where tractors can be seen – and buildings for other purposes. But this is exactly the case with aristocratic manor houses.

"If this is a farm, then farms in Hungary look like Versailles. For example, there are fruit trees there too"

– the landscape architect Telex spoke with, who has previously done work for an agricultural company and therefore has experience with what a farm should look like, said. Typically, farms are built with several thousand hectares of land and 1-2 hectares of farmland included around them for agricultural production. However, Hatvanpuszta does not appear to be surrounded by thousands of hectares of farmland belonging to the same economic unit.

"Pools used for water storage on farms do not usually look like this," the expert told Telex.

Incidentally, the prime minister's father recently told the tabloid Bors that he had the pool built for his great-grandchildren. However, he failed to mention that there is not just one such facility, but that there are actually two "water storage" facilities that look like swimming pools.

Based on Hadházy's video, the landscape architect also mentioned that when building a farm, it is not advantageous to develop a garden that is expensive to build and maintain. Farm owners do tend to landscape certain areas, but not to the extent seen in Hatvanpuszta.

How much does something like this cost?

The landscape architect Telex spoke with did not want to give exact figures on how much the Hatvanpuszta area presented by Hadházy on Wednesday may have cost to build, but they made an estimate based on gardens of similar size.

The cost of the approximately 7,000-square-meter garden in Hatvanpuszta, calculated at the market price of around 70,000 forints per square meter, is estimated to be around 500 million forints (1 million and 260 thousand euros at the current exchange rate). However, its maintenance and upkeep are no small expense either. According to the expert's estimate, this typically amounts to 5-10 percent of the cost of the development price, which means that in the case of the Hatvanpuszta garden, this could be between 25-50 million forints (63 thousand -126 thousand euros) per year.

The expert noted that the purchase price of the trees shown in the MP's video is several hundred thousand forints each, and in the case of the bigger ones, it is as high as several million forints. And that is just the purchase price, without the equally high costs of transport and planting.

It is important to mention that the costs associated with building, maintaining, and nurturing the garden can be significantly inflated by items which are not visible in Hadházy's video. "Even a candelabra or a statue can cost millions of forints," the expert said.

Another thing not visible in the video posted on Wednesday is the area under the soil of the garden in Hatvanpuszta, and the construction of the underground infrastructure necessary for the care and maintenance of such a garden is not cheap either.