The President meets… Veronika Pinter and Reka Jenofi
In this episode, the IAHSP® EU President meets Reka Jenofi & Veronika Pinter, the Founders of Renna Home, co-writers of the first Home Staging book published in Hungary.
S.R.: How is Hungarian Real Estate responding to the offer of our Home Staging services?
V.P & R.J: Home staging dates back only 10 years in the Hungarian real estate market. However, its expansion is now unstoppable. The sellers have already recognised the potential of it, the demanding buyers on the other hand are specifically looking for these technically and aesthetically ready-to-move-in properties.
The development of Home Staging has been facilitated by several factors over the past 10 years. On the one hand, the rapidly rising real estate prices have brought growing demands. Buyers only accept high prices for good quality.
Foreign buyers also appeared on the Hungarian market, with high demands and were looking for ready-to-use, staged flats.
The third factor is the emergence of the ‘airbnb flats’ in the capital, which has accelerated the renovation and high-level preparation of mainly downtown apartments. The benefits of staged homes in both the selling and rental markets
are undeniable. The principles of home staging have proved to work in the Hungarian real estate market with no exception.These properties immediately stand out and are sold much faster and at a higher price than the market average.
The Home Staging service is still used by only a narrow layer, but it is gaining more and more space. Most properties are still sold the way its owners live in them, typically in poor technical and aesthetic condition.“The buyer will paint it if they do not like it” approach is still widely present and hard to overcome.
The fact that the basic condition of the Hungarian properties are typically very bad contributes greatly to this. Thus, in Hungary Home Staging in the classic sense is almost always preceded by a major renovation, such as a bathroom or a kitchen or even a complete home renovation.
S.R.: How many Professional Home Stagers are present in Hungary?
V.P & R.J: The training of Home Staging professionals has also started only in the last 4-5 years, so the number of professionals is not too high, about 30-40 who are actively in business.
The development of complex services in the industry is in its infancy, however, some companies have already appeared on the market, serving the needs with a full range of services (home staging, furniture rental, sales).
S.R.: How did the idea of writing the book come to your mind?
V.P & R.J: There was no book or any printed, or online material available on the topic in Hungarian. Fortunately, interest is growing so we decided to give a panorama on it. We thought we should share our 5 years experience with those who are open to something new in real estate business.
S.R.: What experience is the book going to give to your readers?
V.P & R.J: They can learn about home staging from basics. They can understand the method,
how it works and why it works. We write about the history and future of home staging, in general and in Hungary as well. We explain difference between interior decoration and Home Staging.
People often find excuses for why not to use home staging when selling their properties. We try to disprove these misbelieves. They can have picture on how a home stager can help them during the process of sale. And at last but not least readers will find lots of beautiful photos of our work which prove that home staging works on every market, every type of real estate.
S.R.: Is the book going to be translated into English or other European languages soon?
V.P & R.J: We haven’t thought about this
S.R.: Please share where can your book be purchased
V.P & R.J: