1. Write down your technical needs

For a warehouse, the floor area alone is not enough. What you store and how you move the goods matter too. Write down in advance:

  • Area: how much storage and loading space you need now, and how much in two or three years.
  • Clear height: how many racking levels you would use. Today's Class A warehouses have a clear height of 10–12 metres.
  • Loading: whether the goods arrive by truck or by van. Truck traffic needs dock doors; smaller vehicles need drive-in doors.
  • Floor: what load it must carry. In the large parks it is usually 5 t/m², enough for heavy racking and forklift traffic.
  • Special needs: chilled or heated storage, dangerous goods, a large power supply, production.
  • Office and staff facilities: how many people work in the warehouse and in the office.

If you rent for production or as a workshop, look at the industrial halls too. There you find the buildings where the landlord allows production, or which were built with drive-in doors.

2. Choose the location

The location is decided by where your goods come from, where you deliver them and where your staff come in from. Most of the modern warehouses around Budapest were built along the M0 ring road, at the junctions of the radial motorways. The Budapest and surroundings page shows the supply by direction, and we have collected the warehouses in Pest County on a page of their own.

For city deliveries, the usual choice is a smaller warehouse in the districts; for national distribution, the large parks along the M0. At the large parks, check how staff get there by public transport too. For shift work, the workforce is often as important as the rent.

3. Work out the monthly cost

The monthly cost is made up of several items:

  • Rent: usually quoted in euros per square metre per month (€/m²/month), plus VAT. The warehouse and its office usually have different rents.
  • Service charge: covers the park's shared costs, such as security, cleaning and the upkeep of the green areas.
  • Utilities: the warehouse's heating, lighting and electricity. These can differ a lot from one warehouse to another.
  • Equipment: the tenant usually pays for racking and special equipment, but this can be negotiated too.

The landlord also asks for security, a deposit or a bank guarantee. The market rents published by the major advisory firms are collected on the Hungarian industrial market page. Each warehouse's asking rent is shown on its own page.

4. Allow enough time

You can move into a ready, empty warehouse quickly. If the landlord adapts the hall to your needs, allow several months. If a new hall is built for you (build-to-suit), allow more: building a standard logistics hall alone takes about a year.

5. View the warehouses

On a viewing, look at the hall, the yard and the access. Ask for the clear height, the column grid and the floor loading, and check how many dock and drive-in doors there are. Notice whether the yard is deep enough for trucks to turn, and whether there is truck parking.

6. Negotiate the terms

Besides the rent, you can negotiate a rent-free period, the landlord's contribution to the fit-out, expansion within the park and the break terms. Ask whether the park has a vacant hall or one under construction in case your business grows.

7. Check the lease

  • Lease term: in modern logistics parks leases usually run three to five years, and five to ten years for large units. A shorter lease is possible for smaller units, depending on the site.
  • Currency and indexation: the rent is usually set in euros and indexed every year. Ask which index is used.
  • Notice and break: when, and on what terms, you can end the lease.
  • Handback: the condition in which you must return the warehouse at the end of the lease.

Have a lawyer review the lease before you sign it.

If you also want to outsource warehousing

If you would rather not run your own warehouse and want to outsource storage, picking and transport, look at the warehouses with logistics services. The provider then handles your goods in its own warehouse. The fee usually has several parts: storage per pallet space or per square metre, handling and picking fees, and transport.

How Warehouserentinfo.hu helps

  • Search the warehouses for rent by location, size and category, on a map too.
  • Each warehouse's page shows the clear height, the number of dock and drive-in doors, the floor loading, the available units and the rents.
  • Most warehouses are advertised by their owner or developer, so you can deal with them directly.
  • The comparison shows the warehouses you choose side by side.
  • If you have no time to go through the listings, describe the warehouse you need, and the landlords of matching warehouses will send you offers. It is free for you.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to rent a warehouse?

You can move into a ready, empty warehouse quickly. If the landlord adapts the hall to your needs, allow several months; for a newly built hall, about a year.

How much does a warehouse cost around Budapest?

The monthly cost is: leased area × rent, plus the service charge, utilities and VAT. The market rents published by the major advisory firms are on the Hungarian industrial market page, and each warehouse's rent is on its own page.

What is the difference between a dock door and a drive-in door?

At a dock door, the back of the truck stands against the ramp and the forklift drives level into its load space. Through a drive-in door, a van or a forklift drives straight into the hall.

How long does a warehouse lease run?

In modern logistics parks usually three to five years, and five to ten years for large units. A shorter lease is possible for smaller units.