Homes for Viennese senior citizens in Hungary

A Belgian investor together with his Hungarian company and partners is planning to construct homes mainly for Viennese senior citizens aged 55 and over in the towns of Bük and in Hédervár in Western Hungary, just 90 and 120 km respectively from Vienna.

Senior citizens – nursing – residential care

The first home project will be constructed near the spa resort of Bük in Western Hungary, which attracts nearly a million visitors each year. The planned complex in Bük will cover an area of 7.7 hectares and offer 575 beds. It will feature a senior citizens’ residence (125 beds), a nursing home (250 beds) and a residential care home (200 beds). The cost of the project will be EUR 18 million. The European Union will contribute EUR 1 million, and construction will commence on 1 May 2009.

Chinese therapy and school medicine

A parallel project involves a so-called TCM clinic – TCM stands for traditional Chinese medicine – that will also give out-patient treatment. Patients will receive therapy in accordance with the teachings of traditional Chinese medicine. However, they will be diagnosed in the presence of a conventional physician. The clinic will have 51 treatment rooms and 12 consulting rooms.

The partners in this project are Belgian Paul de Coninck’s De Coninck GMBH company and Anton Staudinger, a businessman who already operates similar clinics in Germany, like that in Bad Kötzting in the Bavarian Forest to the East of Regensburg.

Competitive prices in four-star hotel

In conversation with Anna Geske, wieninternational.at’s Budapest correspondent, Belgian investor Paul de Coninck expressed his interest in collaborating with the Austrian authorities. He is hoping that the Vienna Health Insurance Fund will also find his project in Bük an attractive proposition. He went on to emphasize that he would be happy to submit to regular voluntary quality controls, by the authorities of the City of Vienna, for instance.

Paul de Coninck also maintains that his prices are up to 50% lower than those in Austria or Germany for the same level of quality and service. “If I pay a physician or a nurse twice the usual salary in their country, it’s still half as much as in Western Europe," explained de Coninck.

De Coninck Medical GmbH in Hungary for 10 years

Paul de Coninck originally comes from Belgium, and settled in Hungary ten years ago. He is now married to a Hungarian, and already has seven companies in the country. For instance, his company in Tardos (north-western Hungary) has operated an orthopaedic rehabilitation centre since the year 2007.

Major home for senior citizens planned in Hédervár

The planning of another retirement home in Hédervár will be completed at the end of this month. Hédervár lies between Györ and Mosonmagyaróvár in western Hungary and is about 90 km from Wien. The project is destined to be much larger than the one in Bük. According to Coninck, the retirement home with 820 beds he wishes to build in Hédervár will be unique in Europe. He is hoping that Hédervár will also attract guests from outside the European Union: he has Russians and Ukrainians in mind especially.

Both in Bük and in Hédervár, the homes will be able to accommodate not only bedridden guests – nursing cases, in other words – but will also offer mobile senior citizens a host of facilities for relaxation.