| Zusammenfassung: | This article focuses on the influence of personal networks on the property negotiations that accompanied the system change from socialism to democracy in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At its center lies István Bibó College, a self-governing student dormitory in Budapest where Hungary’s current ruling party, Fidesz, was founded in 1988. The building in which the College is still located to this day once belonged to a Catholic congregation, which first claimed restitution in 1990. Against the backdrop of vague legal regulations, a lack of established procedures for dealing with restitution, and overt preferential treatment for the church, the college’s students ultimately relied on a trustworthy social network developed over years that had already been helpful in the face of the socialist authorities. It was this network that provided a sense of stability until the property conflict was resolved in the College’s favor toward the end of the 1990s.
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