Today, Villány is primarily known for its wine and tourism, but the town is actively preparing to put itself on investors’ radar as an industrial and economic hub in the coming years. Located at the southern foot of the Villány Mountains, the town is just 35 km from Pécs, 14 km from Siklós, and 17 km from the Croatian border, with direct road connections to Pécs and Osijek. The Pécs-Kelet interchange on the M60 highway is 25 km away, the Szederkény–Bóly interchange is 17 km away, and the M6 highway already reaches the Croatian border, with the Villány junction.
The next major development will be the construction of a nearly 9-kilometer-long, which will run directly alongside the industrial park, providing full connectivity to the area. According to plans, construction is set to begin around 2026 and is expected to be completed by 2028; this will make Villány home to one of the industrial parks closest to the national border with a direct highway connection. The city is also served by a railway line, which runs near the industrial park and could later be supplemented with a spur line.
Villány does not yet have a developed industrial park, but the local government has successfully applied for funding under the TOP_PLUSZ-1.1.1-21-BA1-2022-00009 “Development of an Economic Development Zone I.” project, under which a 16.2639-hectare greenfield industrial area will be developed. The net, marketable portion of the approximately 16-hectare gross area is nearly 14 hectares; the first phase will be implemented on the municipality-owned property with cadastral number 0226/13. The area is currently zoned as GkszT4, designated for development, with a maximum buildability of 50%, which provides flexible development options for commercial, service, and manufacturing functions.
The industrial area is crisscrossed by an access road with a regulatory width of 16 meters, which serves both as a traffic lane and a utility corridor; The length of the road within the industrial park is 843.46 meters, and the road connecting the industrial park to the national road network will be 522.37 meters long. In the first phase, 18 standard-sized plots, fully prepared for utility connections, will be created; one of these will remain in the municipality’s ownership, while the rest will be sold and developed. Water, sewer, and electricity connections will be extended to the property lines; the default capacity is 1×32 A per lot, but the backbone network running through the area allows for higher demand as well. Drinking water demand has been calculated at 110 m³/day (approx. 3.06 l/s), which is sufficient to serve a workforce of several hundred people. Rainwater drainage and street lighting will be constructed in conjunction with the internal road network.
As part of the development, a 500 m² (gross) lightweight-frame hall—which can be divided into separate sections and expanded as needed—will also be built on the lot, which will remain the property of the municipality. The hall is being built for lease, featuring a prefabricated steel structure, sandwich panel cladding, changing rooms, and restroom facilities, making it an ideal entry point for businesses that wish to quickly launch production, assembly, or logistics operations in Villány without a large initial investment. This may be particularly attractive to SMEs launching supplier operations, as well as light industry, mechanical engineering, and electronics assembly companies, and processing enterprises related to the wine region and agricultural production.
The town’s investment promotion strategy is clear: it aims to attract innovative, forward-thinking businesses to the area that create stable jobs and strengthen the supply chain relationships of local small and medium-sized enterprises. Villány continues to play a central role in the region: the city is home to a mini-daycare center, a preschool, an elementary school, and a music school, agricultural vocational training, healthcare and social services, and a wide range of financial and commercial services are available in the town, and a significant portion of local businesses already employ workers living in surrounding communities. This background provides a solid foundation for recruitment, particularly from the Siklós–Villány district and the catchment area of Osijek, located across the border.
The growth in the city’s economic performance is clearly reflected in the steady increase in local business tax revenues between 2020 and 2023, indicating that the local business environment is stable and that businesses are able to grow. This forms the basis for industrial area development, which creates a new manufacturing and service sector alongside the wine- and tourism-oriented economic structure. The development documents for Baranya County specifically emphasize that, in addition to the county seat, strengthening secondary centers—such as Villány—is essential for expanding employment and reducing out-migration.
However, the 16-hectare industrial zone currently under development is only the first step. According to the municipal plan, the economic development zone can be expanded in several phases: in addition to the 16-hectare area currently under planning, an additional zone of approximately 13 hectares has been designated between the bypass and the M6 connector, and to the north, a roughly 45-hectare block forms the core of the long-term, approximately 74-hectare development area. For investors, this scalability means that the town is capable of meeting the land requirements of larger investments, whether it involves a manufacturing facility built in multiple phases or a cluster of suppliers located in close proximity.
Overall, the development of Villány’s industrial zone offers investors a comprehensive package that combines strategic transport accessibility, the advantages of a border-near location, flexibly configurable plots equipped with modern infrastructure, rentable warehouses enabling rapid market entry, and a proven vibrant local economy based on tourism and wine production. Based on the city and county’s development policy documents, investors become part not only of a new industrial area but also of a consciously built, long-term developing economic region where local and international markets, as well as a livable, attractive residential environment are all present.
