Buying property in Bulgaria
 

I'm on the verge of buying an apartment in Bulgaria....have any of you done this, and how have you found it?

I would be very careful, due to high prices in england properties in these tyoe of countries *appear* very cheap but often they are not.

Think very carefully, how long do you want it for? What is the reason for purchase? If for investment then forget about it you have missed the boat. I work in the property marke and would never consider buying in bulgaria/croatia. Heard to many horror stories.

Look at spain, you can't sell a second hand property their for love nor money. It was the first country to really sell properties mass market and is on the verge of collapse now. The same will happen to all of these so called hot spots over time.

If you do buy check very carefully on, land ownership & title deedes.

Good luck

chop :)

Like chopper says, be carefull! If youre buying for pleasure and arent too worried about the price changing you should be ok, but if its for an investment I'd think twice!

There's been far too much cheap money floating around and massively inflating asset prices over the past decade (mostly property) but now this looks like drying up.

Property prices in Spain and the USA quite simply collapsing, Ireland and many parts of France are starting to slip. Those places like Bulgaria look very cheap, but the local economy simply cant support prices which may look cheap to us. As is usually the case in booms - the areas which see the biggest gains also see the biggest loses when the bust comes.

local economy is a very very good point.

chop :)

I wish this collapse in Spain would actually happen! There seems to be lots of talk of it, yet whilst the market is certainly saturated and much slower than it used to be, the prices aren't exactly tumbling down.

Only those people who bought recently still thinking their property price will rise at 30% a year will not be able to easily get back the price they paid. I've been planning on buying a few near me after the crash hit, but prices are still firm at the moment.

I bought a nice property in BG 2 years ago which has gone up quite a bit in value. But i'm not going to sell it now as it's a long term investment.

You have to remember emerging markets offer good value for money, but there is almost always no real resale market, thats why you have to look at it long term. You also have to be prepared to get little income for the first couple of years...

Where are you thinking of buying? Beach/ski?

PM me if you want more info.

p.s Egypt's red sea reviera offers good investment prospects with properties starting from less than £20K and the number of tourists that come to egypt each year is the same as the population of Bulgaria!! :D

bollox as usual Pete. House prices in Dublin are stagnant. Given that you can get a two bedroom terrace in Dublin for a million Euro, then this is hardly surprising. Cork, Galway and Limerick are all rapidly catching up and prices in rural Ireland have never started to rise, so while they may be low, they are certainly not slipping.

briforbes - do your homework before you buy - Bulgaria wont see the increases that we have enjoyed here. It is a different culture - they don't see the need to own a house (much like most of France), so you wont get massive increases when they run out of stock.

Ireland/Irish House Prices, Housing Market, Prices, NCB Stockbrokers, Index, Europe, Australia, US : Finfacts Ireland

"In the first four months of 2007 prices nationally decreased by 1.3%"

Thanks for the input guys. I'm not looking for short term investment, and would be quite happy to sit on it for a while, hopefully make a small income from rental and have somewhere nice to visit a few times a year.

The development I'm looking at is called "Geshaview", and is being built by "SimpliBulgaria" in Veliko Turnavo. The idea behind the development is to avoid being like the Ski/beach type apartments that are being built en masse, and to offer breaks in a more rural setting with nice restaurants and surroundings.

Mate, the ski in Bulgaria is second rate, Sunny Beach etc is as tacky as it comes and the season is only 6 months or less. You'd think it couldn't get much worse .........................until you consider a weeks holiday in rural Bulgaria???????????? Who would want to do that? Its sales hype disguising the fact that they have built the stuff on land worth £100 in the middle of nowhere and are selling it to you for £1000s.
Personally I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole

imho!

^^What he said^^

Have you been to see GeshaView yet?

One of my staff hard working staff(who is from Bulgaria) says he bought his 5 bedroom house for £10k recently somewhere in Bulgaria, so there must be bargains to be had but would you want to go there?

my mum bought in Bulgaria 5 years ago back then you needed a company to buy property out there but now that Bulgaria is in the EU you dont have to set up a company which saves you about £300. Try Bulgarian Properties for sale and rent - buy houses in Bulgaria , apartments and flats, land offices, rural property and hotels.
or visit a few of the sites with people who have already bought in Bulgaria and what experiances they have had here is one i can remember its
Bulgarian property directory & information on properties in bulgaria for sale or rent
to be honest my mum hasn't had any major problems there, i can now speak bulgarian and i also over seen a house being built for her last year.
i hope these websites help you out :)

Fair enough - you read it on the internet, so it must be true. The same rag says Conor Maguire wont be the next attorney general. Any idea why?

If you are thinking now then you have a point but as more aliens buy property out there then it will increase pressure on locals to upgrade the whole country!

If you think about the Algarve 25 years ago it was mainly shanty towns with a few nice developments but now its much improved and property has increased a great deal.

Yes, but the Algarve was never a former communist Eastern Bloc country. It also has nicer beaches and better weather.

Also if you are relying on mass life style purchasers to force some kind of infrastructure revolution in the country then that only happens if you reach a critical mass. I doubt if that will happen in Bulgaria as it doesn't have enough to attract people there imho.

The biggest issue imho is the season, which is just too short to make a fly to buy a reasonable financial proposition. Not only that but I am yet to meet a single person who hankers to go to Bulgaria as a desirable holiday destination.