investing in bulgaria

tomstickland

brought it?

Sallys_Savings

apologies....way past my bedtime

gallygirl

RHemmings wrote:

I think that choosing locations to buy abroad based on "cheap flights" is a bit dangerous. What if the cheap flights stopped? Could happen easily if the profit margins are too low, so that some companies drop out, leaving a monopoly. Or fuel prices might rise sufficiently so that the break-even point for fares is well above current levels.

I agree - sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I don't just mean the likes of Ryanair & Easyjet (although they are by far the cheapest), but also Monarch, mytravelite etc, they do flights for £50 each way, or less if you time the booking right. I can't see so many dropping out it ever becomes a monopoly What I meant was having to rely on scheduled flights at some parts of the year. I know for instance that e.g. Thomsonfly etc do cheap flights to Turkey in summer, but not winter.

However, although where I was (near Fethiye) was beautiful I couldn't see me wanting to have a place there (which is unlike me, I want houses EVERYWHERE I go usually!).

Tidyfinance, my concerns would be:
- Can you get cheap flights all year round, not just in summer months? e.g. thomsonfly don't go to Dalaman from Birmingham in the winter.
- How cheap is the car hire - and where you're thinking of buying are the roads good? (e.g. the new road from Dalaman to Fethiye is v good - but parts of old road were subject to landslide every year)
- If you do rent out your place - who would service it for you - who would hold keys, clean etc?
- What about maintenance and looking after it when it was empty? E.g. what if water tank starts to leak the day after you leave and you're not back for 3 months?
- How are developmensts finished off? I didnt see any complexes, but the villas where 1 builder had built 6 etc seemed to be left with rubbish strewn round and streets unpaved etc (maybe I was looking at too new ones & they just hadn't finished off)
- Would you see it as a long term investment - beciuse as other posters have said, just because the price of new builds has gone up doesn't mean yours will. How do you go about selling say a 2 yr old property? What are charges etc?

It's for these type of reasons I've bought in Spain - I know there is a good support system there for what I need. That's why I've paid a lot more than I would have in Turkey - but is Turkey really SO cheap you can afford to take a risk?????

Sorry to be so gloomy on such a sunny day!

martyn4764

tidyfinance wrote:

Turkey will soon be joining the EU

Hi

That's a hell of a long way from a certainty; for a start, after last year's EU constitution referenda the French Government has said they'll put the Turkish accession to a domestic referendum before deciding the official position; I can assure you the French people will vote against it.

Martyn

Sapphire

PoorDave wrote:

According to TV, Bulgaria's time is over, and we should be concentrating on Montenegro as our chosen investment place.

Then again we could go and do something more interesting instead...

I wouldn't take too much notice of the property !!!!!! on TV. The makeover/buying/selling for a profit programmes generally don't give you a full picture of the profit the gamblers make taking into account selling expenses, etc. – and the properties are often not even sold by the end of the programmes.

The programmes are also not live – given the volatility of the overseas markets, these may have changed by the time the programmes are actually shown on TV.

I think such programmes encourage people to take stupid risks - especially so when people remortgage their family homes in order to buy property on the off chance that it will make them a profit! I often wonder how many episodes were filmed that we have not seen, where the gamblers lost heavily . . .

RHemmings

Sapphire wrote:

I wouldn't take too much notice of the property !!!!!! on TV. The makeover/buying/selling for a profit programmes generally don't give you a full picture of the profit the gamblers make taking into account selling expenses, etc. – and the properties are often not even sold by the end of the programmes.

The programmes are also not live – given the volatility of the overseas markets, these may have changed by the time the programmes are actually shown on TV.

I think such programmes encourage people to take stupid risks - especially so when people remortgage their family homes in order to buy property on the off chance that it will make them a profit! I often wonder how many episodes were filmed that we have not seen, where the gamblers lost heavily . . .

I have to agree. If someone buys a property with a mortgage, and sells it on, then any mortgage interest payments are costs. I've never seen these deducted. Same for EA fees , legal fees, and the like. It always seems to be "property bought for X, sold for Y, profit Y-X". And even worse when, as you say, the properties are not sold, and they get an Estate Agent to "value" it.

And I think that showing repeats of property !!!!!! from 2003, 2002, and other years with high HPI is downright socially irresponsible. People will view these programs and think that this is the kind of profit that can be made now.

Sapphire

RHemmings wrote:

I have to agree. If someone buys a property with a mortgage, and sells it on, then any mortgage interest payments are costs. I've never seen these deducted. Same for EA fees , legal fees, and the like. It always seems to be "property bought for X, sold for Y, profit Y-X". And even worse when, as you say, the properties are not sold, and they get an Estate Agent to "value" it.

And I think that showing repeats of property !!!!!! from 2003, 2002, and other years with high HPI is downright socially irresponsible. People will view these programs and think that this is the kind of profit that can be made now.

Also forgot to mention the tax these amateur 'developers' presumably have to pay on the profits. Even though some of this can be deducted against expenses, it is still likely to be high unless some of these people engage in money laundering, etc. (Most of them don't appear intelligent enough to engage in any kind of creative accounting.)

What strikes me about these gamblers is that so many of them don't even do any research before going into their ventures - on the market, on the properties/land they buy, on how the work will actually be carried out - or even on the country itself. It seems like lunacy.

Nacid

Hi everyone,

I've just joined the forum. I am a Bulgarian living in the Uk and if you have any questions about Bulgaria I can try to answer them.

Take care.

Nench

RHemmings

Sapphire wrote:

Also forgot to mention the tax these amateur 'developers' presumably have to pay on the profits. Even though some of this can be deducted against expenses, it is still likely to be high unless some of these people engage in money laundering, etc. (Most of them don't appear intelligent enough to engage in any kind of creative accounting.)

What strikes me about these gamblers is that so many of them don't even do any research before going into their ventures - on the market, on the properties/land they buy, on how the work will actually be carried out - or even on the country itself. It seems like lunacy.

Some of the older TV programs showed how people could survive without research. In the UK in 2002-4 or thereabouts, prices were rising so fast it didn't matter if the gamblers were idiots, they still made a profit anyhow. Now they're convinced they know what they're doing and they're probably going to continue in a much tougher market, and trickier overseas markets. I think we've seen some evidence of this on more recent property !!!!!! programs.

RHemmings

Nacid wrote:

Hi everyone,

I've just joined the forum. I am a Bulgarian living in the Uk and if you have any questions about Bulgaria I can try to answer them.

Take care.

Nench

Hello. What do Bulgarians think of people from the UK and Ireland buying up large amounts of property in Bulgaria?