Bulgaria Property

Rodin

I do have some sympathy for those who are having problems with their property purchase in Bulgaria, and I'm not posting to preach....but:
1 Please don't put the blame on a poor (the poorest in the EU) Eastern Europe country. It seems that those who bought 'problem' apartments were mostly led by greed, they were gullible enough to believe what they saw on trash TV and thought they would make a killing.
2 They bought properties at crazy prices, unrelated to the real Bulgarian property market. I know one man who has 160,000 euros wasted on two small apartments in overdeveloped resorts. That money would still buy you three/four great houses with a great amount of land in beautiful areas.
3 The greed has an impact on the social and economic life of the country. Places like Bansko are ruined by over development, and even nature reserves are built on.
4 Just with any 'investment' values can go down as well as up. Don't be fooled by tales of rich Russians etc buying property. My advice if you've got an apartment in a ski resort, or on the Black Sea (99% of daft Brit locations) either use the place for holidays and get some benefit, or take an offer of anything around the spurious figure you paid for it.

des_cartes

Rodin wrote: »

I do have some sympathy for those who are having problems with their property purchase in Bulgaria, and I'm not posting to preach....but:
1 Please don't put the blame on a poor (the poorest in the EU) Eastern Europe country. It seems that those who bought 'problem' apartments were mostly led by greed, they were gullible enough to believe what they saw on trash TV and thought they would make a killing.
2 They bought properties at crazy prices, unrelated to the real Bulgarian property market. I know one man who has 160,000 euros wasted on two small apartments in overdeveloped resorts. That money would still buy you three/four great houses with a great amount of land in beautiful areas.
3 The greed has an impact on the social and economic life of the country. Places like Bansko are ruined by over development, and even nature reserves are built on.
4 Just with any 'investment' values can go down as well as up. Don't be fooled by tales of rich Russians etc buying property. My advice if you've got an apartment in a ski resort, or on the Black Sea (99% of daft Brit locations) either use the place for holidays and get some benefit, or take an offer of anything around the spurious figure you paid for it.

It's amazing how gullible people are especially with property. What happened in Bulgaria is obviously an extreme case but the same thing has happened evberywhere, Britain included. Obviously the price of property has to be related to what people earn and afford to pay back and not to what someone will lend you. When the Bulgarian property market was at it's high point, I bet the banks would lend pretty much as much as you wanted but now the property is worthless they will chase you for every penny.

mostlycheerful

No, the problem in Bulgaria, as is the case in all east Europe countries, is that the whole country is run from top to bottom by heavy mafiosi crime gangs who do murder, robbery and fraud for a living. Read the media and ask any Bulgarian and they all universally say the same, it’s savage and backward and unevolved, just total dog eat dog medieval jungle law all the time everywhere. That’s why soft naïve Brits get ripped off, they’re vulnerable easy targets and there’s no civilisation or rule of law.

globetraveller

Goodness- where did that come from??(original post) Sounds very much like preaching to me.

nearlynew

mostlycheerful wrote: »

No, the problem in Bulgaria, as is the case in all east Europe countries, is that the whole country is run from top to bottom by heavy mafiosi crime gangs who do murder, robbery and fraud for a living. Read the media and ask any Bulgarian and they all universally say the same, it’s savage and backward and unevolved, just total dog eat dog medieval jungle law all the time everywhere. That’s why soft naïve Brits get ripped off, they’re vulnerable easy targets and there’s no civilisation or rule of law.

You'd think anyone borrowing 100s of thousands of pounds would find this out before signing up. And then not sign up.

Unfortunately, if you are stupid or greedy then the promise of riches trumps reason every time.

RecoveringAlcoholic

Brits leave their brains behind when they get on a plane.


.

G_M

Apart from some moralising, what is this thread for?

Rodin

mostlycheerful wrote: »

No, the problem in Bulgaria, as is the case in all east Europe countries, is that the whole country is run from top to bottom by heavy mafiosi crime gangs who do murder, robbery and fraud for a living. Read the media and ask any Bulgarian and they all universally say the same, it’s savage and backward and unevolved, just total dog eat dog medieval jungle law all the time everywhere. That’s why soft naïve Brits get ripped off, they’re vulnerable easy targets and there’s no civilisation or rule of law.

Typical Sun reader comment.
The company featured on Watchdog was Bulgarian Dreams -a British company.

You're talking ignorant, racist nonsense. I live in Bulgaria in a city with more galleries, bookshops, good restaurants and great people than most places in the UK. There are criminal gangs as everywhere, but no binge drinking, streets are safe at night and no chav behaviour.
If soft Brits get ripped off it's usually by 'hard' Brits.

Rodin

G_M wrote: »

Apart from some moralising, what is this thread for?

To advise people on a money forum (do keep up) not to think an overseas property purchase is a guaranteed good investment.
If you need further help please ask

G_M

Rodin wrote: »

To advise people on a money forum (do keep up) not to think an overseas property purchase is a guaranteed good investment.
If you need further help please ask

If I need help I will, indeed, ask. As no doubt will others who need help.

Which is why this 'advice' out of the blue seems strange. There are 100s of things we could each warn others of. Generally though, unless someone has some axe to grind, we wait till help is sought.

neverdespairgirl

Rodin wrote: »

You're talking ignorant, racist nonsense. I live in Bulgaria in a city with more galleries, bookshops, good restaurants and great people than most places in the UK. There are criminal gangs as everywhere, but no binge drinking, streets are safe at night and no chav behaviour.
If soft Brits get ripped off it's usually by 'hard' Brits.

The Nations in Transit 2010: Bulgaria report by Freedom House doesn't entirely agree with you that Bulgaria's a wonderful place.

Since 2007, however, the Bulgarian government has come under strong criticism for backsliding on its reform efforts. As a result of several scandals, some payments under EU funding programs were suspended in 2008. Furthermore, events during 2009 showed that efforts are still needed to ensure the vitality and continued progress of Bulgarian democracy. Many essential issues remain to be addressed, including reform of the judiciary, fighting corruption and organized crime, improvements in the treatment of underprivileged groups, and measures to restore public trust in democracy and reengage citizens in politics.

Judicial Framework and Independence. There were no major developments in the legal framework of the justice system in Bulgaria in 2009. The most important changes during the year came to the Supreme Judicial Council's procedures for appointing senior magistrates. Serious scandals, however, marred this entire process. Owing to the judiciary's inadequate reaction to scandals within the justice system in 2009, Bulgaria's judicial framework and independence rating remains at 3.00.

Corruption. Despite a scandal-ridden 2008, the institutional structure for fighting corruption in Bulgaria did not undergo substantive changes in 2009. The new Bulgarian government launched investigations into the activities of its predecessor, with indictments against one former minister, yet many of those under investigation are members of the opposition and political motives cannot be ruled out a priori. Some of the frozen EU funds were released by the European Commission following corruption-related reforms. However, Bulgaria continued to lack coordination between the various anticorruption units. International measurements of economic freedom and bureaucratic burdens on business, as well as some measures of corruption, improved in 2009, but the procurement procedure remained marred by corruption and abuse. While a number of positive steps were taken to regain the momentum leading up to 2008, the fight against corruption is still inconsistent, thus Bulgaria's corruption rating remains at 4.00.