Oh, powerful property experts of MSE i need advice!

Old_Git

if its that good why are the locals not buying ,and who will you sell it on to

Errata

It's not the properties in Bulgaria that are a problem, it's the neighbours!

moneyistooshorttomention

There is always a reason as to why properties are cheaper (or dearer) in certain locations.

It boils down to whether its possible to actually live a "Normal Life" there in effect.

Just take within Britain for instance and London is "super-priced" because Every B&gger Else seems to want to buy a place in London besides those who actually intend to live there. Then we move onto the "Dear, as opposed to Exorbitant" areas of Britain and its down to its probably only us that actually intend to live there ....but there are plenty of facilities/jobs available there. Then our cheaper areas (waves from "back of beyond Wales" at this point) and it boils down to things like its cheaper in the main because there aren't many jobs/facilities there and those jobs there are are currently unavailable to many if they are in the public sector down to an "English Not" that came in at some point late 20th century (ie discrimination for not speaking fluent Welsh....as swing of pendulum that was here some decades back whereby people were punished for speaking Welsh and that pendulum swing now means punishment for not speaking Welsh in some parts) and people wanting public sector jobs aren't able to get them at the moment unless they speak fluent Welsh (give it 20 years or so and that probably won't apply any more...but, right at this exact moment in 2015 and it does:cool:).

Then go on and multiply those factors up by the fact of being in Europe, rather than Britain,.......and do you get the picture by now????

Widelats

OK thanks everyone, they are still worth buying i guess, as they have land with them too, and who knows i might just well g live there and build a farm to live on.

I will seriously consider buying a 1k property with land, thanks very much.

ViolaLass

Do they come with facilities/amenities attached? What taxes are there? Who will you sell to? Do you need to learn Bulgarian? What's the welfare state like? What would buying all the extra bits for the farm cost? Are these properties in safe areas with good access?

Just a taster of the kind of questions I'd be thinking.

ambioni

My aunt and uncle retired to Bulgaria and bought a house in the hills, miles from anywhere...all was well until he passed away and she was stuck there, unable to drive, unable to speak the language, totally reliant on a few expat friends...the house (which was huge and newly built) took over a year to sell and she got about equivalent £60000 for it, nowhere NEAR enough to buy somewhere decent here in the area she wants to live in....think carefully about buying property overseas and about what you will do if you ever had to sell it

moneyistooshorttomention

That is the thing - ie if you emigrate to another country you do need to learn the language. I do get surprised at British people moving to France, Spain, etc and not learning French/Spanish/whatever-language-it-is and would say you need to learn Hungarian if you are going to move there.

DaftyDuck

Bulgarian would be more useful to the OP.

Reminds me of the genius of Richard Feynman, learning a language fluently for a lecture tour, only to find out he'd learned the wrong one....

[Deleted User]

You also need to check your tenancy agreement with the council. Some won't allow you to own a property, even in another country and rent a council property. If you ever claim HB, property ownership will be a bigger problem.

AlexMac

A bit out of date, but look at
http://www.novinite.com/articles/109685/British+Expats+in+Bulgaria%3A+We+Came+Here+%22Just+To+Live+Our+Dream%22

It sounds a bit like Puglia, in the poorer south of Italy 10-20 years ago, when you could buy a wreck in the country - maybe a conical stone 'trullo' for £10-20k... Many people thrived as can be seen from the expat blogsite 'Puglia Posse' http://www.pugliaposse.com/forums/ but others had problems adjusting. Sometimes it was a basic misunderstanding of the local culture and customs.

As one of our Italian friends said, when hearing of another remote Brit property which had been robbed (of everything; not just contents but even the central heating boiler, pipes and rads); "why don't they just pay the 'vigilanzia'? Its so cheap and like insurance" (The vigilanzia - private security - don't actually guard your home; they just tell their mates not to burgle it!)

Anyway, back to Bulgaria; good luck. As I see from your post (assuming it was you and not another Scot) on http://britishexpat.com/expatforum/viewtopic.php?f=506&t=14131 there are lots of Qs about avoiding being ripped off but few answers