Newbie looking to buy property

Word of advice, renovating properties in mainland Europe is completely different to renovating in the UK. You really do need to do your homework before you buy.

Hi Nicola! Most village houses for sale will still need big structural work doing. Don't necessarily take the estate agent's word for that. Ours, a typical Bulgarian village house about 90 minutes from Varna, turned out to have  been empty for over a year since the elderly previous owner died and badly neglected for some time before that. It was sold to me as "no immediate work needed", but water literally poured in when it rained so a new roof was essential ASAP! That cost about 7,500 GBP in April 2023.

I think the most likely way you'd get a house that already has the basics done is to find one that been partly renovated by a Brit who gave up and went back to the UK. There are some around, but you might need to look closer to find out why the previous owner gave up. Personal reasons, or some undisclosed problem with the house?

For DIY building materials costs, you can check the Bulgarian versions of online sites like Praktiker and emag. Just like in the UK, costs to pay someone else to do renovation can vary wildly depending where you are, what work is needed, what standard you want the work done to, who you use to do the job, and how much they think they can get away with charging you! With the complicating factor of needing to do it in a different language.

We hope to move in four years when I reach retirment age and qualify for a D visa. It will probably take that long to get the house truly livable.

@nicolahaswell909

Welcome to the Expat.com forum and good luck with your property search!

Bulgaria isn't as cheap as it used to be (nowhere is!), but it can be financially attractive, especially if you have passive income (rents, pensions, etc.) or can work remotely (when you get higher foreign salary with lower local costs).

Property purchase and property running costs (property tax, utility bills, etc.) are substantially lower than UK. But construction materials, tools, and appliances are maybe slightly cheaper. The official minimum wage (400-ish euros a month) is much less than the UK, but the challenge is finding decent tradesfolks at a decent price, especially as there's usually a communication issue, and looking for English-speaking trades makes it even harder. Most won't work hourly (or daily) either, they want to be paid by the job.

I've done a lot of renovation over the last year or so as I purchased a couple of brand new apartments in Plovdiv (which were delivered as "Bulgarian Standard", essentially a concrete box with windows and the front door). One tradesman (a tiler) was a Bulgarian returning after 20 years in South Africa and UK, so he speaks perfect English. But mostly they didn't speak English at all. It was really only possible because my AC guy speaks very good English, and he agreed to help me find good tradespeople, and act as a go-between (but I bought a bunch of AC units for the house and apartments).

During the Pandemic, I was holed up at our village house in the Balkan Mountains (and it was wonderful). I tried a few times to find folks to help me, but it was quite difficult out in the countryside. I found a great mechanic (who speaks Spanish better than me), so my cars are taken care of, but he doesn't do renovation unfortunately. :-) I was lucky as I got chatting with a group (4-5) of "gypsy" builders (my neighbour called them that, but strictly speaking they are Turkish-origin Bulgarians, not Romany) who were working on a house nearby. No English spoken, but one of the gang spoke German (also much better than me, but it was enough to have a bit of a discussion on-site). The gang master turned out to be a Bulgarian architect who spoke excellent English, so again there was a helper/translator/project manager in the mix. (And, of course, it was more expensive employing them because of that.)

I gave them one job (just to try them out), but then kept giving further projects. It was a bit rough-and-ready rather than craftsman-style, but they were friendly and helpful guys. They worked nearly 5 months solid over the summer, and we got a huge amount done, and for far less than it would have cost in the UK. (Even so, 5 months of a building gang + materials + windows was a goodly chunk of cash.) The German speaker eventually told me he was leaving to work in Veliko Tarnovo (as a construction labourer, not a skilled tradesman) for 50 euros per day, as he was paid less than this by the architect. In Germany, a couple of years prior, I'd had to pay a minimum of 50 euros PER HOUR to any Meister (tradesman, tiler, plumber, gas guy, etc.) who helped me with the renovation work there! (The huge cost of that renovation was a big factor in selling that house off unfinished, and relocating to BG.)