Is Varna the right choice for us ?

@RexTechGuy I'm following this one with interest............

Hello everyone,

Welcome on board Mark !

Please note that I have created this new thread from your post on the Varna forum so that members can guide you.

All the best

Bhavna

@RexTechGuy

There are not many places (especially in Europe) where you can live decently on 2k euros. But Bulgaria's still one of them (the minimum wage is around 500 euros per month, for comparison).

If you've got extra online income, that's a nice bonus. It's great to earn a high foreign salary and pay low local costs. And Bulgaria has very good internet connectivity, even out in the countryside. I'm paying 15 lv/month for Vivacom home fiber (100 mbps).

Bulgaria has (or had) lots of Russians, so I'd say it's not a difficult relocation at all. There are always bureaucratic issues when relocating to a new country, but I don't think anything in Bulgaria is overly challenging.

If you've been in CZ almost 5 years, you should be close to getting Permanent Residence. It might be worth hanging on for this, as it's typically easier to get residence elsewhere in the EU (including Bulgaria) based on already having your PR, rather than starting from scratch.

I think both Burgas and Varna are worth considering for coastal living, but perhaps a couple of smaller places (Pomorie, Sozopol) might also be worth a look. Even though it's not coastal, we've loved being in Plovdiv (Bulgaria's 2nd city, and former European Capital of Culture), and very happy that we chose it. Hand on heart, I can say it's one of my favorite places to live... and we enjoy a quality of life here way beyond anything we could manage in the UK, Germany, or USA.

I'd say a key issue might be how big your secret stash is for buying your Bulgarian property. Bulgarian prices have risen significantly, and apartments in these large cities are in high demand. As a guesstimate, I'd suggest you need 1,000-1,500 euros per m2, maybe even more depending on how central and how fancy you want to be.

In short: ignore the horror stories, and come and take a look. I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised.

@Gwynj,

        Thank you very much for the long and detailed response. One of my biggest concerns is the ability to make friends and become part of a community. My wife is a lovely and friendly woman and it has been a real challenge for us to make friends here. As far as sticking it out here for 2 more years... uh...NO. :-) Unfortuantely, our 'stash' has been gobbled up by life events, our relo to Europe, then COVID effectively killing my consultation prospects (metrology/wafer equip) so we will ebrenting to begin. Would it even be possible to get a short term mortgage/loan to purchase anything?

       For our bureaucratic needs, and recommendations for any lawyers or agencies would be appreciated. We will make our scouting trip (1 month) in April, and what we are really wanting is a seafront (or as close as possible) in a more modern area where other expats would also be residing.  Any specific areas/neighborhoods we can check out would be great (we read about Briz). Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks!

Mark, it's a few years since we stayed there, but Vinitsa is also a nice area just outside Varna, a few km inland but with sea views and regular buses to central Varna and the coast. There seemed to be a number of Russian expats there, we rented an AirBnB from a lovely Russian woman.

It may have become overbuilt with apartments since then, as I see a lot of new apartments for sale, but when we were there it was a pleasant place to stay, with an excellent supermarket and other services, and also nice walks up into the oak forests on the hills (through apartment blocked were creeping up the hills.

Unfortunately Varna prices have doubled in the past few years making our intention to get a small apartment there was well as our village house less likely.

@RexTechGuy

Your chances of getting a mortgage/bank loan for a property as a foreigner are slim to none.

You might be lucky and find an expat community that you fit in with, or you might wish that you'd picked somewhere totally remote from any foreigners; it depends on your temperament (and patience).  Personally, I can't think of anything worse than living in or near an expat ghetto - a life of boozing, backbiting and indiscriminate bonking certainly isn't why I moved to Bulgaria.  We have a (very) small group of foreign friends here and we all trust each other implicitly, but unfortunately not all foreigners are trustworthy or even the kind of folks we want to mix with - and I've no doubt that they feel the same about us, which suits me just fine.  If we happen to hear English, especially, being spoken in the street or supermarket we might offer help if it's clear that the people need/want it - but we're more likely to just switch our conversation to Bulgarian or simply keep quiet.

Our social circle is predominantly Bulgarian and mainly non-English-speaking - and that's how we like it.  Your preference may be entirely different.

@RexTechGuy. Hi Mark,

I've lived in Varna now for just over three years.  I'm originally from London, UK. I first moved to Veliko Tarnovo, but, by shear chance, met my future wife their and within three months of arriving in Veliko Tarnovo, we decided to move to Varna.  We arrived in Varna on 10th December 2020 and rented a large two bed apartment for 16 months, before we bought a three bedroom maisonette in another area of Varna.

My wife is half Russian, half Bulgarian. My wife has cousins in Russia.

We both love Varna; she because she was born in the city and me because it grew on me from day one.  It has so much to offer.  That's not to say that we haven't travelled around Bulgaria, we have, so we know the other cities and many towns too.  But Varna, not only has the sea, but everything is within easy reach and the transport is pretty good.

Why do we like Varna over other cities?  We find the people here, more laid back and friendlier.  We visited Burgas a few times on four night stays and found the people somewhat glum and depressed!  We don't like Sofia, because it's too sprawling, expensive and also polluted. Plovdiv is lovely, but doesn't have the sea. Veliko Tarnovo is too villagey for us.   Where we live (just outside the centre) we have a plethora of small shops and small businesses on our doorstep, a great neighbourhood, with a proper community feel to it, friendly people, who always say hello and are happy to help out!    As for driving licences etc., wherever you go in Bulgaria, those sort of things are always going to be bureaucratic, it's part of being in Bulgaria and you either accept it and go with what is required, or get stressed over it - my wife and I joke a lot over it...  We call it Post Office Syndrome, as we once went to post a letter in Veliko Tarnovo Post Office and it took 30 minutes for the woman behind the counter to process the letter!

Varna has everything, great restaurants, bars, hundreds of cafés, plenty of hotels, swimming pools, gyms, railway station, airport (all year round) museums, galleries, three shopping malls, cinemas, libraries, opera / theatre, Sunday market, great Christmas lights / decorations, beautiful cathedral, cheap public transport, the Sea Garden / Primorski Park, which are beautiful, zoo, beach bars (all year round) beautiful beaches, a port area, with restaurants and amusements.  There's virtually nothing you can't buy in Varna - shops and businesses for everything - rarely do I have to resort to Amazon!  The bad side?   There's a shortage of property and rents and purchase prices are high (are my best postage on cost of living).  If and when you arrive in Varna, give us a shout and we can meet up - more than happy to offer any advice!

Ian and Tatyana

Hi Ian,

        It is very nice to meet you and Tatiana. Thank you for the very nice response. My wife's name is Lada, and we are planning on coming to BG sometime on April and are now very excited to check out Varna. It would be super to get together with you giys once we bebop down there, so if you'd like, just PM me and we can exchange details. Right now I started the inquiry process as to our potential relo date, and due to my current retirement sched, we may be pushed back until Oct. unless we can find another method (very few options at this point). The one immigration lawyer that gave me a price took me by surprise. I normally do all of our docs wherever we are (currently extending Lada's residency here and did all her US based processes) I am hoping that this may be something I can handle on my own instead of paying close to or over 1k euros. Any advice/recommendations would be great! We've targeted specific neighborhoods where we may settle, and I can throw a list on here later to get some feedback. Work is nuts right now so gotta bolt.. see ya!

@RexTechGuy

Hi Mark, only just seen your message, as been busy also - I rely on notifications to my email.

Glad to hear you're coming to Varna, when you're here, just message me and we can meet up.  I'm retired, so usually have free time.  That said, I own and manage an Airbnb, studio apartment, so that takes up time, with managing and cleaning it (Tatyana does the washing). 

I never used an immigration lawyer, as I arrived in Bulgaria before Brexit, so the rules were different then - all I had to do, was apply for a longterm residency card and supply what was needed.  So I'm afraid I don't have know any immigration lawyers.  I have a solicitor, but she works in real estate.

It's good that you're already looking at different areas of Varna - it's important to get the right area and feel good with it!  The areas I personally like the most are Levski, Tsveten Kvartal (where I live) Central area, Red Square / Hospital District. 

When we first moved to Varna, from Veliko Tarnovo, we rented in an area called Chaika. It was okay to start, but shops were rather spread out and it required a lot of walking!  Briz is along the road from Chaika and is newer, but further away from the center of Varna, although buses and taxis are easy to access.  Another area favourite with the expats is the Greek Quarter, but it's very expensive and, in my view, overpriced for what you get and parking is paid for and difficult!  The only area I would say to avoid, is Maksuda (look it up on Google) it's a ghetto!

I may also have another lady arriving in April - I'm not sure yet. She's desperate to leave the UK, so, like yourselves, she wants to pay a visit to Varna, to get the feel of the city.  So it may be that she might meet with us too, as you'll all be on a learning curb! 

Sorry for the delay in replying to you, but I got behind with the emails.

Best regards

Ian and Tatyana

@gwynj

Thank you very much for finding time to post this info. Very useful! Kind regards,  Alex