Seeking advice about the Bulgarian housing market

@GoingDutch

Hand on heart, I'm not trying to be a contrarian. But I just don't recognize this nightmare country that you keep describing... :-)

Burgas?????!!!! It's a great (and expensive) city. And it's lovely next to the Sea Garden and the beaches. Of course, there are not-so-good areas, like everywhere. But if you've inherited there, that property should have significant value! Definitely not "worthless" as you discussed in your earlier posts!  Even if it's not in the city, Burgas district is good too with a number of nice towns and villages.

Whether it's a house or an apartment, it can be renovated to bring it more to Western standards. I've done this, and it's totally possible... and far less expensive than buying something. We even have a panel apartment (which I'm sure you think are the absolute pits) and I've been very surprised by it. The panel blocks have loads of communal space (gardens, parking) which you don't get with modern buildings, and a modern block will cost you 10-20k to get a parking space.

They also have minimal common space included in the m2 in the deed (one of your bugbears). Ours is 69 m2 and it has 3 bedrooms (2 are singles, of course, but still... 3 is 3, innit... and not a bad option for a young family of 4). It's slightly less internal space that our 95 m2 modern 2 bed. Inside, after renovation, it's very nice. Not the best... and obviously not a new build... but nice enough we spent 5 years in it (when bought it as a temporary start).

The air quality... again, you make such a big deal of it, and I just think you're completely overstating the problem. Sure, it's a bit worse than Western Europe (and I mean for both general air quality and smoking in particular). But we're in an EU country, and it's subject to environmental regulations just like the rest of the EU. It's a very poor country, starting from a very poor base of environmental standards... so you have to expect it to take a bit longer. Really, considering their circumstances, they've done extremely well. And Bulgaria is receiving (and has received) huge amounts of money from various EU funding schemes, all of this is having a big impact (and not just on air quality).

There are old diesels, and those can be bad. But it's not a huge problem. Apart from anything else, the annual tax on very old polluting cars is very high. You're generalizing from a few vehicles to some massive systemic problem.

I'm a big Plovdiv fan, but Varna and Burgas are pretty similar. I don't experience Plovdiv as a heavily polluted city. I walk every single day, and I notice air pollution, especially if I walk along one of the main arteries in rush hour. But I don't do that. And, in fairness, you'd notice that air pollution in any big city if you stroll in the traffic jams. :-) On the contrary, what I notice is the huge number of trees on all the streets, unlike many European cities that cut them down long ago... and how fresh and unspoiled it is in the main parks (Regatta Zone and the woods and Maritsa River, Bunzardzhik Hill and Youth Hill). Sure, they're not as tidy and manicured as in wealthier cities/countries, but, objectively, they're really very good green spaces.

Ditto smoking. Yes, it's a pain. But it's getting better. And again there are laws on separate non-smoking areas... and MOST establishments comply with them. I'm a bit miffed about the scale of the problem, and I think they could do much better. But, practically, it rarely impacts me.

Apart from anything else... this country has a very small population for its size. Even if there was no environmental regulation, the population density isn't high enough to make the air quality as bad as you say. Especially when a big chunk of the population is in Sofia (approximately 20%-25% in greater Sofia) and another big chunk (roughly 30%) is retired and not economically active.

But... this is all subjective. You say dirty... I say, pretty good really. So I looked on the web, to see if Dr. Google can help us. This air quality map comes up. There's an awful lot of green (good) for a place you say is insufferable.

https://aqicn.org/map/bulgaria/

Separately, as discussed before, nobody (agents or developers) is "lying" to you about the internal space. Here. they're allowed to allocate all the common space (stairs, lobbies, etc.) between all the apartments AND they include the external balcony/terrace space. I mean, yeah, it's slightly annoying if a 95m2 apartment has 12 m2 of common space, and 6 m2 of balcony, so it's only 77 m2 of internal space. Especially as every m2 on the notary deed gets charged at 1k euros per m2, or whatever it is these days! But it's not rocket science... once I saw one place, I knew the deal, and could make allowances. And if you don't like this, you can go for older apartments (or houses) which don't have much (or any) common space in the notary act number.

Overall... I can tell you're struggling with the place... and if your lived experience of it is terrible, nothing I say will help you. But, for context, probably most of us on this board, and 98% of Bulgarians would be DELIGHTED to inherit property in Burgas (and I think you said it was a couple of places, not just one).