Bansko apartment investment?

Hello,

Bankso is a nice location with still affordable prices, compared to your ROI. Also you can rely on yearly long term rents or almost full short term rents. I personally use one Bulgarian management company, but if you search you can find any locals who can help.

If you need proffesional help for the due dilligence of the property, do not hesitate to ask.

@frazer2022

For cheaper apartments, I think the two options are Bansko and Sunny Beach. They are both seasonal resorts, but Bansko is a very charming town and has potential for year-round living. Bansko (and its surroundings) is beautiful in the summer, while Sunny Beach in the winter is a bit of a dead zone. Personally, I'd far rather have a Bansko pad than a Sunny Beach.

But whether either one is good as an investment is a different issue.

If you want a property for your own use, and benefit from the rise in Bulgarian property prices, then I suppose either works. Depends whether you personally prefer mountains and snow or beer and sunbathing. :-) And whether capital appreciation (as opposed to rental income) is your main objective.

It's not much of a datapoint, but a big property website (such as BulgarianProperties or Suprimmo) has rentals as well as sales. It's worth doing two searches to compare what's available in the two locations.

If your own use is a week or two per year, as opposed to 6-8 weeks per year and some long weekends, you could probably get good deals on Booking and avoid all the aggravation of being a property owner. :-)

If you want/need rental income, I'm not sure about how worthwhile it is.

The issue isn't whether you can find someone to manage it for you. There are plenty of agents, although most would prefer to handle long-term lets. But there's always a few that will do the short-term Airbnb/Booking stuff. Indeed, I met one last year when we stayed in one of his studios. He had 15-20 apartments and I think most (or all) were foreign-owned, rather than his own.

There are plenty of frustrated foreign owners who have an apartment sitting empty for 50 weeks a year, and they're not there to manage it. But short-term lets are super labor intensive, so I'm pretty sure this guy charges a hefty commission (on gross rental, not net).

You definitely won't rent it out all year, even with an agent... and you'll be paying all the costs (water, electricity, internet, complex service charges) every month.

Anyway... I'm a gloomy naysayer, I reckon you get a lot of wear and tear and not much actual net income. :-)

The Airbnb/Booking for a few days is not the only option. I'd guess it's also possible to do seasonal lets (high rent for 3 or 4 months) where someone wants a ski pad for winter, or a beach pad for summer. I've never done such a thing, but I'd guess there are folks around who do.

But @Vasilev is a smart guy so he may well have figured out how to make lots of money doing this... and you'll have to pay for a consulting session so he can share how it's done.

On the positive side... I love Bansko... I absolutely could (if I had to) live there all year. It's delightful. And I own a few properties there, while I own zero properties at the coast (and I rarely stay in Sunny Beach, even when do go to the Black Sea).

But I'm fine with them sitting empty, at least for now. (Especially as I mostly avoid resort buildings so I don't pay high maintenance fees and Bulgaria doesn't yet have standing charges for electricity and water).

If you do the search I mentioned above, you will see that Bansko now has quite a few long term rentals, and the rental is getting pretty decent. A few years ago the rent was SUBSTANTIALLY lower, and there were very few long-term rentals.

My view is that Bankso is an attractive place to live, and there's increasingly a market for long-term rentals at 300 euros and up for nice studios. That's a very plausible rental if you manage to buy a nice apartment at a good price, and it's much easier (and more cost-effective) to manage yourself or via a regular agent. I will likely do this one day. But the problem with this option is that you don't have a place for your own use, and you're back to Booking/Airbnb.

Good luck!

Neither Bansko nor Sunny Beach are worth ‘investing in' in my opinion. Sunny Beach is a concrete artificial resort town with lots of buildings in a very poor condition with poor humid weather most of the year.

Bansko is much better but the build quality is poor, many buildings have been left to decay, there are many concrete skeletons left unfinished, and and overall lack of maintenance in buildings and infrastructure. It has been reported in the media once there are 3 times as many accomodations as there are tourists in Bansko. So far for renting out.

Both are terribly overpriced at the moment. I wonder if sellers, builders and real estate agents still take themselves seriously at the moment. You will be their investment if you would buy there.

@frazer2022

Marvin the Paranoid Android* is profoundly depressed about the investment prospects...

Frazer2022: Marvin, any investment ideas?

Marvin: I have a million ideas. They all point to certain financial death.

Frazer2022: What about property rentals?

Marvin: I could calculate your chance of generating income, but you won't like it.

Frazer2022: Are there any property agents to help me?

Marvin: I've been communicating with an agent.

Frazer2022: What did he say?

Marvin: He hates me.

Frazer2022: Maybe some advice on where to buy?

Marvin: I'd give you advice, but you wouldn't listen. No one ever does.

Frazer2022: some say Bansko's tip-top!

Marvin: I've seen it. It's rubbish.

Frazer2022: Maybe you can estimate my ROI?

Marvin: Here I am, brain the size of a planet and you ask me to work out an ROI. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cos I don't.

*With profuse apologies to Douglas Adams and his famous Guide. :-)

@frazer2022

Prices for Apartments in Bansko are still lower than Burgas, Sofia etc... If you look just for investment Bansko is great opportunity with less risk. Also Bansko is Growing up, every year Government invest in town and is nice looking. Bansko is modern ski resort and always will be attractive. Many activities you can do.

@frazer2022

Prices in Bansko are still low than other places.

Bansko is Modern ski resorts with a lot of things to do: [link moderated]

Government every year invest in Town and is beautiful  all seasons.

@TomiNikolov

I have to confess that I haven't been to Bansko for donkey's years, but the last time I was there, admittedly out of season, it was pretty much dead, and decidedly boring.  I suspect that the addition of "digital nomads", a naff water slide, and crazy golf hasn't done much to change that, pace @gwynj

The town itself is basically just a jumble of hotels and apartment complexes, and a bit of okay-ish mountain scenery: "beautiful all seasons" is rather over-egging the pudding, even if you're talking about the slopes above the town...

@JimJ

Sorry to be a contrarian, but... "boring" with "okay-ish mountain scenery". Ouch! :-)

That's a rather terse review of Bulgaria's #1 ski and mountain resort and its neighbouring (UNESCO-listed) Pirin National Park.

And, to be fair, "donkey's years" ago, Bulgaria was a Eastern European Communist Paradise. Pretty much everywhere in Bulgaria has changed pretty dramatically in the last few years. It might time for another visit. :-)

You're right that it doesn't have the life of a big city like Sofia, Plovdiv, or Varna... but that's rather comparing apples with oranges. However, it's a very charming small town, with a pretty town park, and for lovers of the outdoors (and skiers/snowboarders) it's one of the best places in Bulgaria.

It's definitely not on a par with San Moritz and the Swiss Alps, but most of us can't afford that! For 10%-20% of the property price (and less than 30% of the cost of living/ownership), it's not a bad alternative, if you need to rough it with us poorer folk. Indeed, comparing apples with apples (other popular European ski/mountain resort), I'm still of the view that it's fantastic bang-for-your-buck.

Even comparing within Bulgaria, @TomiNikolov is correct that you can still find some lower priced properties here. I picked up a very nice studio earlier this year for just over 20k, fully furnished. Yes, it's quiet, but it's VERY livable (both apartment & town). I could buy a bigger apartment in Bobov Dol (also mentioned on the forum as the place for cheap property) for a few thousand more... but... nine out of ten cat lovers said they'd rather live in Bansko than Bobov Dol. Or, I could find a similar studio in Plovdiv for 70-grand ish.

The only disagreement I have is how viable Bansko is as an income-generating investment. I don't think it is, unless you buy 5-10 studios and live in Bansko and self-manage them.

PS I went to do a quick check of studios for sale in St Moritz, so I underestimated the price difference. The cheapest studios are more than 30x the cost of my Bansko studio (i.e. 3.5% of the Swiss price, not 10%-20% as mentioned above).

@gwynj

I'm not arguing that you can't still buy cheap studios in Bansko, but living in a cramped one-room gaff isn't exactly my notion of Nirvana, not least because I wholeheartedly share Sartre's opinion about "L'enfer, c'est les autres" and have no love of party walls, or partying neighbours.  I enjoy living in our own space on the edge of a forest and at only slightly lower an altitude than Bansko, especially since I can sit on my terrace and look across the whole city to the peaks of the Mala and Golema Planini, or walk down to a major Mall and marvel at the overpriced tat on display or gorge on ersatz-ethnic delicacies.

I slaked most of my thirst for mountain views when I lived in the Pyrenees, which put Pirin to shame in terms of both grandeur and sheer altitude - I certainly wouldn't want to repeat that experience nowadays!

Of course, I don't begrudge you your enjoyment of Bansko, but I really don't think it's my cup of tea, especially now I'm in my dotage.....

@JimJ

I totally agree with you that studios are fine for other people, but not for you and me. :-) They're great a short visit, but to live/retire in Bulgaria one definitely needs a bit more space!

Despite our enjoyment of the delights of Bansko, we found Plovdiv first, and we definitely prefer a bit of civilization on our doorstep, and a bit more space in our living accommodation.

Personally, I've never lost my love of mountains. I also lived in the Pyrenees (Andorra) and way up in the Chilean Andes, so Bulgaria isn't as fancy. But I've cut my coat according to my limited supply of cloth. :-) We have the Pirin National Park next to Bansko, the Rodopes just a few km to the south of Plovdiv, and the Balkan Mountains next to our village house.

Overall, it's not that I particularly disagree with you, you make some excellent points... merely that your summary of Bansko seemed a bit harsh, and it might put off some of the youngsters here, who still want to knock themselves out with a load of open-air exercising. :-)

@gwynj

If the young'uns want some al fresco exertion, we have hiking/mountain biking trails right behind us, and the ski/snowboarding slopes of Vitosha (not on a par with Bansko's, of course) just a lift ride away.

I have to admit that I find "snow sports" rather bizarre: you spend time and money being hauled up a mountain, just so you can then slip and slide back to where you were in the first place - bonkers!