Buying property : Is this achievable with our budget ?

@Jemmapeyton

Be wary, don't spend money you don't need to. I've just bought at a fraction of what people are trying to sell at. Be careful who you trust. We have another property for sale, we'll under your budget in a lovely village near my house. Send me your WhatsApp and I'll message you.

@Jemmapeyton

Hi, Jemma!

In the region I know best, north-east Bulgaria, that sounds a realistic budget for what you're looking for, though it depends how large a piece of land you want. If about 1/2 acre is enough you should be able to find many properties that might work for you.

Larger acreages with houses are harder to come by.

Good luck with your property search!

@Jemmapeyton

That is possible.

The two cities you should be looking at are Burgas and Varna where are the closest airports to the seaside. Everything till the borders of Bulgaria both to the North with Romania and to the South with Turkey lies within the 1,5 hours drive radius.

I guess property would cost you a bit more /depends on what you buy/ and renovation a bit less, but basically within that budget.

@Jemmapeyton

Well, first of all you don't mention which "sea" you have in mind The replies so far seem to have missed the fact that quite a bit of southern Bulgaria is less than 2 hours from the Aegean (ie the Med to all intents and purposes), and - for example - Petrich is less than 2 hours from Thessaloniki, where you'll find both the sea and an international airport.  The Aegean/Med coast is infinitely more picturesque than that of the Black Sea, and the islands are beautiful.

If you're open-minded and able to see the potential in property, then there's plenty to consider all over the country, not least properties being sold by foreigners who breezed over looking for somewhere to retire, paid too much for a fixer-upper, then ploughed too much again into renovations, and now find themselves skint/homesick/missing family/discovering that the health system here isn't as good as the NHS (despite how crappy that has become) or simply disillusioned.  As a general rule, I'd suggest that taking advantage of someone else's poor planning/misfortune, in the sense of buying a property from someone who's desperate to go "home", is likely to give you the best bang for your buck - always assuming that you work out just WHY they're so keen to sell; sometimes it's a bad area, or aggressive/light-fingered neighbours, that make them so keen to offer you a bargain.

Many members here would also dissuade you from getting too close to the Brit (or whatever) ghettos that have sprung up in various places; having cliques of your compatriots close by can be a VERY mixed blessing.  That's the beauty of social media - you can pick people's brains without needing to pretend that you're best buddies with someone you'd happily cross the street (or supermarket aisle) to avoid.

Bear in mind also that Bulgaria isn't the most beautiful country in Europe, and that there is plenty of inexpensive property for sale in other European countries, especially in the ex-Eastern Bloc ones.  So cast your net as widely as you can, your dream destination may well lie elsewhere!

Hello everyone and welcome @Jemmapeyton !

Please note that I have created this new thread from your post on the Bulgaria forum so that you may better interact with members who have so kindly shared their thoughts with you.

All the best

Bhavna

Thanks all for the thoughts, replies and ideas thus far! We have a lot of research to do it seems. We welcome all ideas in hope we can eventually find the perfect property!

Jemma, one other thing you need to consider, if you want to move full-time and you're both UK citizens with no EU passport tucked away, is how you'll get your long term visa to be able to stay more than 90 days per 180 in Bulgaria (or any other EU country). It's not impossible but can involve a bit of paperwork and expense.

There's loads of info here in the group about getting a D visa, the first step in the process. If you're not intending to move till one of you retires and has a pension (what we're currently doing, while we slowly renovate our Bg house), then it will be relatively easy. But moving pre-retirement is a bit trickier.

Just to be clear: I wasn't suggesting buying a house in Greece instead of BG - the level of bureaucracy there is just ridiculous, and property is a LOT more expensive, as are property taxes etc, and they'll tax every penny of income they can.  It's also a lot more complicated and expensive to get residence there......great for holidays, though!

   

Bear in mind also that Bulgaria isn't the most beautiful country in Europe, and that there is plenty of inexpensive property for sale in other European countries, especially in the ex-Eastern Bloc ones.  So cast your net as widely as you can, your dream destination may well lie elsewhere! -@JimJ

Hello, which other countries would you think of ? I bought a flat in Kyiv, Ukraine, but currently live in Poland, due to the war, and I am currently on vacation in Bulgaria. I am gathering info and looking for an alternative to Ukraine, as it seems life there will be unbearable for years.

Poland is fine, living there for over two years. I only know Bulgaria for holidays and I have no idea how is daily life here.

Thanks for any idea, tips or experience to share.

@suisse_a_kiev

It depends on what you're looking for: beautiful countryside,/buzzing city life/a peaceful rural retreat tending your crops/coastal views and fresh seafood....and also how deep your pockets are and how comfortable you are with learning new languages.

If I were looking to invest in a new life/country, I'd seriously look at Albania, for example. Tirana and the main resorts are overpriced, due to tourist demand (and money-laundering) but there are still some good deals to be found in the rest of the country, including in seaside locations. Likewise, the Italian "€1 Property Deals" - especially in Sicily - can be attractive if you're up for a challenge; alternatively, a property in better condition can often be picked up for €10-20k. There are good deals in Germany also - but it's become too regimented for my taste; Hungary  too is interesting, but personally I'd wait until post-Orban.

@JimJ i would prefer a city rather than rural or costal place, as I find it more convenient to live.

Hungary is interesting but for what I see, way more expensive than places like Ukraine, Poland or Bulgaria.

I bet Germany is also far more expensive than any of the three countries mentioned above.

@suisse_a_kiev

You might well be surprised at just how cheap property can be in Germany!

I don't know the property market in Ukraine or Poland, but - again depending on what you're looking for - decent property in the bigger cities of Bulgaria is no longer anywhere near the bargain-basement prices that it used to be.  If some of the prices in Budapest appear very high, they are comparable to the prices of similar properties in equally prestigious parts of Sofia; however, Hungarian rural properties in good condition are much more affordable than city ones, although perhaps a little more expensive than comparable ones in Bulgaria.

As usual, everything depends on what you want, and how much you're willing/able to pay for it....

@JimJ OK, thanks for the advice. I will look into the German real estate market.

@suisse_a_kiev

GERMANY????!!!

Very clean and civilized, but the cost of living is very high. We bought a very cheap house in the former East Germany... but we spent a fortune on heating it and renovating it. Very happy that I got shot of it and moved to Bulgaria. :-)

@gwynj That is what I was fearing about Germany. I will still have a look at prices here while I am in Bulgaria and do some comparison with countries like Poland and Hungary.

Seems to me that Bulgaria is still the cheapest among all these countries. Prices here in a sea resort are incredibly cheap to buy some real estate.

@suisse_a_kiev

We recently got a holiday studio in Bansko, which is Bulgaria's largest ski resort. It's a very charming little town, and the Pirin National Park is spectacular. For you, it might appear as very much a shabby, poor (and lower) relation of fancy Swiss places like St Moritz, Verbier, Zermatt and Gstaad. :-) But we think it's a lovely spot, and it's great bang-for-the-buck as a Verbier studio is probably more than 10X as expensive. Our living costs are WAY lower than Switzerland or Germany too.

@gwynj I will look at it. For me, Eastern European living standard are fine, as I already spent 8 years in Ukraine and more than 2 years in Poland.

Kyiv was a wonderful place to live before the war, but now, with the constant threat of missiles and electricity cut several hours per day, it is hell on earth.

What really matters for me, it is to have the facilities that a city offers. In Poland, I rent a flat in the eleventh biggest Polish city, and I find it really convenient that if you need something, you have all the malls and stores close to buy what you're looking for.

@suisse_a_kiev

If you can afford it, take a look at the southern suburbs of Sofia: Boyana, Dragalevtsi, Simeonovo.  The air is much cleaner than in the city, the views are great, and you have hiking/skiing, depending on the season, on your doorstep.  It's cooler in the summer - but colder in the winter.  They still have the character of villages (although with Sofia municipal taxes) and it's easy to get to malls, hospitals etc.

The downside is the cost of property and rents, though...

@suisse_a_kiev

Call me old fashioned, but I've always preferred to avoid war zones. :-)

Bansko is small, so I don't personally like it for year-round living. However, it has all the essentials, so for outdoor types it can (and does) work for many.

For big city amenities, the favourites are Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas. Each has its fans. Sofia is the capital and by far the largest (and most expensive). Varna and Burgas are on the Black Sea. Our pick is Plovdiv, the former European Capital of Culture. It's a delightful small city, I'm really happy we picked it. The cultural aspects (Roman ruins and Bulgarian Revival Old Town) are a big draw, and it's centrally located (easy drive to Sofia and the main airport, highway to the Black Sea). I often fly from Plovdiv airport too, and I've driven to both Greece and Turkey. As I'm an outdoors guy, Plovdiv scores surprisingly strongly for a city: the Rodope Mountains are just outside the city, and we have 3 large parks next to our apartment (Regatta, Youth Hill, Alyosha Hill). The hills are small, but they work well for a bit of HIIT.

I'd say Bulgaria scores over other Eastern options like Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Serbia by being EU. And it scores over Poland, Croatia, Czech Republic etc. by being the poorest/cheapest in the EU. For me, low cost of property purchase, and low cost of living are a big deal. The health system access here is unexpectedly fabulous, I hadn't even considered this before moving. I pay my social security as unemployed (20 euros per month), which entitles me to free public healthcare, and an EHIC for use elsewhere in the EU. And I've never been to a public hospital as most private hospitals are affiliated with the system and get reimbursed by it (so you get fancy private hospital treatment whenever you want it, for a trivial surcharge). Now that I know about it, I would move here for this benefit alone! (These benefits mentioned explain why I spend 90% plus of time in Bulgaria, and barely visit Cyprus and Spain, where I also have residence permits.)

Good luck in your search!

@JimJ Thanks, will look into it.

@gwynj I also read that Plovdiv is a nice city to live, so I will also look there.

I did some comparison between Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and even Romania, and I see that Bulgaria is clearly the cheapest place to afford some real estate.

In Budapest, some flat cost as much as they costed ten years ago in Geneva, Switzerland. A lot of 100 square meters’ ones are up to one million euros. You can find some for 250,000 euros, but that’s about the minimum.

In the Polish city where I live, most of the flats have 26 or 36 square meters and cost about 80,000 euros.

I see that in Sofia, you can find a lot of 65 or 70 square meters flats for already 125 or 130,000 euros.

Where I spend my holidays in Nessebar, you have even cheaper flats, but I would not like to live all year round in a sea resort.

As for the health system, that’s good news. Even in Ukraine, I paid a few thousands per year for the health insurance, as I could not find anything valuable locally as an expat.

Thanks for all the info, I’ll take them into account while deciding whether to come to live in Bulgaria.