Renting a house in Varna

Try the housing section at the top of this page.

@stumpy I've been, of course, reviewing that section

imot.bg is a bulgarian site that has properties for sale and rent. It's in Bulgarian, but if you don't yet read Bulgarian, use Chrome browser and it will translate for you. Or Bulgarian Properties estate agency has rentals. Their site is in English. I've never used either so can't comment on whether they are good or bad!

Jane, thank you very much for your advice. I read Bulgarian indeed, I've been browsing lots of Bulgarian websites which promote houses to be rent.
I need more than that. I need information regarding agents, locations, safety, types of house...I mean things that a local would know and recommend.

Probably one of the easiest ways to go is to select 3-4 real estate agencies, send them your requirements, and see what they can offer.

Then shortlist and go for a site visit.

For one of Bulgaria's main cities, getting a nice house in the center of town might be a challenge for your budget. You might have to accept something a little more rustic, or up your budget.

To get an idea of what's available, and at what cost, I recommend OLX.BG which is a popular website with Bulgarians. As @JANEMULBERRY says, you can use Chrome to automatically translate. I did a quick search for houses to rent within 2km of Varna, and it showed me 50 listings. So as a bit of market research, it's hard to beat.

OLX has listings from agents, and also direct from the owner. Using OLX to complete a deal is more challenging as some of the agents/owners don't speak English. But many do, and many are OK with translating messages in Google Translate. So this would be a rather different approach from firstly finding/selecting an agent, and then viewing what they have available.

A large and reputable agent with many listings, and with English listings and English-speaking agents, is BULGARIANPROPERTIES.COM. I have purchased via them, and given them a POA to sign on my behalf. But they have only 2 listings in Varna, and they are both over your budget.

[Post deleted]

[Post deleted]

Thank you Gwyn and Evtra for your messages. Very useful, indded!

@Evtra, I do not need a refurbished house, maybe then it will be easier to find something...I hope so. You are right, house to rent are really scarce. Please, if you can, tell me more about what sort of taxes owners do not want to pay

@Gwyn, the budget of 5/600 euros is indeed not enough for a house nearby the sea. Or maybe it would be an old one, old-style...Then, going to a nearby village to find something to rent would be indeed a good strategy. Nevertheless, I've heard that there are many burglaries in villages. Is that true?

Does anybody know which taxes are to be paid (and which way) when renting a house as a foreign (non-resident) individual in Bulgaria?
Thanks in advance for your kind help!

[Post deleted]

Thank you so much for your answer @EVTRA

Burglaries

My impression is that Bulgaria is quite a safe country, and not so much in the way of crime whether burglaries or other.

However, I think it depends on how nice the village is. And whether you have a lot of poor/"gypsy" neighbors. There are some very nice villages near Varna where I'd have guessed you'd be fine. But I am not an expert on that area.

You can also get security patrols on a monthly contract that is not crazy expensive.

Plus it's less of an issue if you're living there, as opposed to leaving a property empty for weeks/months.

Personally, I have a village house, and so far (3 years)  no problems at all.

Thank you Gwyn for sharing your opinion and experience. That helps!

[Post deleted]

@EVTRA very comprehensive and thorough comments! Thank you so much !!!

I find @EVTRA to generally be a wise and insighful guide to Bulgarian life. And as he lives here too, I feel sure he has experienced many of the country's good points! But he's right that it is a poor country (still officially the EU's poorest I think), which is far from perfect, especially in relation to transparency and corruption.

Nevertheless, from a purely personal perspective, I've had a very relaxing time here for nearly 4 years.

Previously, we had an old beamed townhouse near Berlin. It was a very honest and upright country, but my neighbors would barely say "guten tag", and I hated getting threatening (fines not violence) letters from the mayor for letting a weed grow on the pavement, or not cleaning the street front properly. The house was cheap to buy, but the utilities were extortionate, and renovation cost a fortune because the local tradesmen charged 60 euros per hour or something ridiculous.

Before that I had a few years in Panama and Chile, enjoying the delights of Latin American lawlessness. My $600k, 50th floor, oceanfront condo, turned out to have been built with reckless abandon, with a blind eye (or a big bribe) turned to all building codes. It was the logic of money laundering, as they figured Colombian drug lords would be happy if a property was worth half of what they paid for it!

Aside from that, I had workers steal my truck or bribe a notary to sign the sale/title transfer for it. And the same corrupt notary practice was used to transfer the land ownership of my finca.

As Panama even has a phrase (the "juego vivo") for cheating stupid foreigners, I probably should have realized sooner that I was asking for trouble! :-)

Chile is supposed to be a model of South American honesty, but, even so, while I was travelling, my business partner managed to sell our ski cabins business (to the police, ironically) and pocketed the proceeds.

Even with what little I escaped with (before they stole the shirt off my back), here in Bulgaria I found I could still afford a nice country house, and two small flats (city and ski resort).

Household bills are tiny, renovation costs have been unbelievably modest, and the cost of living is one of the lowest in Europe.

Both weather and scenery are lovely. I have enough trails from my house to walk or bike every day of the last 15 months (of the Covid Crisis) without getting bored.

The people (in general) are friendly and welcoming. My neighbors always bring me fresh tomatoes and cherries in season.

I have several local restaurants (in Bansko, Kazanlak and Plovdiv) which have food quality a swanky London eatery would be proud of. And we'll pay maybe 30 euros for the two of us (or less).

I mean, sure, now I've sung the country's praises, I'll get back to the house this week and find it ransacked during my break in the big city. But touch wood, eh?! :-)

[Post deleted]

Gwyn, I am so happy that you (together with Evtra) share your experience with such a good writing. It truly gives the possibility to get a picture of what is really occurring in Bulgaria...of what is life over there. Thanks to you, I grasp more easily the pros & cons of expat life in BG. Thank you so much!!!