Purchasing property

[Post deleted]

@clairekelly83

Welcome to the expat.com club, and glad to see you're considering Bulgaria. I like it a lot, and recommend it highly. If you have a lovely Irish passport, then, as a EU citizen, it's easy to get residence here if you want to. But it's not necessary to be a resident to buy property.

I think by "hidden" costs, you mean the usual "transaction" costs. The main ones are the property transfer tax, and the cost of the notary. These are unavoidable, so the minimum is around 5% perhaps. If you purchase through a realtor, then there will be the agent's commission. If you decide that you want a solicitor to help you with the purchase (legally, only the notary is required) then this will be an extra cost too. As a rough guesstimate, I'd say to allow around 10%-15% of the purchase price.

@EVTRA is absolutely right that the world is full of conmen and folks trying to rip-off ignorant foreigners. He's also right that it's always "buyer beware" as they're your hard-earned euros and nobody else is looking after them. And be especially wary when Power of Attorney (POA) comes up, as this is a pretty powerful tool in the wrong hands. :-)

But life gets pretty tough if you trust nobody. I think if you use a large and reputable property agent that's a great start. If you're a nervous about your first purchase, a reputable local attorney can guide you through the process and do additional checks on the property/transaction.

There will, of course, be sellers that inflate the price to see what happens. And there are some unscrupulous agents who mark up properties, having agreed a low price with the Bulgarian owner. But I think the majority of listings are not inflated. Again, if it's a large and reputable agent, it would not be good practice to have high listing prices (apart from reputational effects, they would not get many sales, as buyers would flock to the agents with realistic listing prices).

I may be a useless negotiator, but my experience has been the properties I was interested in were listed at what appeared to be around market (based on similar properties in the area), and there was not much scope for negotiation. If you have a take-it-or-leave-it approach with a big discount, you might find a desperate (or marked-up) seller. But if you're going for properties you like, and that you're genuinely interested in living in, then it will be tough to score such huge discounts. But that's just my opinion. Even so, I always make a lower offer first, and you should too. The worst that can happen is that they say no!

However, I could imagine that apartments in a big city (Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna) would be less negotiable and less marked-up. This is a more "liquid" market. Whereas, if you want a village house, then there are many villages to choose from, and many properties owned by older Bulgarians who might be more flexible about the price. So you could be a lot more ruthless in your negotiating.

So, do Ihave to be a resident in Bulgaria before Ican purchase property?

Hello,  I would have thought if you were using. one of the big names such as Bulgarian Properties you should be getting the facts as at least one of their Bulgarian senior personnel is RICS qualified and with others perhaps check the background.  Some have UK telephone numbers so ask questions. A few years ago we found one who said queries took up too much time so we looked at others.  I don't think there is too much on the taxes but allow for incidental agency and notary costs in your budget say add 10 to 20 percent to your budget but a reliable agent will give you a fair estimate of cost. Ask them straight-out in an email or even a letter!

[Post deleted]

@EVTRA makes a great point that Bulgarian prices have gone up a lot, so you can look at a property price and think it's perhaps not such a huge bargain compared to many other European countries.

I like Bulgaria a lot... but I can't claim that it's nicer than France or Spain or Italy or Portugal, the more typical holiday/retirement destinations for Brits/Irish. If I were richer, I might well have gone there.

However, when my pension arrives it will only be a miserable UK state pension. Boo! But a miserable UK state pension will be about 1400 leva/month, while the Bulgarian minimum wage is about 600 leva. Yay! It is not a "live like a king" differential, but it should be comfortable, especially as we don't have rent/mortgage payments to deduct from this.

I still have property in Spain and Cyprus, and I like both countries very much. But I am much more comfortable here, so I only visit Spain (I have my Spanish residence permit) for the odd week or two.

So, yeah, while culturally it's not on a par with those Romance countries, it's not too shabby either. It's calm, safe, with some lovely scenery, and a good mix of city/mountains/beachfront. I was going to say "it's good enough". But it's far better than merely good enough.

What about "infrastructures and services"? Well, of course, Bulgaria is the poorest country in the EU, so everywhere is better! But what are we really talking about? I reckon it's education (don't use), public transport (scruffy, but I don't use), roads (perfectly fine, and very good between my village and Kazanlak/Stara Zagora) and medical (if I used the public option, I'd be scared, but I always go to Pulmed, a very nice private hospital in Plovdiv). In fact, the private hospital delivers much higher service than I ever received in the UK's NHS (and the cost is peanuts).

So the key trade-off is cost, and whether merely "local taxes will be higher" in another EU country. Again, Bulgaria is the poorest country in the EU, hence it has the lowest costs in the EU. This isn't just local taxes, it's across the board. And, in most cases, it's not slightly less, it's SUBSTANTIALLY less. Some folks don't care about money/costs, or think it's a petty thing to carp about. But, personally, I fall into the Dickens/Micawber camp:

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

So, yes, Bulgaria definitely helps me avoid misery. But, also, I've been surprised to find that these costs are so much lower, that I've experienced life here in a qualitatively different way that I could never afford elsewhere. It's definitely not perfect, and it's easy to find things to complain about... but the reality is that we live extremely well by Bulgarian standards, and we have a very nice quality of life here. We've been here for 4 years, and I'm as snug as a bug in a rug. :-)

I should also give a shout-out specifically to the Bulgarian village house. There's a traditional style here: big house, big garden, big wall all the way round.

Lots of Brits had this as their property dream (and I hope there are some reading who will chime in about their experience owning one). But I never did. I rather like the simplicity of apartments, and I barely even considered such a place.

But... wow... they are awesome! I have been converted.

Ours is in a lovely little village in the Balkan Mountains. (It's a super village with tarmaced streets, street lights, sewer, fiber internet - and an excellent road to Kazanlak so it's only 10 minutes to Lidl.) It's so quiet and peaceful, with country walks/bike trails in every direction, I've been out every single day of 2021 so far. And all that space... I have cars, motorcycle, mountain bikes, exercise machines, car trailer, ebike, stuff I dragged from UK but didn't unpack yet, building materials for the renovation, rubble that I didn't cart out yet, furniture from IKEA I bought during lockdown, but didn't assemble (or unpack) yet. Tiny houses and minimalist life is very fashionable now... but I say: give me a big house and let me fill it up with stuff!

And it's so private, you can do whatever you want! If you want a menagerie of cats, dogs, rabbits, hens, ducks, terrapins (my neighbour) you can. If you want a crazy dog who barks almost 24/7 (my other neighbour) you can. If you want an immaculate cultivated garden of roses, grapes, apples, walnuts, tomatoes, cucumbers (my other neighbour) you can. If you want to build a huge extension and install a massive swimming pool (my rich neighbour) you can. If you want to knock your old house down and build a massive mansion with 600m2 of internal space (my other rich neighbour) you can. If you want smoky barbeques and drinking bottles of rakia that you made yourself (that's all the neighbours) you can. If you want to entertain yourself during lockdown singing along to a very loud karaoke machine (me), or leave your garden as a head-high jungle (me), or appropriate the common land outside (me), or dig up the road for 300m to connect to the sewer (me), or bypass the water meter (previous owner - I fixed it, stupid foreigner), nobody bats an eye.

Love your description of village life, Gwyn!

Getting back to your question, Claire, depending on what you're buying there may be some room for negotating on the price. Like everywhere, many agents price higher than they expect a property to sell for. As Gwyn and EVTRA have said, on some properties this may be only 5%, on others it may be as much as 30%.

As well as taxes and notary fees, the agent's fees are definitely an expense to factor in. In Bulgaria, the buyer pays the agents fees, not the seller, and these can be as high as 2,000 EUR with one of the big estate agents.

Faculty makes a very good point about asking the agent. If the agent doesn't want to answer questions, go elsewhere! There are a lot of houses and apartments in Bulgaria, and a lot of estate agents, ranging from the professionals to the very not professional.

You don't need residency to buy a property, no. Many of us (non-EU citizens) buy a property as the first step to getting residency! There's no need for you to set up a Bulgarian company to buy property, either. If you have an Irish passport, as an EU citizen you can buy an apartment or a house with land. Non-EU citizens can buy an apartment with no land, but need a company to buy a house with land.

I hope it all works well for you.

Apologies if my village house eulogy seems a bit off-topic. But there is method to my madness! I reckon 50k euros is still a decent sum if you're looking for a village house, there are loads about. And you should be able to find something that's livable, and has potential to be turned into your own little palace.

Whereas, I'm not sure 50k is going to do all that well on the apartment front. Maybe a holiday apartment in the resorts of Bansko and Sunny Beach. But a large, nice, comfy apartment for year round living will be in a city (or large town), and will not come cheap. I reckon one has to have a minimum of 1 bedroom, 60m2, and probably more. There's not a lot under 700 euros/m2, so that's 42k right there. And the main cities Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas are 1,000 euros/m2 and up so that's 60k (and if it's a new build you still have another 10-20k to finish it from Bulgarian standard and furnish it).

I think this gets us to what I consider to be the "hidden" costs of buying in Bulgaria. Properties are sold not so much by bedrooms (UK style), but by m2. And you can check the going rate per m2 in Sofia or Varna to see what you should be paying. And the deed states the size in m2.

For a house, the stated space is pretty much your space. For an apartment, it includes balconies and "common spaces" (your share of lobbies, hallways, etc.). So you buy a 60m2 apartment, but the true internal space (for you to live in) is only 45 m2, perhaps. Older apartments have less common space allocated. Newer apartments (this is a great developer ruse) have more common space allocated, so you find the internal space is much less than you expect. (I have one new build with 94m2, and the internal space is about 70m2.)

Additionally, new apartments come as "Bulgarian standard" (or an empty concrete shell with windows and a front door). Or, it might be finished. Or it might be finished and furnished. You also have to factor in these differences when looking at listings, as a furnished place is ready to go ("turnkey", just bring your suitcase), while a finished place needs furniture and appliances, and a Bulgarian standard place needs finishing and furniture and appliances.

So true. 50k goes a lot further in a village house than an apartment, and it's something to factor into decision-making.  Both houses and apartments have factors to consider. When assessing agents ads for apartments, size and what "finished" actually means are two for sure where Bulgaria differs from what expats may be used to.

The other thing I see in a lot of ads for newish, say 10 year old apartments that seem affordable, especially in resort areas, is that the maintenance isn't happening any more. Agents will use outside photos of the facilities from when the development was new and shiny, and maybe one more recent photo where if one looks closely it's clear the pool and other amenities of the complex they've used a selling point are uncared for and unusable.

[Post deleted]

Has anyone had any deal8woth or heard anything about 'Excel Property' ? Are they trust worthy/reputable?

Or ...... Might renting a property be a viable option in the short term? Then you can peruse the area, and get a feel for it- visit the estate agents in person rather than attempting to build trust on line etc.
We have a really nice property currently vacant for only 575 Lev a month in a sought after village, not that I'm trying to plug it!!! It's an option maybe?

@clairekelly83 I bought two properties for 9,000 for one of my four bedroom properties I pair 45 pound a year and my three bedroom property I get charged 35 pound a year for the taxes on my properties

@clairekelly83 I never heard of them but you have to do a lot research if you do by properties in Bulgaria I bought mine off eBay and my properties was all right I bought two properties for nine thousand pound for two hours I will look at I was all right you will have to do a lot research on your properties if you want to buy him in Bulgaria