Hi all!
There seem to be some very knowledgeable and experienced people on here and I would appreciate your advice.
My partner & I would love to buy an apartment in Sofia. She is Bulgarian & I am British, we are not married. Our idea is to have a place we can stay when we visit Bulgaria (2-3 times per year) and rent out as a holiday let/AirBnB when we are not there.
Our budget would be around 200,000EUR, and would be financed with a mortgage. Ideally this would be a profitable venture, so I'm trying to calculate the costs.
Purchase Costs
- 25% deposit
- Agent Commission (~3%)
- Local Transfer Tax (~3%)
- Registry Fee (~0.1%)
- Notary Fee (730 lev + 0.2% of the amount >100k)
- Solicitors Fees (~2000 lev??)
- Finance Broker/Arrangement Fees (tbc)
On-going Expenses
- Mortgage Interest (this could be the real killer in these times...)
- AirBnB management fee (tbc)
- Property Insurance (tbc)
- Waste Collection (~100EUR/year)
- Property Service Fee/Ground Rent for apartment buildings (tbc)
Taxes
- 10% income tax on rental income (no allowable expenses given i'm not an EU citizen )
- Annual Property Tax (~0.45% of property value)
- VAT (9%?)
So my questions to you:
- Have I missed anything?
- As an unmarried couple, is it even possible to buy a property together in joint names?
- Can you recommend any mortgage brokers/solicitors/notaries/agents who are trustworthy and can help me?
- Is this whole plan sensible and feasible?
- Am I completely insane?
Any advice or pointers appreciated!