We are pretty sure we would like to live within 50miles/80kms of Burgas because of the climate, & would like a renovated property with at least 2 bedrooms & some land to grow veggies & keep chickens etc in or near to a nice friendly village with at least a shop/store.
Any guidance gratefully accepted, & l will be arriving in Burgas around mid April for 2 or 3 weeks.
Have you found any properties to look at or are you after some hints on where to start your search, ie which websites/agencies etc?
I was advised by one person to use One Stop Property Shop in Burgas & advised against using them by another person.
This agency has also been recommended.
You need to look at the normal property sites as well, if you haven't already: olx.bg, alo.bg, bazar.bg - the agents which target foreign buyers tend to have more expensive properties and often inflated prices also. Some buy properties at knock-down prices and then sell them on, often without mentioning that they are also the sellers, via intermediaries. The sites above will help to give you a feel for what prices are "normal" for a given place/area, but bear in mind that even sellers often have unrealistic ideas about what their property is really worth. There are also FB groups where individuals advertise their own properties directly, bypassing the agents and their commissions: some "individuals" are actually property brokers (ie estate agents) pretending to be private sellers, so don't always believe everything they say. Never forget that there's no qualification needed to operate an estate agency here and no organisation ensuring that people in the business behave honestly and professionally - some will, others will do their damnedest to take you for a ride..
Where you look depends to an extent on what type of property you want to buy, whether you' intend to live in it full-time or just use it as a holiday home, what kind of lifestyle you have in mind etc...
@JimJ Thanks Jim, every bit of "local" knowledge is valuable to me.
@JimJ fantastic post, greatly appreciated the honesty and suggestions.
Do feel free to ask for any help or advice that you need - I'm sure that we're all happy to share our experiences and knowledge of how things work (or don't 😎) here in BG...
@BritMickabroad
I've posted this link before but was in a random thread so not easy to find, it's a ramble of personal experience and obviously experiences will vary, but imho, worth a 5 minute tea break to read!
@BritMickabroad
I've posted this link before but was in a random thread so not easy to find, it's a ramble of personal experience and obviously experiences will vary, but imho, worth a 5 minute tea break to read!
https://notfromroundhere.co.uk/buying-a-house-@Erm1ntrude
Some of those points are simply common sense - and some are debatable. It is possible to buy a property without the "help" of a lawyer, but if you're not familiar with the process and pitfalls you'd be well advised to use one. By and large, you have no comeback if any of what you might expect to be "the professionals" screw up - accidentally or deliberately - so proceed with caution either way. A translation of the contract is useful but you need to bear in mind that it may not be accurate and in any case only the Bulgarian version counts. It's not the end of the world if you pay an element of the price under the table as there is no CGT if you've owned the property for three years or more and don't sell more than one per year. Be very careful of breaching the money laundering regulations (unless you're very rich, in which case most laws here - as elsewhere - are optional): basically, anything over 10,000 leva cannot be paid in cash; you can lose the property, be fined etc. It's always best to ensure that you have a paper trail to show what/when you paid.
@BritMickabroad
As others have suggested, there are local websites which can be popular (such as OLX). But, in my experience, they're a bit tough for foreigners to successfully conclude a transaction.
My recommendations are:
Ebay - they have some of the cheapest properties, and there are a couple of agents who specialize in British buyers and do "pay monthly" deals.
RightMove - is a big site with lots of international listings, and there are a few smaller regional Bulgarian agents who post their listings here.
Both these two occasionally have bargains where Brits (or other expats) are selling their already-renovated Bulgarian home.
Big Bulgarian websites such as Suprimmo and BulgarianProperties have lots of listings (in English) all over the country. And they're pretty easy to deal with as they work with a lot of expats (not just Brits) and have English-speaking agents and in-house legal departments.
We ended up purchasing 3 properties via BulgarianProperties and they were painless transactions. Their listings have a good description and (usually) plenty of recent photos, and sometimes even 3D room views. One of their agents even gave me a Whatsapp tour of one apartment. There's enough to go on to shortlist a few properties, maybe even buy without viewing (as we did). Maybe the prices and the commissions are slightly higher, but for convenience and reliability it's not a bad trade-off.
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