I have just reserved a property through Bulgarianproperty.com I am new to this whole thing. They seem O.K. What have i let myself in for? Any advice would be great. The house we are buying is "Ready to live in" it just needs an inside toilet. 3% buying fee and 600 euros to register a company name is what we know so far. What other surprises can we expect? Anyone help?

I have just come back from Bulgaria, my third trip in months. I have been trying to find a house or land as I wish to live there full time. My suggestion to people wanting to purchase, try to find an English Agent. They understand your requirements more than Bulgarian Agents and you could save yourself alot of time.

You can find some useful ads of reliable real estate agents on the home page of this site

I agree with the comments above regarding the state of poor service provide by the agents.This due to Bulgaria joining the Eu in 07 and the rate at which prices are increasing is due ti this. My friend recently aquired a property via www.Developbulgaria.com. He was very happy with their service as they are a british registed company and thus he was legally covered.Not only this but he was shown properties for which the co had sole rights and had agreed excellent prices.Also these were exclusive to the Co ,and their english speaking rep who made the whoe experience very easy.If you do not read/look at the info being provided /contract/solicitors or the deal looks too good to be true, then you are probably being ripped off.You have been warned. I suggest you give www.developbulgaria.com a try

hi everyone i used bulgarianproperties.com and they where really good to use there are slightly dearer than some i have seen but when i have spoke to other agents they have said the there good, reliable and they really know there stuff if anyone has bought in the karlovo area get in touch hoover

We have bought an apartment in a ski resort (Bansko) in Bulgaria with Bulgarian Dreams. We are having nothing but problems. We are expected to pay by a certain date even though the development will not be completed. We have suddenly been told we have to pay to use the pool. The ski lift is alot further from the apartment than originally stated. I could go on and on. If you are buying off-plan make sure you see a mangement contract. Ours has just been sent to us when the development is almost complete and it is unreasonable. Get a good lawyer!

can anyone tell me why the deed,s price is say 20,000 but you pay 60;ooo is this sort of tax dodge and who end ,s paying if you sell yours mike mo

hi there we recently went to bulgaria for a holiday and also to view some properties has any one dealt with blue eden estate agents in sunny beach resort? there web site is www.bulgarianproperties.com we went to see an off plan development in marinka no viewing fees. any one else bought off plan before? just a few doubt's ,will there be a property built at the end of it. and what happens if you pay all your money's up front. are you legally covered ,any info more than appreciated. cheers debbie

i want to come out to bulgaria and buy a cheap house around elhovo for me and my children do you have to go on a viewing trip or can you do it independantly does anyone no anything i should be careful about as being a single mum i get the feeling i might get ripped off. does anyone no the area its inland from burgas thanks to anyone who can help

I hope I can throw some useful information into the foyer for all of you. My names James, im a freelance journalist and have been published recently in 'exclusive holidays' magazine with an article on Bulgaria. I live in Ruse, in north Bulgaria with my fiancee. I will go over the good and the bad points of property purchases in bulgaria. I hope you find the information of some use, most of its from some of my articles. first the good news. it IS possible to purchase a house or apartment in bulgaria. its not all lies. that, my friends, is the only good news. now i'll tell you all the tricks that will be thrown at you before you actually get to purchase a house. problem 1: the LEV-RO ok please dont steal my quip, but you will find bulgaria is the land of the lev-ro. the levro is this. for them its a lev, for you its a euro (pronounced evro here) the bulgarian leva is pegged to the euro at a rate of 1.95 leva per euro. its the national assumption that you have loads of money (think richard branson!) becuase you are a forigner, so, instead of trying to get a little extra money out of you by adding something here or there, they just simply swap currencies. and DOUBLE the price. and ebcuase your the confused forigner you dont know the difference. plus, dont forget you have the double problem of not understanding the euro either, so they then do a quick calculation into pounds. you will find the same behaviour towards you from hotels- the price for the bulgarians is in leva, the price for you- euro. its not that you eat more, use more electric......your just there to be a bank. now that youve accepted this fact, becuase, painful as it is, if you want to get on here you have to accept this, we will move on to the next point. problem 2: you are not welcome here. you stupid, dumb englishman with you fat wife and no degree! does that sound insulting to you? probably, especially if its true. even if its not, thats the average opinion of english people by estate agents. remember that almost everyone here has a degree, most of us dont. and every day you open a newspaper here you will find that another englishman somewhere has tried to rip someone off, an englishman tries to kill a barman in varna.... The bulgarians are a proud nationalist people (their national party ATAKA, simmilar to the BNP, scored 8% in the parlimentary elections. so look at it like this- 1 in 20 hate you just for being foreign, some look down on you for not having an education and the rest have a 60 year soviet distrust of forigners. so remember the insult above, becuase its behind every smile. so, are you ready to be used as a bank and looked down upon? great! now your ready to moove onto the next step. Trick 1- the mis sell. dont forget you are stupid, and you certainly are NOT a structrual engineer (apologies to the structural engineers!) its a basic fact- almost all village houses on the market need to be PULLED DOWN! dont mess round, dont dream, if it was liveable, someone would be living in it. Ignore the 'you just have to do a little refreshment' and 'oh, just a few tiles on the roof' becuase its rubbish. Just bear this in mind. Even if the property looks good, remember the price to fix it is probably horrendous. Building a new one will cost 60,000 leva. thats 22k sterling. fixing will cost twice that. Trick 2- the bad people. oh, dont forget to ask about the 'bad people' who i shall not ethnically name so i dont get into trouble. planning to spend a little time away? Dont be surprised if when you come back, you dont have a house. these people will first open the house and steal all furniture, then all metal pipes and fittings. then, if there is no activity for a few days (they will watch the house...) then the roof will be gone. a few days later they will start removing the bricks. then the foundation stones. got any trees? they will be cut for firewood for the winter, as soon as they hear the person moving in is away. oh by the way, they probably did you a favour. now you have a plot of land to build on! but you probably dont see your ten thousand pound investment that way..... now for the final trick: the sell-off. a word of caution for those looking to purchase 'as many houses as possible' and then just leave them. even if you are not worried about what i mentioned above, the wise of you already accepting this fact, some may have not pondered upon tax. yes, tax. you have 20 houses!? most excelent, says the mayor, rubbing his hands together with glee. now did you register those houses with the tax register? no? thats a 1000 leva fine per house. then did you file your taxes on time? no? thats another 1000 leva fine. dont forget, your houses DO NOT BELONG TO YOU, they belong to your COMPANY. get that fact clear. now your company is now in debt to the govenment 40,000 leva in fines. they will send you a notice to the bulgarian registered adress of your company, if you registered your company at one of your houses, it will just sit in the mailbox. then, someone will justdeclare your company bankrupt, insolvent, and your companies assets will be up for auction. to bulgarians, who will be paying the bulgarian price. DO NOT BE SURPRISED, when you get back to bulgaria you find your property belongs to someone else, maybe even the estate agent your bought it from, or, if your really unlucky, me, as the only place I buy houses from is the auctions when this exact thing happens to people who dont pay their taxes. and the price they sell for? 1000 leva is normal. Well if i had more time id also talk about people who just outright rip you off, from running away with the 10% deposit, who make themselves officers of your company, 'sell' your houses to someone else and dissapear, the 'fake notary and fake deeds' (think it cant happen? the president of bulgaria had his mercedies sold only a few weeks ago buy a dodgy notary...) you might think im being negative about the whole buying process here. IM NOT, but if you go and buy a house then at least this information will be in the back of your mind. Im sure there are reputable people out there. Ive watched this property thing from kind of an amused point of view, i even bought some myself (not with agencies though, im not so silly) as speculation for the future, and i even entertained being an estate agent becuase there is so much money in it...and not just 3% comissions. look after yourselves, and remember if you go walking in a minefield, expect to step on one. if you get to the other side unharmed, its a bonus. and just becuase you got to the other side unharmed, doesnt mean the next person who walks across will. Oh and my biggest tip for those who want to live here is- you have to become bulgarian! you will be accomidated, but attitutes like 'i cant be bothered to learn bulgarian', getting a satalite dish so you can watch eastenders and putting a british flag up in the garden, are not the best ways to fit in. so im off for a rakia. if you get to my stage, you'll learn that burgas 63 is the best, except for your hosts domashtna rakia..... leka!

buying property in bulgaria can be a tricky business. i bought some properties for about the 5000 pound mark and i was happy with them, but i didnt do it with an agent- my fiancee is bulgaria so her father helped me out. anyone who thiks there is just a agent who charges 3% in bulgaria is living in a dream world though- they just say that (and have a special agreement with the owner to take more money) no one will sell you a house at the 'real' bulgarian price, as a forigner...... good luck with your huntings people, if i can help you find a house in the ruse region i would be happy to help.

Hi. I'm interested in hearing from people who've had problems buying property in Bulgaria, especially Bansko.

i have recently purchased a property in bulgaria, in a small village near Pamporovo. Unfortunately, the property due to its remote location does not have telephone access. Is it possible to conect via a satalite system and if so is it expensive? thanks, maureen

i have recently purchased a property in bulgaria, in a small village near Pamporovo. Unfortunately, the property due to its remote location does not have telephone access. Is it possible to conect via a satalite system and if so is it expensive? thanks, maureen

HI,IF I CAN HELP ANYBODY WITH SOMETHING CONECTED WITH BUYING A PRPERTY IN BULGARIA,SEND AN E-mail OR VISIT MY PAGE velina1.com velina1.agency.bulgaria@gmail.com