It's a bit cheeky hijacking a post but myself & another forum member have 2 houses in provadia for sell 1 in Ravna in a beautifull position on edge of village overlooking huge open valleys to one side & a lovely church to the front, the other is in Cherkovna completely run down but large garden / orchard in a nice village ,both a 30 minute ride from Varna & the sea, also a new ski apartment in Bansko for sale or rent , open all year round, sleeps 6 in probably the best complex in Bansko !!! On top of that ....... Also 3 plots of land in Avren great village renowned for the clean air & beutiful views also the village has a cashpoint lol a dentist, shops bars restaurant & health centre & we have planning consent & plans for an ultra modern house on each plot
Sorry for hijacking but may be of interest to someone. Need to sell to fund to fund a large overland trip
Bulgaria.
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chubbyhooker
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captinktm
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Re: Bulgaria.
No problem hijacking the post, but obviously means I can say what I think back. My advise to all is do as we did and travel in a camper and then rent for a year. I have in my short time here seen many expats that have bought, and spent thousands doing up houses only to leave 5 years down the line having lost a lot of money. There are many houses for sale here, but most are in a pitiful state. Even the good ones are not even close to the standard of house in the uk. Too many folk buy out here for the wrong reasons, cheap property! If you like nature and open spaces, and are not to keen on people then it's great. As for the Varna area, the east coast and the Danube Plato, not for me at all.chubbyhooker wrote:It's a bit cheeky hijacking a post but myself & another forum member have 2 houses in provadia for sell 1 in Ravna in a beautifull position on edge of village overlooking huge open valleys to one side & a lovely church to the front, the other is in Cherkovna completely run down but large garden / orchard in a nice village ,both a 30 minute ride from Varna & the sea, also a new ski apartment in Bansko for sale or rent , open all year round, sleeps 6 in probably the best complex in Bansko !!! On top of that ....... Also 3 plots of land in Avren great village renowned for the clean air & beutiful views also the village has a cashpoint lol a dentist, shops bars restaurant & health centre & we have planning consent & plans for an ultra modern house on each plot
Sorry for hijacking but may be of interest to someone. Need to sell to fund to fund a large overland trip
Re: Bulgaria.
I've had my house in Bulgaria for Ten years. I bought it because it was cheap, the price of a four year old second hand Ford Focus, probably a Zetec Ghia with 40,000 miles.
I realise now I was lucky, I bought it off EBay without seeing it. If I had spent months visiting and looking for something to buy I couldn't have found anything better.
The house was liveable (just) but oozed potential. It's located on the edge of a good Bulgarian (ie not Gypsy) village.
Since I bought it the EU have funded a nature/history trail right past the edge of my land.
For the first seven years I spent about £10,000 extending it and improving it.
I used it as a destination point, typically I'd set off from the UK on bikes with friends or in a camper van with a couple of my Kids and we'd explore different routes across Europe, we'd land at the house and spend a few days chilling out and then return on a different route.....Fantastic.
I've made some solid and loyal Bulgarian friends who come and visit us here in UK.
In the last two years things have changed, My wife stayed for the first time! She'd obviously met (and liked) my friends when they come over and she'd visited the house in the early days during renovation, but we'd stayed in a hotel in town.
After her visit we've probably splashed out a further £10,000 on improvements and the total spend is about £28,000 from purchase ten years ago up to now. The house is now our main holiday destination, I keep a couple of off road bikes there and a Jeep Cherokee. We fly out and enjoy the nature and peacefulness of the place.
My closest Bulgarian friend who is a mover and shaker, he's a chief narcotics inspector, he also acts as an agent for locals wanting to sell houses. There are some fantastic bargains to be had, renovated country houses with land for £30,000 or less.
You can just see the house in the bottom of the valley, the trails start from my front door and are endless!
I realise now I was lucky, I bought it off EBay without seeing it. If I had spent months visiting and looking for something to buy I couldn't have found anything better.
The house was liveable (just) but oozed potential. It's located on the edge of a good Bulgarian (ie not Gypsy) village.
Since I bought it the EU have funded a nature/history trail right past the edge of my land.
For the first seven years I spent about £10,000 extending it and improving it.
I used it as a destination point, typically I'd set off from the UK on bikes with friends or in a camper van with a couple of my Kids and we'd explore different routes across Europe, we'd land at the house and spend a few days chilling out and then return on a different route.....Fantastic.
I've made some solid and loyal Bulgarian friends who come and visit us here in UK.
In the last two years things have changed, My wife stayed for the first time! She'd obviously met (and liked) my friends when they come over and she'd visited the house in the early days during renovation, but we'd stayed in a hotel in town.
After her visit we've probably splashed out a further £10,000 on improvements and the total spend is about £28,000 from purchase ten years ago up to now. The house is now our main holiday destination, I keep a couple of off road bikes there and a Jeep Cherokee. We fly out and enjoy the nature and peacefulness of the place.
My closest Bulgarian friend who is a mover and shaker, he's a chief narcotics inspector, he also acts as an agent for locals wanting to sell houses. There are some fantastic bargains to be had, renovated country houses with land for £30,000 or less.
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captinktm
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Re: Bulgaria.
What's wrong with the Gypsy's. I found they are by far the most friendly folk. They make a mess but its their country not mine so I have to put up with it. I think you have to look long and hard now to find a good house, we must have viewed at least 200 in all parts of te country, a lot of the prime real estate is being refurbished by the owners. If you are buying and you are on a budget be very careful, always visit in the winter, without the blue sky goggles on. I have just help move a couple back to a house in France, they had lived here 7 years and spent a lot of money on there property. They are now trying to sell at 50k which I doubt they will ever do. We paid £24k for our house and it has everything we ever wanted. It has central heating (a must here as the winters are very cold) double glazed windows, nice modern kitchen, fully rewired, good roof, and large garage and a large out building. 2000 mt of land which backs onto the Stara Palannia mountains. I return to the uk from time to time and I have no idea how you guys can live there, it's just too full. A Bulgarian asked me the other day why I had moved to Bulgaria, I said " Well I went to Dover to visit a friend and could n't get back in"SteveW wrote:I've had my house in Bulgaria for Ten years. I bought it because it was cheap, the price of a four year old second hand Ford Focus, probably a Zetec Ghia with 40,000 miles.
I realise now I was lucky, I bought it off EBay without seeing it. If I had spent months visiting and looking for something to buy I couldn't have found anything better.
The house was liveable (just) but oozed potential. It's located on the edge of a good Bulgarian (ie not Gypsy) village.
Since I bought it the EU have funded a nature/history trail right past the edge of my land.
For the first seven years I spent about £10,000 extending it and improving it.
I used it as a destination point, typically I'd set off from the UK on bikes with friends or in a camper van with a couple of my Kids and we'd explore different routes across Europe, we'd land at the house and spend a few days chilling out and then return on a different route.....Fantastic.
I've made some solid and loyal Bulgarian friends who come and visit us here in UK.
In the last two years things have changed, My wife stayed for the first time! She'd obviously met (and liked) my friends when they come over and she'd visited the house in the early days during renovation, but we'd stayed in a hotel in town.
After her visit we've probably splashed out a further £10,000 on improvements and the total spend is about £28,000 from purchase ten years ago up to now. The house is now our main holiday destination, I keep a couple of off road bikes there and a Jeep Cherokee. We fly out and enjoy the nature and peacefulness of the place.
My closest Bulgarian friend who is a mover and shaker, he's a chief narcotics inspector, he also acts as an agent for locals wanting to sell houses. There are some fantastic bargains to be had, renovated country houses with land for £30,000 or less.
You can just see the house in the bottom of the valley, the trails start from my front door and are endless!
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Re: Bulgaria.
There is a difference between our situations Captin, you have chosen to live there, we are Sumer visitors. So our observations are different, but complimentary.
A few things to consider when buying a holiday home in the country......Easy Jet and Wiz Air fly from English airports all year round, but only to Sofia, or Bourgas (East Coast) if you fly from Luton. If your place is out East (As most of the rural cheap stuff will be) it's the best part of 6 hours car journey to get towards the East coast. In the main holiday season you get flights to Varna and Bourgas easy enough.
Over the years I probably have picked up local Bulgarian prejudices against the gypsies, they do tend to blame everything from crime (much less of it than UK by the way) to the state of the economy on the Gypsies.
What can't be ignored is that the gypsies are second class citizens, therefore villages that have a sizeable population of gypsies tend to be run down somewhat and not desirable to the local Bulgarians.
The snow falls deeply at our place, but we tend to go out in October to prepare the house for winter. We have local friends that visit and keep any eye on the place, we've had no problems in ten years.
Your place sounds great, I've ridden in the Stara Planina stunning.
When I bought my place my attitude was WTF! Take a gamble, it's the price of a second hand car. After 3 years a second hand car would be worth £1500. It shouldn't really have worked out for me, I did everything wrong!
But it was the best 7K I ever spent!
A few things to consider when buying a holiday home in the country......Easy Jet and Wiz Air fly from English airports all year round, but only to Sofia, or Bourgas (East Coast) if you fly from Luton. If your place is out East (As most of the rural cheap stuff will be) it's the best part of 6 hours car journey to get towards the East coast. In the main holiday season you get flights to Varna and Bourgas easy enough.
Over the years I probably have picked up local Bulgarian prejudices against the gypsies, they do tend to blame everything from crime (much less of it than UK by the way) to the state of the economy on the Gypsies.
What can't be ignored is that the gypsies are second class citizens, therefore villages that have a sizeable population of gypsies tend to be run down somewhat and not desirable to the local Bulgarians.
The snow falls deeply at our place, but we tend to go out in October to prepare the house for winter. We have local friends that visit and keep any eye on the place, we've had no problems in ten years.
Your place sounds great, I've ridden in the Stara Planina stunning.
When I bought my place my attitude was WTF! Take a gamble, it's the price of a second hand car. After 3 years a second hand car would be worth £1500. It shouldn't really have worked out for me, I did everything wrong!
But it was the best 7K I ever spent!
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captinktm
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Re: Bulgaria.
Yes later to day I will leave the house at 8:30pm and start my journey to the uk, I wont arrive until ...........7:00am the next day. Small price to pay for the peace and quiet we get here.
Re: Bulgaria.
This time of year our only real option flight wise is Sofia-Manchester.
The journey to Sofia from our place is about 6 hours and the flights out to Manchester are late morning. We tend to leave the night before and stay over near the airport, on the plus side we are only an hour North of Manchester and are normally home at 4:00pm. So, it's 24 hours for us.
In the Sumer there's much more options from northwest England to East Bulgaria.
The journey to Sofia from our place is about 6 hours and the flights out to Manchester are late morning. We tend to leave the night before and stay over near the airport, on the plus side we are only an hour North of Manchester and are normally home at 4:00pm. So, it's 24 hours for us.
In the Sumer there's much more options from northwest England to East Bulgaria.
Re: Bulgaria.
Hello and welcome. Thank you for the kind invite as I'm just about to head in that direction, hope to be down there by the end of April. I don't have a fixed route so will let you know as I get closer and possible meet up.
Cheers Daren
Cheers Daren
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captinktm
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Re: Bulgaria.
No problem my email is [email protected] and mobile is 07855677743. Landing lights will be on.Shrek wrote:Hello and welcome. Thank you for the kind invite as I'm just about to head in that direction, hope to be down there by the end of April. I don't have a fixed route so will let you know as I get closer and possible meet up.
Cheers Daren
