Buying an apartment in Bulgaria?!

ditpoker

I have been looking into buying a cheap place near a ski resort, and bulgaria seems like the best place. I've been looking at www.pamporovopalace.com and other such places. Does anyone know many advantages and disadvantages of buying here?

jdivision

ditpoker wrote:

I have been looking into buying a cheap place near a ski resort, and bulgaria seems like the best place. I've been looking at www.pamporovopalace.com and other such places. Does anyone know many advantages and disadvantages of buying here?

Search the thread and you'll find many negative things about Bulgaria

connundrum

Pomporovo as you might know is a good 90km's from Sofia airport, and its not the best of roads so it might take the guts of 2.5-3 hours to get there in the winter.

Having talked to collegues in Bulgaria, they are telling me that the snowfall is getting later and later every year, with the actual 'ski winter time' becoming shorter and shorter.

As suggested earlier, buying anywhere in Bulgaria has been pretty much slated in the recent past because of problems with organised crime, the exchange rate (although I think its fairly stable??), the poor resale market, lack of building standards etc.

If you're looking for somewhere cheap to bring the family once or twice a year for skiing this place might be good for you. If you're looking to invest then there are better places to look ie. Slovakia - cheap flights to Bratislava, good ski slopes, EU member since 2004, will probably adopt the euro before 2010 and property prices that aren't that much higher than Bulgaria.

Victor

connundrum wrote:

the exchange rate (although I think its fairly stable??),

Not really an issue, its been tied to the euro for years.

Sponge Bob

connundrum wrote:

If you're looking to invest then there are better places to look ie. Slovakia - cheap flights to Bratislava, good ski slopes, EU member since 2004, will probably adopt the euro before 2010 and property prices that aren't that much higher than Bulgaria.

I would touch neither of them with a 407 foot pole

1. Slovakia has no rental market and no beaches and no nothing to justify those prices. They are charging ridiculous amounts. It would be 'interesting' at maybe €40k-50k for an apartment in Bratislava.

2. Bulgarias famous "guaranteed rental" scams , along with most property development and the economy there, are run by the Bulgarian Mafia .

Of course you are entitled to a refund if the roof leaks

connundrum

Victor wrote:

Not really an issue, its been tied to the euro for years.

Thats what I thought, yet people (here and elsewhere) still bring it up as a negative factor. Ah well, those who want to slate it will glaze over such details.

Sponge Bob wrote:

I would touch neither of them with a 407 foot pole

1. Slovakia has no rental market and no beaches and no nothing to justify those prices. They are charging ridiculous amounts. It would be 'interesting' at maybe €40k-50k for an apartment in Bratislava.

Well the OP started talking about a Ski resort, so I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't be too worried about a lack of beaches. I deal in rentals in Ski regions in Slovak so I'm aware that it might not achieve a year round rental, but it does achieve a helluva lot more than Bulgaria when you look at Cost Price - Rental Income.

I will agree that prices in Bratislava seem to be over inflated (€60-100k for an average 1bed), but I wouldn't be so skeptical as it is a Eurpoean capital and IMO you can't go wrong with that. That said, 1bed apartments in Sofia are looking for the same price, and I don't see the logic in that

Sponge Bob wrote:

2. Bulgarias famous "guaranteed rental" scams , along with most property development and the economy there, are run by the Bulgarian Mafia .

Some are dodgy, some are genuine. Same situation as all Irish estate agents and management companies being tarred with the same brush in the recent Prime Time Investigates program

Sponge Bob

connundrum wrote:

Some are dodgy, some are genuine. Same situation as all Irish estate agents and management companies being tarred with the same brush in the recent Prime Time Investigates program

There is no such thing ANYWHERE as a Genuine Guaranteed Rental Scheme, its just some of the money you (over)paid for a gaff being paid back to you to make it look like there is a rental market when there is none.

How high are these Slovak resorts and how far east of Bratislava (airport) are they exactly ...or how near is the nearest one ???

The OECD told us that nowhere in central europe under 1200m above sea level will have any snow in a few years thanks to global warming !

hmmm

connundrum wrote:

Thats what I thought, yet people (here and elsewhere) still bring it up as a negative factor. Ah well, those who want to slate it will glaze over such details.

It's pegged in a narrow range to the Euro, but that does not eliminate exchange rate risk. The ERM currencies were also pegged, and the peg was forced to be broken. (See Black Wednesday). The Irish pound at the time lost over 10% of its value.

Pegging a currency is a bit like a car dealer setting prices on a car to salesmen. If he's saying "offers between 20k and 22k" and the car is worth only 14k, it'll end up being sold at 14k eventually.

jdivision

The Hungarian forint suffered badly last year too, looked like it might completely collapse at one point.

Victor

Sponge Bob wrote:

The OECD told us that nowhere in central europe under 1200m above sea level will have any snow in a few years thanks to global warming !

Quick!!! Short sell on road salt!

ditpoker

cheers for all the replies. I'm on a very limited budget so probably shouldnt even be looking into this sort of thing. Bulgaria seemed cheap but im not convinced. Havent look at slovakia. hungary interests me too. Im mainly looking for an investment opportunity more so than somewhere to go when ski-ing. but if could combine the 2 it'd be great. if only i had the money for the alps eh!

jdivision

Don't forget you lose your first time buyers status if you purchase abroad.

At the risk of repeating myself, Belgrade isn't a bad bet. But, like anywhere, I wouldn't put a fortune on it. I certainly wouldn't go near Bulgaria, bet it becomes Ballymun in the sun...or snow...

connundrum

Deleted User wrote:

At the risk of repeating myself, Belgrade isn't a bad bet. But, like anywhere, I wouldn't put a fortune on it. I certainly wouldn't go near Bulgaria, bet it becomes Ballymun in the sun...or snow...

It already is 2 planes had to be diverted/stopped last summer because of 'kenackers' who insisted on starting fights with cabin crews/themselves.