Karen's Blog about her move to Bulgaria

Archive for July, 2009

Background to our move to Bulgaria

Back ground to our move to Bulgaria

 

It was 2006 and our pensions were performing poorly.

We were looking to invest our money in something which would provide a nest egg for us in our retirement. 

We considered buying property in the U.K. but we became aware British housing market was looking decidedly dodgy, so we began to look at property abroad

We ruled out buying in Spain as that was looking as bad, if not worse than the U.K.

During this time we were also looking at booking a holiday, and the orient Express through Transalvania looked interesting.  While researching Romania we found that property there

was very cheap and was becoming the place to buy since buyers were disillusioned with Spain.

We thought Romania sounded romantic, and we decided to go and have a look.

In the meantime we joined Eastern European forums to see what experiences other people had.

Bulgaria was mentioned often as a good place to buy, and so we researched the Bulgarian property market.

We chatted to people on forums – some gave good advice, some not. 

We had been in contact with an English guy who had gone to Bulgaria to work, met a girl, married her and decided to make Bulgaria his home.  He runs a small guest house and said that anytime we decided to pay a visit we were welcome.

We contacted property sales people in the location where we thought property was value for money – in a traditional village, but close enough to the city and the coast.

This was about an hour drive away from our contact with the guest house so we booked flights, stayed with them (John and Ellie) and hired a car so that we could view as many properties as possible in our 2 weeks stay in Bulgaria.

John and Ellie and her mum Mira made us very welcome and they were a mine of information about the Country, the Bulgarian Law and a million other things that without them we would possibly be unaware even now.  Over the years we have become very good friends.  We spent Christmas day with then in 2007 and we were made to feel like part of the family.

At this point we were just looking for investment property with no intention of living in Bulgaria or even having a holiday home there.

We viewed about 50 village houses. Most needed major renovations.  None had double glazing, none had central heating or air conditioning. 90% had soil floors and many had only cold water in the house.  Almost all the houses we looked at had a ‘toilet’ outside. In some cases a hole in the ground inside a sort of shed with no actual toilet or hand basin.

 Houses in the major cities and towns are very different, but we wanted to buy a traditional village house and almost all village houses are very basic.  There seems to be no concept of a ‘living room’ dining room, bedrooms as the rooms are multi – purpose and the living space becomes the bedroom at night.  This does make sense especially in the very cold winter months as all the energy used to heat the house is not wasted on empty or little used rooms.

Forming a Company

In order to buy land in Bulgaria we had to own a Company.  We registered ourselves as a company which was very easy and a local Solicitor arranged it within 2 days.

The properties

Now we were ready to buy and decided on two 3 roomed houses in a village called Vasillivo.  Several British and German people own houses in this village and so it was prospering.  The shop was well stocked and there was a local bar and coffee shop.

The village is on a good road about 20 minutes drive from a major town called General Toshevo, and 20 minutes away from a lovely little sea side town called Karvarna.

Dobrich which is the main City is less than half an hour drive away from Vasillevo and everything we would need can be found here.  It has everything one would expect in any British city, including good hotels, many excellent restaurants, banks and a vast variety of shops and bars, museums, library, markets and all the usual things such as opticians, chemist etc.

The first property we bought we called ‘Policeman House’ – because the man who sold it on behalf of his Grandmother is a Police Officer.  It had 3 rooms and the obligatory outside toilet. We had already made contact with a British property developer and we gave them the task of applying for planning permission to extend the house (as it had only 3 rooms in total) and carrying out the renovation works to our design.  The garden is a huge 2000 square meters with grape vines, mature fruit trees and lots of outbuildings originally used to keep animals and feed.

There is no mains gas in the villages so we had to bear this in mind when designing the kitchens. Calor gas can be used, and it is a good idea to incorporate this into the plans when installing a kitchen as electricity power cuts are common in Bulgaria.  The power cuts can last for a second, so that you hardly notice (unless you are working on a computer) or they can last several minutes or even hours.

The second house we bought we called ‘Pumpkin House’ because the first time we saw it there were hundreds of pumpkins growing in the garden.  Again the amount of land with the house is substantial at around 2000 square metres.

This house consists of 3 rooms (and an outside toilet) but it has lots of original features and is very pretty.

We decided to wait to test the property market when our first house was renovated before commencing work on the second one.  We thought that we would possibly just hold on to this one and sell it on as a project for someone else.

One of the main attractions for this house was the fantastic views over the valley.  It is also on the edge of Vasillivo village and like the other house benefits from having a thriving community but also peace and quiet. 

……………..And then we saw the house in Malina.

Malina is a small village 15 mins drive from Vasillevo. Malina means Raspberry in Bulgarian, so if we are asked where our house is we have to be carefull to say ‘Sello Malina’ (Village Malina) and not just ‘Raspberry!!

Malina village is very pretty and has a Town Hall with a Mayor as do most of the villages in Bulgaria. A village shop and bar and a small Post Office.

The local people are very friendly and want to ask all sorts of questions which was difficult at first because none of them speak a word of English and we knew very little Bulgarian then. The people also ask the most personal questions like how much we earn in Britain what is our house worth do we have a pension etc.  We are unused to being asked such direct questions from strangers in the U.K.

The house is a two story villa which is unusual in Bulgaria, most houses are just one story – bungalow type.

The house had been built by a local businessman but never completed because his wife died and he and his daughter moved away.

So we were looking at what was basically an empty shell – or to us a blank canvas.

The views from the house are stunning especially in the evenings when the sunsets can be spectacular.

The house is situated near the top of the first street in Malina in the edge of the village, and as soon as we saw it we fell in love with it.

This is a dangerous thing to do because the Golden rule when developing property for re sale is ‘don’t personalise it’.

We never intended to keep the house it was going to be renovated to a high standard and sold.  This decision lasted all of 2 days then we decided that perhaps we could keep it as a holiday home and rent it out when we were not using it.  

If we had known at the time that one day it would be our permanent home we may have done things slightly differently (like having a dishwasher integrated into the kitchen for example)  I am still working on that one!

We spent every holiday in Bulgaria checking on the progress of the renovations and choosing kitchens and bathrooms, choosing tiles and light fittings.

We really like the City of Dobrich, and we visited to buy furniture and look around the museums etc.  We have a favourite little cafe bar that we call ‘the comfy chairs place’  After walking around town we often say ‘let’s go to comfy chairs for a drink’  This is because this particular bar has lovely deep wicker chairs with enormous soft cushions  where we can sit comfortably watching the world go by.  This was the place where Ron proposed out of the blue in the summer of 2007, so it holds special memories for us.

Eventually two of the houses were complete (Policeman’s house and the one in Malina.

We were sitting on the patio one evening, and we said perhaps we could retire here one day, it is so lovely and peaceful.  We had also made quite a few friends here and we were always sorry to have to go back to the U.K. after a week or two.

Then we said both at the same time ‘we don’t have to wait until we retire at 65 we could do it now!! Once the idea had formed it took hold and we started calculations to see if it would be possible for us to retire early and come here.

Our idea was to use Bulgaria as a base and travel around Europe – something we both wanted to do, but never had the opportunity before.

We both thought that if we waited until official retirement age we may not feel up to travelling and making a new life in a different Country with all the challenges that we know we will face.

So we discussed our intentions with our children and close friends.  Everyone said ‘go for it’ and with such a positive response we made the decision to put the house in Ossett on the market and see what happened.

We sold the house in a difficult market after about a year, and from then on there was no going back.  We told our respective employers who were surprised to say the least!  But they were very understanding and supportive of our decision to have a big adventure.

We made a date for completion of the house sale, sold the car the week before we were due to leave and we were on our way……….