anyone sold a property in Bulgaria recently & if so were they happy?

Timithypaul

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Hi,

Has anyone sold a property in Bulgaria in the last few months or so and if so were they happy with the offer they received. I am not looking for comments on how bad the property market is and so on. I just want to know if anyone has sold a property recently and to whom if possible.
 
Re: Bulgaria

Hi,

Again Don't want to hear how bad things are just want to hear from someone if anyone who has sold a property recently.
 
There's definitely a market for Bulgarian property if you price it to sell.

An acquaintance of mine bought 3 two bedroom apartments in Bansko for €70,000 back in 2002 off plans. He was one of the first to get into Bulgaria and saw the valuation of his apartments shoot up to at least €300,000 in 2007. Of course, the market crashed and he didn't get out in time. But he was able to flog them a few months back for €105,000. So yea, that works out at €35,000 each. Said they were basic enough 60 sqm jobbies.
 
the property market is really bad :)

its getting much worser :D

Very helpful :rolleyes:

OP I sold about 2 years ago through a Bulgarian company, I know a lot has changed worldwide since then but one possible positive for the market is the resent banning of casino's in Russia. This was a multi million euro business and there is a long standing tradition of casino's and Russians choosing BG for a holiday destination for this reason. Apart from that it seems from people with property in BG that I've spoken with lately that it's no different to here, UK or US amongst others, in that if vendors are selling or thinking of selling they will have to take a hit. On the plus side property prices worldwide have dropped by varying percentages so I'd rather take a hypothetical hit of 50% Bulgarian property which originally cost 50,000 Euro than a UK buy to let that cost 300,000 but has fallen by 40%!

IMHO if you are looking to sell, get on the ground over there are don’t waste your time with agents that only sell to Ireland and/or UK. It’s been said on AAM before but agents that deal with markets such as Russia are more likely to be fruitful.
 
Rory22,

Thanks very much for your help. At least you are not taking all of this as a big joke and trying to take the you know what, which is a little unfair from people all round.
 
There's definitely a market for Bulgarian property if you price it to sell.

An acquaintance of mine bought 3 two bedroom apartments in Bansko for €70,000 back in 2002 off plans. He was one of the first to get into Bulgaria and saw the valuation of his apartments shoot up to at least €300,000 in 2007. Of course, the market crashed and he didn't get out in time. But he was able to flog them a few months back for €105,000. So yea, that works out at €35,000 each. Said they were basic enough 60 sqm jobbies.

The OP asked a very interesting question, whether anyone had recently sold in Bulgaria and if so, whether they got any kind of decent price.

From the responses, it appears that nobody has sold recently, or if they tried to sell, that they didn't get any kind of good offers. It would be very interesting to know if there is any activity in the market that is recent.
 
Had to search this thread out to give a little good news. We have sold a property this week in Sofia and made an ok profit !! not as much as we would have liked but in the present market we did pretty well.
 
hi shelly61,

That is good news for you and all of us. You did very well too after paying estate agents property taxes capital gains etc you still made a profit on your investment. I have a friend who also has sold his propery he is not making a profit but he has got 850 per/m and after paying estate agents etc and allowing for furniture package he has lost money on deal but whants out he had a very nice two bedroom apartment close to beach etc. His property was not in Sunny Beach was close to Burgas Airport.
 
Thanks ssm

timithypaul, thats a shame for your friend but if he wants out he is lucky to have lost a little rather than a lot. I guess it depends on what you paid in the first place as to how you fare out with profit etc. we were lucky as I had spent an awful lot of time here over the last 30 yrs, we are permanently living here now. we didnt buy in a complex that was advertised to the foreign market and we also didnt buy for investment, we had planned on living there. We had the benefit of knowing a little of the language we were able to buy directly from a bg developer so our purchase price was low to begin with. Ours was in Sofia. I think the coast is much harder to sell
 
Interesting to hear. I have a place I bought in 2005 next to Victoria Palace in Sunny Beach, so great location was thinking of selling 2010, alot of negatives, is the market that bad? sounds like only russians are buying. have to go there on foot early summer and give a few back handers is the only way to sell is that the feeling among all sellers in sunny beach?
 
interesting to hear. i have a place i bought in 2005 next to victoria palace in sunny beach, so great location was thinking of selling 2010, alot of negatives, is the market that bad? sounds like only russians are buying. have to go there on foot early summer and give a few back handers is the only way to sell is that the feeling among all sellers in sunny beach?

Yes you will sell if your have a front line apartment but you will take a hit I dont know about Sunny Beach is not the best location at present some Russians or buying but looking for good location and you will not get 1000 sq/m you would do well to get 850 max most Russians have a max budget of 60-80 max. You are right its a waste of time using the likes of Bulgarian Properties, Worldwide Group etc find a small estate agent with contacts in Russia who will advertise your property as discounted and dont pay any commision up front. You will pay 5% on sale .
 
The Russian buyers are mostly a myth invented by agents, there are some of course. The Russians have problems getting visas to come here so this is a big factor in the drop in tourist numbers. Charter flights from Russia have already been cancelled for the winter season because of problems with visas.

If yours is by the Victoria Palace you stand a very good chance to sell but not with small agents, most small agents were foreigners who bought here and decided to get involved with sales to make some money, with no expierence in property sales and definatly no expierence in Bulgarian property sales, needless to say most were a disaster.

If you want to sell you need to use a big company with international offices with no upfront or advertising payments, average comission is 3%. on the ground in Sunny Beach you will find very few real agents, you will find a lot of ppl who will tell you they have loads of Russians waiting to buy high end apts & they will take your backhanders no problem at all but you wont sell that way.

I sold my apt to a Bulgarian, in my line of work I have come across Belgians, French, English, Irish, Dutch & 1 Russian who have bought property here in the last 3-4 months all through large international companies & all at reduced prices.

I hope this info helps,
Shelly
 
I sold recently. Bought in 2005 in Sunny Beach. Never rented or used it. Sold it recently at quite a loss. Was glad to be rid to be perfectly honest.

"Appreciating Assets" had offered me a fraction of the cost which was understandable, as they obviously want to make money themselves in the future. I nearly sold it to them.

In the end I sold it privately for 10k more than AA had offered but still at a huge loss. I just took a chance and put it on gumtree.

My feeling was that Bulgaria was never going to amount to anything, or certainly not in the current economic climate, so I took the loss. With what I received and a few bob extra I was able to pay off the equity release that I had used to buy it (after, of course, making repayments since 2005!) but am just glad to never have to think about it again.
 
Congrats petpal :)

Most ppl feel like that, glad to be rid & I dont blame you either, after you buy it is a drain on finances as there is on going costs year on year. there is no real rental market here as was promised by the agents in the past, most tourists are apt owners who come because they own & not to rent something else.
In the 70s & 80s when I came here on holidays Sunny Beach was clean, safe for kids with plenty to do & a cheap place to visit. Since then it has become a different place, no customer service, everything is a rip off , prostitutes, theives & if they dont get their act together I think you are right, it never will amount to anything ! Most tourists I meet now ( who have booked a package tour ) say they would not return & I dont blame them.
Gumtree is great for advertising as it is free but I was contacted by many ppl who in the end turned out to be agents looking for business.
AA come in with very low offers but it is a good way to get out for some ppl who can take the hit.
Well done for getting 10k more & good to hear you can forget about it now and move on :) but you are in the minority unfortunatly.
 
Thanks Shelly. I'm heartened by your good wishes. It was never easy. Even at the end it was a hard decision to make. It was a situation where I weighed up the value of the financial loss against the value of my sanity and future happiness. I paid a huge price for being very silly and naive. My own fault entirely. However, things that happened after I signed up were not always my fault and I was well and truly "done" by agents and (especially) solicitors. I agree that AA are useful for people who can't get out of Bulgaria and who can take the hit. As I say, I was one of those and I was glad, at the time, of the AA offer to be honest. It was just a last ditch effort on my part when I placed the Ad on Gumtree, never thinking for one minute that I'd get a response. I got a response, from a private interested party, we worked well together, I had placed a low price on it and he didn't haggle, we co-operated with each other along the way in terms of form-filling, legals, etc., we even helped each other out in situations where it was easier for one of us to do the work than it was for the other, everything went smoothly, we never met but spoke on the phone, we instinctively trusted each other from the start, and thanks be to God it worked well for both of us. I feel very fortunate and I also think that he feels fortunate as he did get a good deal in terms of value per square foot. All's well! Thanks again for your nice words.
 
Thankyou for your words, so who are the AA? im in no rush really as i get up to 3 months rentals in the summer months through that be it lots of advertising, im at the stage where i want out now its to much hassle plus i know i was ripped off by Macanthony when i bought, i was naive too, and thought was a good alternative to a pension.but i am in a good uparket location which may be helpfull in the end.so worldwide group who are they? also if anyone was in my shoes what would they do?
It seems the last 5 years ive not spoken about it, and its a bit of a relief finally hearing others in the same situation as myself.my place is directly behind victoria palace, and majestic, so if you know that part of sunny beach its probably the best part of sunny beach. well done on selling yours by the way petpal. also shelly what line of work do you do selling property?
 
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