Britons living in Bulgaria. Guide to Bulgaria, Sofia and Varna

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Britons Now Prefer Urban Property to Country Estates in Bulgaria. As Bulgaria and Romania celebrate joining the EU, thousands of their citizens are expected ...

After a few days' house-hunting,Annie settled on a property comprising a handsome, early 20th-centurymain house with a tiled roof, plus a back house and three barns. After the fallof communism in 1989, they were badly depopulated as the young fledrural cooperatives to seek work in towns and cities, and now only theold folk are left. Alex Spillius and Andrew Eames report.Friends, Romanians, countrymen... Are Britishbargain-home hunters welcome there? But again - as with builders - it pays to talk to buyers whohave been down the same road. But as a cheap and pleasant, long-termholiday-home location, Bulgaria has a lot going for it. But shepredicts a rush of buyers, thanks to Bulgaria joining the EU."Accession will give confidence to clients who have been sitting on thefence," she says. But thevillages, while attractive, lack a certain quaintness. EvenBulgaria's tourism ministry has complained that a glut of planningapprovals for new hotels and apartment blocks in the mountains and onthe coast risks damaging not only the environment but the tourist tradeitself. Every year inmid-December, the local men ask Tom to assist with killing a pig or two- most households keep one, which is slaughtered to provide meatthroughout winter. For those looking at Bulgaria purely as a rental investment, agents arewarning against over-optimism. He attends but keeps a polite distance at thecrucial moment.Unlike some British buyers, they wisely stayed on site while theirhouse was renovated. In a country with an average wage of 150 pounds per month, the localbuyers just aren't there, warns Natasha Copeman, of Asta BridgeInternational, which specialises in off-plan developments. In short, it isn't Tuscany, though at those prices it willn't be. It is an easy enough process with the right lawyer, whocan be found through the British consulate and is often recommended byan agent. Julian Georgiev, of Homes in Bulgaria, observes: "The drift is towardsthe city centres as the next fashionable development concepts aretowards shopping malls, offices and modern, city-apartment living. Like many others, they were motivatedfirst by the staggering cheapness of property advertisement.They had lived and run a cafe on the Greek island of Paxos for yearsbut found homes there unaffordable. Most buyers in Bulgaria are first-timers and havelittle or no knowledge and experience."The rental market is still too immature to regard it as a safe banker,he says. None of this bothers Annie Thomas and Tom Davies. Now, the country's status as part of theexpanded, 27-strong EU is likely to attract shoals of purchasers whowill feel more comfortable about buying in a country they know littleabout.Already, warnings of over-development are being sounded. That is leaving aside the Irish pubs, fish-and-chip shops andcheap souvenir stores. The British find the level of acceptance here very high:the Bulgarians are easy people to live with." By their own admission, Annie and Tom do things differently to mostexpats. The builder they found locallydug them a cesspit. The first put a new lavatory in themiddle of a room. The lavatory was in an outsideshed and simply drained into the land. Then they got rather carried away, sold their house in Bristol,gave up their jobs as a logistics manager and boss of a car valetingcompany respectively, and put all their eggs in to a rather obscureBulgarian basket. There are few of the charming cafes, taverns orbakeries that make other southern European countries so desirable. There is a good mayor and - I have to becareful here - no gipsies, who can cause problems. They are confidentthat they will double their money on their property if they chose tosell. They consider themselves lucky that thehouse was habitable when they bought it. They havebecome ad hoc advisers to later arrivals."We love it here," says Annie, 66. They live in Mindya all year round, grow many of their ownvegetables and struggle nobly with the language. They should know: they went through two in a few weeksbecause their work was substandard. Theyoriginally bought a 1,500 square metre farmhouse - with outhouses andbarns - for 22,000 pounds as a holiday home, which they planned to rentout. This week it became not just cheap butalso a member of the European Union. Thishas started to attract the more investment-conscious UK buyer."The biggest pitfalls are the buyer being over-excited andunder-experienced. Tourism is growing in the area, and thelandscape is undeniably impressive: even in winter, it has an austerebeauty that, in warmer seasons, becomes splendid and radiant. Two villages up the road, in Cerova Koria, Bill and Jane Watsonstrongly advise hiring an architect and taking extra care in choosingyour builder. We met on the building site that will be their guesthouse.