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I found this topic on the Internet but it was originally in Bulgarian but you can make it out so have a read its really interesting

Why England do not buy properties in Bulgaria

In most cases, foreign property owners have themselves to blame for lost money

The first reason is the crisis. The second is that Bulgaria went bad name as a place where British and Irish people are scammed. In forums and in the Western press circulated to the complaints of people who lost money in the country. Such stories as "
horror stories"
. In details not vnikva and that buyers are innocent victims, it seems obvious, because our country is known for corruption and iniquity.

Causes

But I already four years working on these same Englishmen and not see it that way. It is true that Bulgaria is corrupt, but the reasons for lost investments are in themselves buyers. Recently, consult one of them what his views are to regain the one hundred and fifty thousand euro. My conclusion was that they had none. Having heard this, he said literally the following: "
Bulgarian legislation is bad, because it protects buyers by themselves."
A similar idea is in sharp conflict with the Roman maxim that the law is sighted, and not sleeping. In other words, if the buyer is not vigilant, is his own fault that he lost money. And these are the same Romans, whose successors in law are both we and the British.
This man had done anything reckless. Had given a proxy to a stranger to pull its deposits from fully and to spend the money as it sees fit. And not only was not considered any collateral, but even contract was not concluded. He was very surprised when he explained that the attorney only grants rights but does not create obligations. So this same Englishman I find no fault in their actions and was convinced that the reason we lost money in Bulgaria.
Another was convinced that he has bought a house and when he realized that it would receive non-built space, wanted to sue the seller. The contract, however, who stood in his signature, was clearly written that only purchased the land, not building. And that contract was written in their native language, but apparently this guy was not bothered to read it.
One woman complained for months on the forums about what a terrible place is Bulgaria, contacted me to advise her how to return the money. After I read the contract which it was concluded, and found no wrongdoing. It happened precisely what was written in black and white.

Mentality

Westerners come from a different world where everything is settled, calm and where the government protect them from dangers such as small children. Once you give money, it is understood that they will receive what is given them. When people buy apartments there, they worry whether they will be not deceived, but what will be the color of bathroom tiles. You can not lose them, for them is so obvious that they never think about the issue of preventive measures. In Bulgaria, these people are like farm animals removed from farm and thrown into the jungle. They are not accustomed to looking and when they hit just can not understand where they come.

Agents

To this should be added that the West people do not do everything yourself and pay for professionals from the field to do the job. In these real estate professionals are called "
agents"
, so their first job, when they decide to buy in Bulgaria is to raise that term in the search engine together with the name of our country. Immediately leaving many companies are called "
agents"
. They can not imagine a world without such people and I see a familiar word, decide they have found what they want. Their assumption that there are agents in Bulgaria is confirmed. If it does not like to go deep into details and explore how it actually is the issue. Prefer to view color pictures instead of reading thick books. Once something confirmed their expectations, you can not help but be so! English in Bulgaria come to buy property with the mood of tourists who are seated to order in a restaurant rather than serious investors. So they expect the menu instead of the book's instructions.

Differences

Under the Commercial Code, however, the country has firms, not agents. The difference is substantial. The mediator does not represent the parties and shall not be liable if one has not fulfilled its obligations to the other. The mediator only them "
svatosva. The deal is between the buyer and seller of the property. He takes money from both sides and thus protect the interest of neither one nor the other. In England, the agent is paid only on one side and he is responsible if its too expensive to sell property or if it lost money in other ways. Therefore, Westerners who have found the Internet entrepreneur who calls himself "
agent"
are left trustingly in his hands. For them, the story ends. They pay him and therefore no need to think about anything.
Englishmen go even further in its stupidity. They rely on the firm erroneously called "
agent"
to them and choose a lawyer. So instead of an independent and competent counsel, they appear to be the most illiterate lawyer who in some cases not even a lawyer. But even is it necessarily loyal to the firm which he found a job, not the client who is. Customers are changing, the firm remains. Customer is a fee, the firm - many fees. Therefore, those dependent on lawyers do what they want the mediator. Collateral no avail, and contracts are concluded in the most rapid and easy manner, which in turn means that the shuffle.

Well, actually my comment was more of a funny one, let's say sarcastic - I know pretty well the current market, it's quite obvious only the bargains are being bought.

Back in 2004 it appeared that the only people extolling the virtues and advantages of buying a Black Sea resort apartment were the developers wanting to sell them and the would-be developers trying to raise the backing to build more of them. Could one say perhaps the folk hoping to get rich quick got caught by those who got rich quick at their expense?

oddball wrote:

Vic S thanks for sharing - I would say you are now living the dream

We are, but without forums like this and a lot of blood sweat and tears it would never have come to fruition.

fruitlover wrote:

Back in 2004 it appeared that the only people extolling the virtues and advantages of buying a Black Sea resort apartment were the developers wanting to sell them and the would-be developers trying to raise the backing to build more of them. Could one say perhaps the folk hoping to get rich quick got caught by those who got rich quick at their expense?

An old work colleague of mine got well and truly duped when he bought a penthouse suite in Bourgas about five years ago. The developer showed him a plan of the adjacent site being landscaped and a children's playground. Four years after that they built an identical block of flats, all he can see now is a mirror image of his apartment and it was 30% cheaper than his

fruitlover wrote:

Back in 2004 it appeared that the only people extolling the virtues and advantages of buying a Black Sea resort apartment were the developers wanting to sell them and the would-be developers trying to raise the backing to build more of them. Could one say perhaps the folk hoping to get rich quick got caught by those who got rich quick at their expense?

I think there is a lot in what you have said here and I believe this is one of the main reasons for the decline in British buyers and I don't see it changing for quite sometime to come, I'm afraid to say its not all Bulgarians too who hare responsible for this I would say that a lot of the so called Brit agents have played their part too.

Vic S wrote:

fruitlover wrote:

Back in 2004 it appeared that the only people extolling the virtues and advantages of buying a Black Sea resort apartment were the developers wanting to sell them and the would-be developers trying to raise the backing to build more of them. Could one say perhaps the folk hoping to get rich quick got caught by those who got rich quick at their expense?

An old work colleague of mine got well and truly duped when he bought a penthouse suite in Bourgas about five years ago. The developer showed him a plan of the adjacent site being landscaped and a children's playground. Four years after that they built an identical block of flats, all he can see now is a mirror image of his apartment and it was 30% cheaper than his

Well, here it's not developer's fault, I think, it could be city's architect to have changed the land plot status after that, so many options. Basically one should never believe that a land plot can never be built up... with the proper money, everything is possible.

I'm quite sure he is talking about the new building near the sea garden, next to the Pantheon, well it's a lot nicer area to live now with this new building added, used to be a bus parking with all the noise and gas evaporations coming from it.

Fruitlover - just to make clear that I didn't mean everyone should use 'bucket and chuckit' method for any length of time. When I HAD to use this method for lack of funds my ruin was situated on a large plot of land and the waste only filtered into my own back yard. It then became fertilizer. No-one lived near me except an olive press which delivered its olive waste into my field. No-one swam in my effluent. Unless filtration plants are built in Bulgaria sewage has to go somewhere else which is usually a hole in the ground until EU can give funds to build these plants. Remember big ideas cost big money and Bulgaria is POOR.
As for the apartment argument. Most off-plan apartments are built to make a profit either by renting or selling on. Its a high risk investment which unfortunately for some has had dire results. Many people bought with no idea about the investment problems whether low, medium or high. Developers are nearly always the ones to make the maximum profit. Its the way it works. A hard lesson to learn.
As for absolute bargains still selling. I would dispute this although as I previously said, it maybe folks who are buying are not very noticeable due to the amount on the market. I have seen properties even on this forum which seem really good. The prices have often dropped considerably and they still do not sell. People only have around 10,000euros to spend and that won't buy anything very much although the pics might look pretty. Even these do not always sell and what person who has spent maybe 40,000euros on renovations is going to sell for 10,000?

Good Heavens Oldun, it wasn't your bucket &
chuck it I was referring to - thats a much sounder option - it was the Water Closet (modern WC) I was drawing attention to as a fairly problematic invention. When I was little I had a potty under my bed! Quite a nice shaped one too, but not decorated. :) What you just said about sewage treatment requiring large investment is exactly what I mean. Obviously city life needs a solution, where huge numbers of people don't have land or at least enough of it to recycle safely, some means of disposing safely and sensibly is required on a large scale. I just meant it's time we looked more at the alternatives. To use a much worn phrase, if we can put a man on the moon how come we haven't come up with a more efficient solution for dealing with the products of everyday living? It's like, just because somebody years ago invented the WC, we have to stop there? In Scarborough they made a huge investment in a new treatment works to overcome the practice of pumping raw sewage into the sea - result - they now pump finely chopped sewage further out to sea! That was taxpayer's money, and I object to my contribution being spent on a 'solution' that is no solution at all! Inland water treatment works have to try and make a proper job of it, so why do coastal towns not bother just because the sea is on their doorstep!

Sorry this all seems off topic but if we're talking about people not investing in Bulgarian resort property any more, cleanliness of the sea is an issue. My own experience is like everyone else here says, anyone you speak to about buying in Bulgaria knows or knows of somebody who has been cheated. People are afraid to consider it because they don't know who they can trust. We were very fortunate in Turkey, we bought a finished apartment on a desirable complex and got our deeds, and I am so sorry that many others did not. We were lucky to get good advice. As has been said already, if countries want the investment and income tourism brings, it would help if they put more effort into looking after the tourists. That's how it looks to us because we are used to a settled government. The perspective changes a bit when you realise some factions of the Turkish population abhor tourism and loathe this (to them, filthy) investment, we are the infidel polluting their country and they'd kick us all out (or preferably exterminate us) if they could get into power!

Most Turks we met seem very nice people, kind, family oriented, polite. Yet an interpreter from Ankara we met at the Notary office told me he doesn't really enjoy being on the coast because in his words the (Turkish) people there are "
Hard, materialistic, it's all about money, they may be nice to you but they just want the money"
. He said people are not hard like that where he comes from, but they are poor so he has to work in the resort for the money himself, and hates the compromise!

I can't comment on Bulgarian Government because most of you will know far more about it than I do, it just seems that the contrasts between the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the cities and the countryside, the old and the new, are more sweeping than most of us experience in the UK. Our history seems a complex subject, but has nothing on the complexity of Bulgarian history! As a (hopefully) future guest in their country I shall try to be grateful for the privilege, and not to imagine that I have any inkling of how to solve their countries problems, especially the ones that don't seem problems to them but only to us!

The credit crisis has significantly decreased the interest of British citizens to real estate in Bulgaria. With this decrease, Bulgaria has been assessed as one of the “market at losers”, in which the drop of interest is bigger than the average change . Two years after the beginning of the credit crisis, it is clear that the property market abroad is totally different. Much of the market dynamics have disappeared. Some believe it is a good thing. So you would have difficulties finding an investor who would want to make a quick profit through reselling apartments. Only a few countries have managed to go back to their positions from 2008 and there have been huge differences in the speed of the recoveries, for example Dubai has been severely affected, experiencing drops in excess of 75% compared to2008. Eastern Europe has also lost a great deal popularity in the UK. On the other hand, the Netherlands and Germany have registered an increase in comparison to 2008.

Some more interesting comments here. Out of interest, when momentarily bored, I checked out some Greek properties for sale. Considering the dire straits the Greek economy is in property prices are still astronomic! No signs of people begging for someone to buy their property there at a knockdown price and no mention from agents about a property collapse but then why would they? So it seems that in spite of the Greek problems people are still out there looking for that dream villa with a 6 figure price tag.
I contacted one agent and asked what he had to offer around 30,000euros. Answer - not even a pile of stones out of a village!
I deduce from this that it is the bad reputation Bulgaria has had over the last few years and people trying to sell their houses have probably been the very ones complaining about things on forums and who are now wondering why no-one is buying.
I for one, love my Bulgarian village. Yes, I have had to accept the good and the bad here which is the same everywhere and the good things far outweigh the bad.

Not quite sure why my karma was decreased over this post. What have I said to offend? I only post my thoughts and opinions no-one has to agree. Doesn't make me an unsympathetic person does it?
I really do think people aren't buying because of bad things said about Bulgaria and often on forums by people who now want to sell their houses and leave. It should be remembered that bad news always travels faster than good. Its also true that Bulgaria mostly only appealed to people (like me) who had little money to spend on property.
All the really bad things about Bulgaria like Corruption, tourist rip-offs, builder rip-offs, agent scams etc. were all happening in Greece and more. All I said was, that Greek properties are still selling at very high prices. Then again, Greece is a country of islands which are really beautiful although much of their sewage flows into the Med and you should try sailing through the filth when a big ferry opens is sluices into the sea!!!!
There is a Greek saying 'Greece is a poor country but there are no poor Greeks!' Islands are very difficult to police when it needs a boat to get to them from Athens!
I really don't think that Bulgaria is any better or worse than other countries which are now part of the EU, but many people who used to flock here were not used to the vagaries of living abroad anywhere and so were easily put off by all the bad publicity and are not taking the risk of buying here anymore. Not many people can keep a base in UK and own a home abroad. Neither can many afford to rent for a few months before taking the plunge even though this is a good idea.
Can I have my Karma back please?

I don't know why either so I have given you 1 back

I did that Oldun because you keep going on and on about Greece i thought this was about Bulgaria ? Why are they not buying because they dont have the money the language is hard to learn flights are expensive and the infrastructure is crap . In other words there dont want to . If i dont get a karma for that i will be very upset . [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I should have guessed it was you Johnbaz. Welcome back. :LMHO:Thank you Carmen.

Oops sorry Sallyann. My memory doesn't seem to last a minute nowadays! Back to topic folks and I won't mention Greece again. Itchyfeet and Fruitlover had better not mention Turkey again either or Johnbaz will be decreasing your Karma!