Well, to start with you are a foreigner, and although you can own buildings, you can not own land. According to the Bulgarian Constitution, foreign individual persons can buy buildings but not land and this restriction will not be removed for EU citizens until 2014. However this hiccup is easily overcome for foreigners buying property in Bulgaria by setting up a Limited Company which then owns the land and the buildings, and of course, you own the company, so you own the land and the buildings. Our solicitor can organize the entire process from start to finish, together with all aspects of conveyance, within in a few days.

A step by step flow chart into buying a Bulgarian Property

SELECT YOUR AREA. We specialise in Varna City & the Black Sea Coast
ARRANGE A VIEWING TRIP. We pick you up at the airport and arrange accommodation
SELECT A PROPERTY. We take you around and show you the sites
WITH LAND. You will need a Company	WITHOUT LAND.
REGISTER A COMPANY. It takes us about 3 days	NO COMPANY NEEDED.
NEED A MORTGAGE?   Arrange to see the Bank
SIGN A PRELIMINARY CONTRACT. This indicates your intention to buy a property
CHECK TITLE DOCUMENTS, DEBTS ON TITLE, LICENSES, PERMISSIONS, CONTRACT TERMS.
SIGN THE NOTARY ACT, (Contract), CONFIRM IN FRONT OF BULGARIAN PUBLIC NOTARY.
YOU HAVE NOW BECOME THE PROUD OWNER OF YOUR VERY OWN BULGARIAN PROPERTY.
PLUS continued back up from our Bulgarian team on how to do this and where to do that concerning Rates,  Electric, Telephone, Supermarkets, Schools, Recreation. We are there for you for anything you need to know.

    What does setting up a Limited Company cost me?  We provide a full company formation service for only £400. This is carried out by your appointed solicitor, and your company can be ready in four to five working days. This can be completed during your visit to Bulgaria. You only need visit our office once for about half an hour, the rest of your time here can be spent sightseeing. You only need one company to buy any amount of land. 

    There is another temporary cost. When we register your company you must deposit a sum of 5000 Lev (approx. £1,280) into your company bank account whilst the registration is being carried out. This money can then be withdrawn after the company is registered and used as you wish. The company does not need to operate and may be used only for purchasing the property. Once the property is bought, the company can be re-registered to the address of the new property.

       Other costs involved in buying the property?
 There is a Property purchase tax of 3% of the declared value of the property and Notary fees including this tax are approx £400. A Bulgarian/English translator is usually provided free to explain everything that is being written or said at your meeting with the Solicitor. The deeds are written in Bulgarian, of course, and should you require them translated into English this would costs about £40 - £50, depending on the number of  pages.

       Rates? Annual property tax.
Rates are collected by the municipal administration on an annual basis. The amount of it represents 0.15% (0.0015) of the property’s tax evaluation. A house valued at £80,000 would pay about £120.00 per annum. If you pay it before the end of April you will get a 5% discount off the bill.    

       Can I get a Mortgage?
 Providing that you meet the criteria, then, there is no problem getting a mortgage. Your place of work need not be in Bulgaria. You can work in the UK at present whilst investing in your future in Bulgaria. A perfectly acceptable scenario. Mortgages are available from the Bank based on passing 2 criteria...

    1) The Bank's faith in the quality of our construction. (Passed)

    2) The Bank's faith in your ability to repay the loan. (Pending).

     Picking you up at the airport and arranging hotel accommodation and viewing the property is provided free by us, however, you  pay for your own transport costs to and from Bulgaria and your hotel accommodation, meals etc. Lots of smokers "pay" for their trip to Bulgaria by bringing home 10 cartons of cigarettes which they bought at £7.20 a carton. No problem with Customs as you may bring home as many as you like, so long as they are for personal use. What with the same cigarettes being £45.20 a cartoon in England that is a saving of £380.00 which pays for your trip, and your holiday.

      Using you credit card in ATM's here is easy, but you will find hefty charges on your bank statement when you get home. Better to open a Lev account with your Bulgarian Bank and get a "no charge" Bulgarian Debit Card. The ATM's are programmed in English and Bulgarian.

     Changing money should only be done at a Bank, an Official Exchange Booth, of which there are many, or at your Hotel. Do not use a well dressed "money changer" who may approach you in the street. They are likely to give you counterfeit or out-of-date unspendable bank notes. Just say, "No thank you" and carry on walking, and don't be suckered in to it by the offer of a ridiculously high exchange rate. Scottish and Irish pound notes are not legal tender in Bulgaria, and will not be exchanged or accepted for payment.

         Why should I invest in Bulgaria?   Bulgaria is a quiet, unspoilt and largely rural country in South Eastern Europe about the size of England but with a population of only around 8 million. For years the Black Sea Coast has been the favourite holiday destination for Eastern Europeans, but in recent years, after Bulgaria  opened its doors to the rest of the world, and the world sat up and took notice of what it had to offer. With its majestic mountains, sandy beaches and old-fashioned rural tranquillity Bulgaria offered a glimpse of Europe which has long since disappeared under the noise of traffic and concrete in the rest of Western Europe. By the same token, the 21st century modern facilities in the big cities, like Varna, offer similar standards and shopping as other European capitals, with department stores such as Marks & Spencers, Mothercare, Metro Supermarkets, Praktiker Do-it-All and lots of world class restaurants and entertainment. Our new build houses in Gaburnitsa offer this rural tranquillity with easy access to life in the big city. The best of all worlds.

      What are the long-term economic prospects? Following the changes in 1989 throughout Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviets, Bulgaria has been going through a successful transition from a state-controlled economy to an open market economy.  Bulgaria joined the European Union on 1st January 2007 and this made it fully accessible to any European, including yourself. The European Union is investing millions of euros in upgrading the country's infrastructure - roads, airports and so forth. I visit the country every month, and every month it has changed, for the better, with more roads having been built or resurfaced, and road signs in English are becoming the norm. Every morning one can look out of your city hotel window and see new street lamps being fitted, new pavements, new toilet facilities. And, the fact is, one only has to stand at the hotel reception desk to realise that all tourists, regardless of their nationality, seem to speak to the desk clerk .. in English .... And, even better, on Friday the 16th May 2008, the Bulgaria Minister of State Administration and Administrative Reform, Nikolay Vassilev, in the city of Varna, gave the official start of the biggest English language education initiative for 15 thousand state employees in Bulgaria, ever seen in this country. The European Social Fund of the Operational Program "Administrative Capacity" is going to finance the English language classes. The English education project in Bulgaria is known as "Preparing Bulgarian State Administration Employees to work Effectively with European Institutions". Which means for you and me that all of the State Employees will speak Fluent English to us at City Hall, very soon.

        The new Terminal 5 opened at Varna airport this summer to cope with the new influx of holiday makers bound for the Black Sea Resorts. Travellers can fly direct to Varna during the tourist season from most UK airports, in a little over 3 hours, but during the winter months one has to fly via Gatwick to Varna or to Sofia, i.e. Your local airport - Gatwick - Varna or Your local airport - Sofia - Varna. There are some super cheap deals on offer from the likes of Easy Jet and Wizz and more airlines are signing up daily to fly to Varna.

    Sorry, but I can't help adding that the new Bulgarian Terminal 5 at Varna Airport is working wonderfully,  quite unlike its namesake at the London's new Heathrow Terminal 5.

Varna is getting very popular.

                Shopping? Lots of new shopping malls are springing up everywhere - with the inevitable Macdonald's and KFC fast food outlets, which tend to be ignored by the locals as their own Bulgarian food is very tasty in its own right, the Happy bar and grill is legendary ... and there are schemes such as the Beautiful Bulgaria Project targeted at refurbishing the country's historical architecture at local tourist resorts, like Pliska and Gaburnitsa, which are making property in those regions a very attractive investment, whether for holiday lets or as a permanent retirement venture.  Click on the picture of Varna's Central Plaza to see just how up-to-date Bulgaria is on the shopping scene. Remember to have your sound on. This, the largest mall in Bulgaria will be opened in the Black Sea city of Varna on June 12 with a four-day program including music performances and fashion shows. Mall Varna has a total all-out build-up area of 70 000 square meters, including 33 000 square meters of commercial space. Its 150 stores have already been contracted for the maximum period of ten years. It will also have a parking lot with 800 spaces, a children's centre named Capella Play, and an ice skating facility called Avangard Ice, as well as eight movie theatres. The facade of the five-storey building of Mall Varna will be illuminated by a unique light show changing the light colour every thirty minutes.

            Life-style?   A  59-year-old British national Patrick Brown has been nominated by the Bulgarian labour and agriculture party to be the leader of the list for municipal councillors in a local Bulgarian village at the upcoming local elections on October 28, 2007.  Ex-shipyard worker Patrick has been living in Bulgaria for four years with his wife Caroline. Bulgarians like the Brits because we don't want to change their country. We like it as it is.

          Visa and Long Stay in Bulgaria?  Until, recently, European (including UK and Irish) passport holders did not require a visa in order to visit Bulgaria for a period of 30 days in any six-month period, but since 01 January 2007 when Bulgaria joined the EU, the visa and residency regime has been extended for EU citizens.
      From January 2007 onwards citizens of EU-member states and their families are allowed a 90-day stay without permission or registration. If you wish to reside in Bulgaria for a longer period you will need to apply at the local Police Department for a residency permit. You should receive it for a period up to 5 years within one day. Bulgarian nationality is also available to you.

          Health in Bulgaria?  Is Bulgaria a dangerous country for your health? I don't think so. Some  advise taking vaccinations against DTP and hepatitis A and B. But I never have, and I come here every month and although I drink mainly bottled water, I have drunk tap water in Hotels and villages, with no repercussions.
        I have met the occasional tourist on the plane who has suffered from stomach upsets caused by eating something dodgy, but as for not eating salads ... well ... my favourite Bulgarian snack is a Shopska Salad, mainly tomatoes and cucumbers with a unique Bulgarian sour cheese. The problem with this £1 starter dish is that it takes 20 minutes to eat, and it fills you up like a three course meal.
                  There are a few annoying mosquitoes in summer, but they are no problem for me. After all, I'm in the essential oil business and a few drops of Citronella, Mint or Tea Tree on my shirt collar, or sprinkled on the bed head, tends to keep them well away. Walkers who venture into the countryside may encounter ticks, but this is overcome by covering up the bare skin. Use long trousers, a cap and a T-shirt. QED.

  The media accounts of wild dogs in Bulgaria are all hogwash, perpetrated to sell newspapers.  There are wild boar and wild bears, perhaps wolves, somewhere in the hidden depths of the forests, but I have yet to see any. The only wild (excuse me if I laugh) dogs I have encountered are on the corners of city streets and they have identification tags clipped through their ears to show the dog wardens that they belong to, and that they are fed by, the shop keepers on that particular city block. In a way they are guard dogs, who do look after their own patch, but these Bulgarian dogs tend to be like the Bulgarian people. They will completely ignore you and let you go about your business, without a second glance. Notice how they sit on their tails to stop having them stepped on by passers-by.  These dogs do a valuable job in keeping undesirables away, rodents & other low life.

Please excuse us if we totally ignore you.	This pussy cat isn't afraid of those big bad doggies.

 

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ANGLO BULGARIAN DOGS

http://www.freewebs.com/anglo-bulgariandogs/index.htm

anglobulgariandogs@gmail.com

 

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Important numbers

	Police: 166
	Medical Help/Ambulance: 150
	Fire Brigade: 160

 

These are monitored 24/7 but the operator may not speak English.

One simply yells, POM'USHT (help) along with the name of your hotel and room number.

Help WILL be there within minutes.

There is no Politically Correct "We can't do it" nonsense here.

 

Other useful numbers

	Varna Airport: +359 52 573 323
	Varna Railway Station: +359 52 630 414
	Varna Bus Station: +359 52 448 349
	Jed's number in Bulgaria: +359 884 698 058
	Bulgaria is two hours ahead of the UK which   means 9am in the UK would be 11am in Bulgaria.
	Tourist Information Centre, 36 Tzar Osvobodital Boulevard.   9002, Varna, Bulgaria.    Tel/ Fax: 052 60 29 07

          Who is buying what?  The majority of clients who are buying property in Bulgaria are looking for investment property, giving good returns in both the long and the short term. Another large group of clients focus on holiday/second homes often with a view to retirement in later years. We are centred mainly in the Varna area along the new Sofia/Varna motorway corridor. This new highway has brought rural tranquillity within easy reach of the city and the sea coast resorts and properties here are becoming more desirable by the day. We are aware that some of the more adventurous types are looking for a cheap old world hovel/shack/house that they hope to renovate into a cosy liveable condition. We have some of them. We also have a wide variety of properties at our disposal within different price bands covering rural, coastal, ski and city locations throughout Bulgaria.  Whatever you require we will endeavour to locate suitable properties for you to view, however ....

 

Click on a thumbnail

         We do not sell in certain areas.  As in the UK there are some areas we consider to be poor investments which will not give a good return on your money no matter how long term you can envisage.  These are areas where employment is non-existent, the road infrastructure is dirt tracks and the people travel about in caravans and have little use for the derelict old shacks called houses, except as shelters for their donkeys. Thankfully, the undesirable areas are well known and we use the simple guide, "If a Bulgarian doesn't want to live there, then neither do we". These areas tend to be inland north of Dobrich Town and eastwards out to the Danube River. Houses here, or what is left of the these mud-built shacks, can still be bought for a thousand pounds, or less, but one would get better value for the money by heaping it up and setting fire to it on a cold winter's night to stay warm. We have lost the wheels off our car on roads in these areas.

All of our properties are in good areas.     In housing, it's location, location, location
and we have the right locations. How do we know? Because we live there ourselves.

Any thing else?  Phone Ged (Jed) on 01535 212 971

This site is constantly being updated - please use your refresh button NOW for the latest update

   
Bulgaria has four seasons, in fact, Bulgaria is England with sunshine.

 

Please make enquiries to Ged (Jed) on 01535 212 971

PEACE HAVENS of BULGARIA Company number 148109245 Ged Dodd, Peace Havens Ltd, 40-42, Raiko Zhinzifov Street, Varna, Bulgaria. Mobile  00359 8846 98058 ( Will take cheap texts from the UK ) In England telephone 01535 212 971, mobile 07949 296 887.   jed.dodd@blueyonder.co.uk

Peace Havens Ltd Varna, Bulgaria

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