Buying a Home in Bulgaria
Dougal Robertson
Buying a Home in Bulgaria is necessary reading for anyone planning to buy property in Bulgaria. It contains a plethora of priceless information and insider tips to guide you through the Bulgarian property jungle, and save you time, trouble and money. Regardless of whether you’re buying a family, holiday or retirement home, or a property purely as an investment, this guide will help ensure a smooth, problem-free transaction. Whether you want a modern apartment in Sofia, a villa on the Black Sea or a chalet in Bansko, Buying a Home in Bulgaria will help make your dreams come true. Don’t leave home without it!
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Extracts from the book…
Your Dream Home
Once you’ve considered possible locations for your dream home in Bulgaria, you will need to decide on the type of property that will best suit your needs, compare the purchase options and calculate the costs, including the fees associated with buying.
There’s an overwhelming choice of property for sale and it’s a buyer’s market in most areas, although less so along the Black Sea coast and in Sofia. Bulgarian property is very different from that in the UK and other western European countries, and there can be substantial differences between and even within regions. For these reasons it isn’t necessary – and certainly isn’t advisable – to be in too much of a hurry. As when making all major financial decisions, you should give yourself time to think.
Have a good look around your chosen area(s) and get an accurate picture of the different types of property available, their relative values and what you can expect to get for your money. But before doing this you should make a comprehensive list of what you want (and don’t want!) from a home, so you can narrow your search and avoid looking at unsuitable properties.
If you find something you fall head over heals in love with, wait and think about it for a week or two before rushing to the altar! One of the advantages of buying a home in Bulgaria is that there’s usually another ‘dream home’ around the next corner or in the next village – and the second or third dream home is often even better than the first. On the other hand, don’t put off your decision too long, as good properties at the right price won’t stay on the market for ever.
Bulgarian Currency
Bulgaria’s official currency is the lev. The lev is fixed to the euro, one euro equalling 1.95583 lev. One lev is therefore worth around €0.50 or £0.35 or $0.60. (For the sake of convenience, euro equivalents in this book are given at the rate of €1 = 2 lev.) Inflation in the 1990s was so great that in 1999 the Central Bank took devalued the currency, making 1,000 old leva worth one new lev. The official abbreviation for the new lev is BGN (the old leva was referred to as BGL). To make things slightly confusing, the plural of lev is leva; to avoid confusion in this book, only the word lev is used, for both the singular and the plural.
The leva is no longer legal tender, so you should get used to the new currency as quickly as possible in order to be able to recognise worthless leva notes, which are sometimes given as change to unwary visitors.
The lev is divided into 100 stotinka and coins come in denominations of 1 lev and 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 stotinkas. The 1, 2 and 5 stotinka coins are bronze-yellow in colour, while the 10, 20 and 50 stotinka coins are silver-white. The 1 lev coin is silver-coloured in the centre with a bronze-coloured rim (similar to the 1 euro coin) with a serrated edge.
Bulgarian banknotes come in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 lev. Notes feature images and motifs from the lives of famous Bulgarians. Notes increase in size as their value increases and have similar security features to the current euro notes. The 100 lev note isn’t common and you should be wary of them – if only because of the risk of losing them!
The Bulgarian National Bank website (http://www.bnb.bg) has pictures and descriptions of the notes and coins in circulation.
Although less common than a few years ago, some businesses insist on payment in ‘hard currency’ (e.g. euros, sterling or dollars) for items such as airline tickets. Many hotels quote their prices in dollars or euros, and property prices are commonly given in euros and sometimes in sterling, although payment in lev is generally accepted.
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PRICE: £11.95
PUBLICATION: August 2006
EDITION: 1st
PAGES: 308
BINDING: paperback
SIZE: A5 (210mm x 148mm)
COLOUR PHOTOS: 20
