Overseas property advice

Dodgy Bulgarian real estate agents

Bulgarian real estate has been the victim of some rogue estate agents preying on British Buyers according to Quest Magazine in Bulgaria. The practices of agents selling at three times the value of its market value has caught out unsuspecting overseas property buyers and left agents with huge profits.In a bid to help Britons buy homes in Bulgaria with more confidence, a new campaign to rid the country of rogue estate agents has been launched.

Learn more here

Million dollar pixel and Bulgarian property

It took a 21-year-old Alex Tew a few minutes to come up with an idea which has made him more than one million dollars in four months. The first thing he wrote in his pad was "How can I become a millionaire?" Twenty minutes later, the Million Dollar Homepage idea was born. Now this exciting story is followed by another pixel web site aimed at overseas property buyers searching for property in Bulgaria.

New Bulgarian pixel site

The  new property directory that specialises in properties in Bulgaria has been launched. www.BulgarianSkiProperty.info   now has hundreds of property agents selling thousands of Bulgarian property based on the million dollar pixel websites.

Homesgofast.com overseas property portal interviewed  Bulgarian pixel web site founder Ryan Duff

Why did you set up the site?  “When I was looking for my apartment in Bansko there wasn't a website that only specialised in ski property in Bulgaria. So I built one ! I wanted a "one stop shop" website that I could visit that had hundred of agents, thousands of properties on for me to choose from. Now no trawling the internet is necessary as this was the website that I was looking for!

What has been the response? “Excellent response from people saying how unique it is. Easy to navigate and eye catching. Lots of major players like Bulgarian Dreams, The Right Move Abroad, Bulgarian Properties, Team Bulgaria and Property Bulgaria have all been impressed. That is not to mention smaller agents such as Godolphin Property on the Isle of Wight wanting to be involved. It allows the smaller guys to compete against the giants ! All the above mentioned have already signed up for the new beach site as well”

Is this unique? Very much so. This is the ONLY pixel page dedicated solely to property in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian property information articles and property at

http://www.homesgofast.com/home/Bulgaria/

Million Dollar real estate

http://www.homesgofast.com/million_dollar_real_estate.php

Bulgaria attracting film stars

John Cusack and Hillary Duff recently finished filming a new movie called “Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens” in Bulgaria, the movie is expected to be released in the summer of this year (2007). This movie is being made by Nu Image, and Cusack is both the writer and director. In addition to Cusack and Duff, John’s sister Joan Cusack,, Ben Kingsley and Marisa Tomei all had roles in the movie. The movie was filmed on site in Plovdiv, the second largest city in the country and in studios in Sofia.

This is John Cusack’s second film in Bulgaria, and it was his choice to set the movie in the country because he enjoyed his first visit so much. Cusack’s first film in Bulgaria was “The Contract,” filmed in 2005. “Brand Hauser” is a dark political satire and is set in the near future.

Duff is also impressed by the country, particularly the food. On her blog, http://red.blogs.aol.com/hilarysblog/hilarys_blog, she notes “They really love salads! Salad with tomato, cucumber and feta cheese, called a Shopska salad, seems to be their favorite. I like it a lot because, since Bulgaria doesn't use pesticides, their vegetables are super fresh.”

Nu Image is set to film several more productions in Bulgaria this year, according to director David Varod. Other stars who are slated to come for filming later this year include Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman.

The second VIP season of the reality show Big Brother Bulgaria will begin in Bulgaria in the end of March 2007. Bulgarian celebrities will be taking a lesson from Jade Goody on not how to conduct yourself in the Big Brother house.

Bulgarians celebrities will have to spend a month in a house together under camera surveillance. The preparation of the new season had already begun, avtora.com said.

This season’s concept will be ‘sunny’ atmosphere, unlike the first edition of the show when local celebrities quarreled all the time.

Producers will refrain from intentional confrontation of the roommates, avtora.com said.

Nikolai Nikolov, editor in chief of Vip Brother 2, said that the show producers conducted a poll among the TV audience in 2007 to find out which celebrities to invite in the second season.

Pop-folk singer Konstantin won the first season of Vip Brother in Bulgaria, competing against 11 other celebrities. He received a 50 000 leva award.

.

Living in Bulgaria the truth

With all the hype about buying property in Bulgaria have you ever thought about what the country offers to those looking to relocate. Well here I provide you with an insight into living in Bulgaria. According to the March issue of Quest Bulgaria, the country's  English language magazine, instead of living like a pauper in the UK you could live like a prince in Bulgaria.

"The low cost of living is making Bulgaria more and more popular as savings, pensions and income go much further, providing a better quality of life," says Chris Goodall, managing director of Quest Bulgaria.

A survey by the Institute and Trade Union Studies of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria last year showed the cost of living for a family of four was just £460 a month. So for two people, an income of just £100 a week, will go much further than it could in the UK.

Locally grown food is just a third of the price of that in the UK. And even having a meal out in a 'tourist trap' costs just a fiver each. Wine is just £2 a bottle and beer only 50 pence - better than the £2.50 in the UK.

                                                                                                                                  

Sheryl and Del Trott, both 37, moved to Bulgaria from Hull with their three children, Karl, 18, Spencer, 3, and 18-months-old Ellesh.

They moved for a better life, concerned about school bullying and violence in England. They now live in a house in the Elhovo region in the south east of Bulgaria with a mortgage and at present are not working. Their income in the UK was just over £1,000 a month including child benefit.

                                                                                                                                       

Now they are settled Sheryl says they spend about £400 a month – not including land line telephone as they are not yet connected. But it does include their mobile phone and internet (around £28 and £12 respectively a month). Sheryl said: “We spend around £100 in the supermarket and then another £8 in other food shops for day-to-day bits and bobs.

“We manage to eat out often enough and spend about £30 a month on this. We are both smokers and spend between £23 and £30 a month on this.

“We’ve found that most things are a lot less than the UK, particularly food, clothes and petrol while electrical goods are about the same.

“We couldn’t live in the UK on the amount of money we spend here; our bills alone there were about £800 a month. I wouldn’t want to move back to England for all the money in the world,” she added.

Ivan Frost and his partner are both British, used to live in Crete, but moved to Bulgaria a couple of years ago to the Borovets region. Ivan, 47, is currently working as a property developer, building new houses to EU standards, which he sells on.

“It’s funny which things are cheaper and which are more expensive,” he said. “Certainly, taxes and council rates, television and internet costs, drinks and eating out are far less. However, we have found electricity is expensive along with mobile phones.”

Articles and guides about Bulgaria

Property in Bulgaria

Buying property in Bulgaria use our legal services here   

Bulgarian Property Resources

• Official Bulgarian website London Bulgarian Embassy
• Official Bulgarian Tourism  Destination Bulgaria
• Explore Bulgaria guides and links at Travel Bulgaria
• Lonely Planet guide to Bulgaria Lonely planet Bulgaria
• Sofia the city's history, culture, sightseeing, restaurants, transport, and map Sofia.Com

Bulgarian property a UK love affair

UK Overseas property investors and those looking for a holiday home abroad are looking to Bulgaria to buy their next property. The prospect of good capital gains, reasonable rental returns and investing in a country before joining the EU is proving irresistible.

The area benefits from a holiday season that peaks in both winter and summer. The majority of demand for Bulgarian property currently originates from investors in overseas property from the UK and Ireland, according to Colliers International. A market overview by the company found that the interest in Bulgarian property from these investors has supported significant developments in recent years, both in mountain and coastal resort areas. The town of Bansko is the most popular area for homes in mountain regions, as it accounts for 64 per cent of the holiday homes in these areas. In June this year, supply of homes in mountainous areas amounted to over 12,000 units, an increase of 152 per cent in comparison to June 2005. For coastal resorts, St Vlas was found to be the area most in demand, while Sunny Beach and Sozopol, all of which are on the country's Black Sea coast, were also popular. Collectively, Bansko and St Vlas had 70 per cent rates of absorption for holiday home developments as of June 2006. The overall rate of absorption for Bulgarian property and holiday home developments was estimated at 60 per cent in mountain resorts and 56 per cent on the coast.

Nicholas Marr CEO of Marr International Ltd notes ' demand for Bulgarian property has steadily increased over the year. ' Property investors are also looking at Bulgarian commercial property including hotels and guest houses. This indicates the confidence investors have in the area as a tourism hot spot '

A good selection of Bulgarian property can be found at HomesGoFast.com Bulgarian property