Banking on Bulgaria

One holiday home in Bulgaria wasn’t enough for Larry Granelly and wife Teresa from Stratford-upon-Avon. Excited by low property prices and sure of a good return on their investments, they bought four. They tell Tricia Willis how they stocked up

Why did you want to buy property overseas?

As we’re both retired, we have plenty of time to look out for good investment opportunities, so buying a holiday home seemed like a good move. We also thought that investing in overseas property would be more financially rewarding and would create a good investment portfolio to pass on to our children and grandchildren.

Why Bulgaria?

We looked at the US, Cyprus and France, all of which seemed to be steady markets, but it was obvious we’d missed out on the peak investment times. Spain was another option, but beachfront property was incredibly expensive.

Our final options were Turkey and Bulgaria, and the decision was quite easy. It appeared to us that Turkey had much more work to do before being admitted to the European Union, and we also didn’t feel as comfortable about buying in a country that we thought of as being rather volatile. Overall, Bulgaria came out on top as it offered a good range of cheaper property prices as well as the best prospects for a high return in years to come.

What kind of enquiries did you make before buying?

We did plenty of research before flying out to view properties. We read up on websites about the country’s history, tourism statistics and resort facilities, so when it came to making decisions about what to buy and where, we had a good understanding of what was on offer and felt comfortable enough to take the next step. Then we booked property inspection trips with a large company with a good reputation. It sources independent legal representatives for its clients, so we knew we’d be dealing with a lawyer who had only our best interests in mind.

What did you buy?

We viewed five or six properties on each of the three investment trips, and in the end bought four properties ranging between £36,500 and £77,770 with deposits of 30% of the purchase value. Extra fees came to about 4.5% for each property, with annual service charges for the complexes varying between £4 and £8 per sq metre.

We visited Sunny Beach on the Black Sea coast, and bought a two-bedroom beachfront apartment with two bathrooms and air conditioning on a full service complex which comes complete with pools, spas, bars and restaurants, children’s facilities and tennis courts.

Our trips to Bansko ski and golf resort in September and November 2005 went even more smoothly than the first visit; by this time we had a good idea of how to go about things.

We bought three properties during these trips, each one located in a full service development including bars, restaurants, pools, spas and so on. We bought a one-bedroom furnished apartment, a one-bedroom centrally heated unfurnished apartment by the ski resort and a studio apartment next to the golf course.