Moved East

[john]

There's an article on BBC World, Expats risking it all in Bulgaria, which (slightly sensationally), suggests foreigners are getting carried away buying property in Bulgaria (and other East European destinations), in the hope of making big returns. The article isn't very coherent, but the general gist is that potential buyers shouldn't take any risks out in Bulgaria that they would not take at home when buying property.

Worth checking out before you put all your chips on that downtown Sofia apartment, in any case!

[Krsto]

[Lousam]

The land registry in Slovenia is pretty good and up to date.
A few years ago, there was an amnesty for all 'black' buildings to be measured and entered into land registry.
Then two years ago all property was re-measured by Geodetic and the land registry updated.

The public can access some parts of the land registry and see who owns what, what the buildings / property is listed as and the size (footprint).
We have bought and sold quite a few properties and have never had any real problems with ownership or people trying to sell property that doesn’t belong to them.
What’s good in Slovenia is that in most cases both buyers and sellers use the same Notary. He / she checks all documentation of buyers and sellers and of the property and wont let the contract be signed or money transferred until happy. This makes the sales process quicker too.
In fact if you have the cash (and the property has no land classed as farmland) you can complete on a sale in a week, from start to finish.

I have not heard of any property being sold to more than one person in Slovenia, BUT we did once buy a property in Slovenia that was owned by a Croatian. The Notary advised us to put a 'Plumba' on the land registry to state a sale was going through (once we had paid a deposit) as she said that Croatians were known to selling properties twice. The plumba shows up on the land registry document. This document is required to prepare the sales contract, so if they tried to sell it again the Notary would see this Plumba or note written on the land registry document and could not go through with anything.

Some friends of ours bought a lovely vine house around 3 years ago. At the same time, the friend’s sister bought in Bulgaria and was promised a guaranteed rental income. They did get it for the first year, but then the next block was ready the year after and they got one week’s rental, the new block then got the guaranteed rental for its first year.
They have been trying to sell since but without any joy. I think they are trying to sell for less than what they paid. In comparism, the vine house with vine yard was purchased for 40,000Euro. Its prob worth 70,000 - 80,000 now!

When people enquire about Slovenia either for holidays (as we rent out a cottage) or to buy, a lot of people expect it to be like Bulgaria as property is cheaper than a lot of European countries, but its nothing like Bulgaria.
We have no organised crime, or mafia, the hospitals are better than the UK (I had two children here) and the education system is excellent.
We have regular rubbish collection, mains sewage, mains water and good roads.
I would say that Slovenia compares much more with Austria. The country is quite clean and green (on Saturday just gone it was clean up Slovenia day, where everyone took to the streets with bin bags to spring clean).
Kids had to go to their schools and pick up any litter in and around their schools, clean out ponds etc.

Not everythings perfect in Sunny Slovenia, but they have got a lot of things right!

[michaelbutters]

I have read your article,I am totally agree with you .In the last 3 years Bulgaria has seen a real boom in the prices of the property available because of the improvement in the economy, the political situation and the country's social stability.One of the most important factors for why there has been a rise in property market is the potential of tourism to the country.

Land Surveys
Land Registry
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Land Surveys

[fredercia2010]

Land and plots attract the attention of foreign investors. Foreigners are not permanently resident in Bulgaria will be able to own land for a second home after the expiry of the terms set in Bulgaria's EU accession treaty. Foreign citizens who want to acquire land in Bulgaria had to establish a local company and buy the land on their company's behalf. This was a routine, legal procedure, used by the thousands foreign buyers of Bulgarian properties. Now, after joining the European Union, Bulgria harmonized this law with the EU legislation. The foreigners want a land in Bulgaria no longer have to settle a company to buy it. This made acquiring land from non-Bulgarian citizens a much easier and less expensive procedure.



quick house sale