Property in Bulgaria

Buying property only on the basis of a written description is not a good idea. Better go there and see with your own eyes. Also, plan to visit several other properties too. If possible, stay 5-6 days in the place where you've decided to buy. Do that before buying.

Generally the region is a very good one - agricultural area, hot summers, close to highway, close to a big city (Stara Zagora), and not too far from the seaside and from the mountains.

One negative side is excessive gipsy population in the region. Make sure there's none close to the property you're buying. Even if in the same village - the idea is not good.
Check also if the surrounding houses are inhabited.

Well, actually there are a lot more things you have to consider before deciding where to buy but that's a good start.

Thank you so much for your replay.
If you could choose the best area / settlement to live which would YOU choose ?
Thanks again

Well that depends entirely on your preferences. Some people like cities, other villages, Bulgaria has different areas: valleys, planes, mountains, hills, seaside ..... rivers, mineral springs, forests ....

my personal preferences would hardly coinside with yours

Very heavy gypsy area, be careful.

Thank you
I would love to live close to the seaside ,(town or village )
My husband prefers rural/mountain area so all depends were we find the property we like
We did find a property we like but we are not considering it now after the advice above, which we are very grateful
Any area you can recommend that is good to look will be greatly appreciated
Thanks again

Well you can do a little research on roma concentration demographics on google all the info is there. I own 4 houses in BG. Smolyan in the Redopy mtns has the lowest concentration of gypsys in bulgaria about 1%. Near smolyan there is a village serifimavo that has many english and an event (meadows in the mountain(google it) every june. What you'll learn and I never guessed is that seaside villages are packed with activity for a bout 4 months a year but then become ghost towns. In the smolyan area you within 20 km of pamporovo a huge spa and ski resort area and Devon(spa)(google them). People here are different, more honest than other areas and neighborly. You have hiking , kayaking, mountain biking season and then ski season. You need to do your home work. You can get a great place in BG and a good deal, you can also very easily get a nightmare. I've had one of my houses robbed 5 times, lost 3,000 $ of brand new appliances and house wares and had the same house burgled again this may. The house has an alarm and iron bars on all windows and german locks. My gypo neighbours have a tool to bend my bars and then they put their 7 year old son in( I caught him once but was unable to photo him before getaway and cops could do nothing.). He recently got my credit card while I was shopping at another village and put 1800 euro on internet purchases. The other relatives watch the road leading to my village and everyone knows my car so they telephone the boy inside and he never gets caught, This is an example of what can happen and I've met many people with same problem. Still if your smart you'll be able to avoid this. This was the first house I bought and was of the opinion that "the gypsy's can't be that bad" boy was I an idiot.

Oh that is typical and I've heard same sort of story many times, we were lucky to have bought in a village with no gypsy population.  We did pay more for  the house but worth paying more in my opinion.


If you have good BULGARIAN neighbours you won't go far wrong

In the villages are usually retired people, and most very hard working and honest, but I suppose there are always the odd ‘bad' apples.

Thank you for your replay mr.nice7321 and sorry that you had all that trouble.
I looked in Smolyan area and it is very nice, the only problem is that all the airports are quite far and I will need to come back to UK for work for the next few years. We did find lovely properties in VT area and Ruse area .The plan is once our house here is sold to come to Bulgaria in our motorhome and tour and see were we like the best I really like Ruse ,and is close to  Bucharest airport ,do you think is a good city/area to live?
Sueinvarna can you please tell me the name of the village you bough a house
Thank you

Ruse area is good, I love Bucharest. Romanians are much classier and friendly than Bulgarians. I should have bought there but double the price and I don't know the score there like I know it in Bulgaria. The motor home is a great idea. Good luck!

Thank you, will keep you post it how we get on

I don´t know the village Markovo, but the Chirpan region yes. Actually, we are living in a small village (Malko Tranovo), 15 kms from Chirpan and 25 kms from Stara Zagora.  As Kristiann describes, a good region.  Many expats - esp. British - living in this area.

In most villages you will indeed have gypsies living.  Matter of fact in ours they become more and more, we have the impression.  Our village seems to be a gypsy-friendly one.  One of the gypsy guys is doing maintenance of the public park grounds.  A guy who owns a big estate here, has some of them working in his house and picks them up by car every morning.  Maybe it is not even the worst to treat them like you would treat other Bulgarians, because up till now there are no problems with them. 

We are the only expats in Malko Tranovo. If you know the surrounding it is fairly easy to enter our garden, we have no security system, no bars in front of doors or windows, no special locks.  We even once left to Stara Zagora and had forgotten to close two windows.  Up till now nothing happened.
From the start (1,5 years ago) we greeted the gypsies like we greet the other people. A couple of them did some small jobs in our garden and around the house.  Matter of fact, with some of them I can communicate easier than with other Bulgarians because they speak a kind of Turkish and we lived 7 years in Turkey.

So, I am not saying I will give them my housekey and I am also not saying reports about problems with them are not true.  I just want to point out that also they are not all the same.  Just like in any other population group you have the so-called good and bad apples.

Hi,

We are in Botevgrad.  It's 45mins from the airport.  2/3 hours away from the coast and 1/2 hours from skiing.  Gypsies under control from the local authorities!  Best of all worlds if you don't mind a bit of travelling??

We are in a village near Yambol ( great town! ) and it has virtually no gypsies, in fact, this was the owners deciding factor when he built his hotel Villa Trakia in Simeonovo - you can check it out on the internet! It is a thriving village, and he has given work to the locals, young and old alike, which I'm happy about. 😊