What to buy in PLOVDIV

John Lindley, Bulgarian Properties, Plovdiv office, 5th January, 2006

What to buy in Plovdiv

Which type of property you wish to purchase depends on what type of person you are, your interests, the size of your family, available travel networks and most importantly your budget. Here in Plovdiv these decisions are fairly easy to make. This town and the surrounding areas cater for almost everybody from a single person to a large extended family.

Recent research on people buying a property in Bulgaria have found that people fall broadly into three groups. The first group are those that like town life and everything that is in it – restaurants, museums, shops, nightlife, cinemas, theatres and parks. These people tend to buy one and two bedroomed flats. Within this group are the ones that also gravitate towards the beach resorts or the ski resorts to indulge in sports and recreation. The second group are the ones that tend to prefer rural village life and wish to escape for a while into a country style setting and who prefer quiter pursuits like fishing, hiking,cycling and visiting places of interest, like monastries, to name but a few. As well as providing relaxation for singles and couples they also provide a holiday atmosphere for the larger extended families. The last group are the investors who see Bulgarian property as a long term investment and wish to let their property out during certain times of the year.

Travel networks – planes, trains cars, coaches, buses and taxis - are important when deciding on where to purchase a property. Property owners that have purchased flats and houses on the coast have a good travel network and are also close to an airport. For instance those that spend time in Sunny beach have Burgas airport. Similarly those people who go to the ski resorts have Sofia airport close at hand. However flights to and from Bourgas at the end of the summer season end with most of the major tour operators and it is a similar story with the end of the winter season, for instance Thomas Cook end their flights to Sofia around spring time. Those that have properties in the ski and beach resorts also have a limited rental period.

Not so with Plovdiv. There is something going on all through the year and if you wish to let your property you do not have to rely on what season you are in. Also Plovdiv has a very good travel network plenty of taxis, buses and coaches all the year round. It is also only two hours by coach fom Sofia airport and only four hours by coach from Bourgas airport. Plovdiv also has a regional airport that is expanding and has recently embarked on a regular service to Manchester with other routes no doubt planned for the future. A word of caution though. Do not go on the trains they are old, decrepid and dirty and that is being kind. Having said that there is a program to replace the existing network within the next couple of years, just in time for when Bulgaria enters European Union.

If you want to buy a property in Plovdiv 30 000 euros will get you a reasonable sized flat in the town but if you want a quite retreat in one of the surrounding villages a small house can cost as little as 12 000 euros and some that need repairs can cost even less than this.

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