Foreign Buyers Looking for Cheap Rural House Deals in Bulgaria

In the last few months we are witnessing an increased interest from foreigners in properties in villages in Bulgaria. The main reason for that are the lower prices of rural houses – they fell by almost 50% since the beginning of the credit crunch. However, renovated and well furnished houses with a nice view cost a lot more. Potential foreign buyers are also very interested in such houses but deals are not concluded often. At present English buyers are still selling the rural houses they bought some years ago but few of them give a realistic asking price and that is why almost no deals are concluded.

The increased interest in Bulgarian rural properties is the result of the foreigners’ curiosity which on its part results from the low prices and the hope of finding something of good value for little money. Russian buyers also continue to be interested in such properties although their budget is low – they look for houses between 30,000 and 40,000 Euro.

According to the data of real estate agency BULGARIAN PROPERTIES this summer we didn’t witness big fluctuations in the average price of sold rural houses and it was about 16,200 Euro. In the first quarter of 2011 the average price was 17,200 Euro which makes about a 6% decrease. Since the beginning of the year the most popular regions for rural house deals were in Central Bulgaria – around the towns of Plovdiv and Stara Zagora, as well as in Veliko Tarnovo where many Bulgarians are also interested in buying a house. The preferred rural houses are priced up to 15,000 Euro and those which are in a very good condition and ready to live in – priced between 25,000 and 40,000 Euro. According to BULGARIAN PROPERTIES experts now there is a great choice of cheap and uninhabitable properties compared to some years ago, as well as of such that are fully finished, furnished and ready to live in. Actually, some years ago there wasn’t that much of a choice when it came to rural properties. Now buyers can choose to buy a cheap property and renovate it or to spend more money and buy one of a higher quality.

The main buyers of such houses are Russians and the sellers are mainly Brits and this makes the rural house sector similar to that of beach holiday home. Many British owners are selling their properties at a loss after they have been offering them at higher prices in the last couple of years without a result.

Russians look for houses close to the city

“Russians look for information for purchasing rural houses that are ready to live in”, comments Polina Stoykova, Chief Operations Manager of BULGARIAN PROPERTIES. “They prefer villages and small towns close to the cities so as to have easier access to restaurants and big shopping centers. Bulgarians who invest in rural properties look for the same things. The biggest difference from the Brits is that they were looking for solitude at the outskirts of smaller villages”, says Ms Stoykova. However, according to her at present not many foreigners are interested in rural houses in Bulgaria. There are deals but they are few.

“Bulgarian buyers look for houses either close to the city they live in or in remote and more tranquil areas”, adds Polina Stoykova. “They are ready to pay no more than 10,000 to 15,000 Euro for houses that can be lived in. There are already resale deals of renovated houses from Brits as Brits most often resale their properties to Bulgarians. Actually, the trend we have been witnessing with the holiday homes – Brits selling their properties, has reached the rural home sector as well.” According to Ms Stoykova the biggest interest is in rural properties in the central part of the country and 30-40 km from the sea. Foreigners are not very interested in houses close to Sofia as prices of rural properties there are higher.

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