To buy or not to buy a property in Bulgaria

As I wrote in one of my recent articles, it is all about marketing.

One day, I woke up in the morning thinking about washing powder. The funny thing was that we were out of washing powder so we were in need of fresh supplies

Let me tell you, I never ever bought washing powder by myself, that’s my wife’s job. She chooses it, I tow it home.

For once, just for this once I went by myself to the Mall and among other things I bought washing powder too.

I brought it home, and later when my wife arrived, I told her about my adventure. She was happy but she was afraid I didn’t buy the right brand.

You won’t believe it, the brand I bought it wasn’t the one she usually uses but none the less she was glad because she said she always wanted to try this new washing powder brand.

Strange, my wife and I agreed on something for once :) (Kidding)

So, few days passed by, nobody was thinking about the washing powder anylonger, when suddenly, one day I was watching through the window at the cranes (across my flat they were building a residential complex). I couldn’t believe my eyes when I realized that on that cranes that stood there for months, there were huge banners advertising that particular washing powder brand.

They got me again

Now, let’s go back to the title of my article: to buy or not to buy a property in Bulgaria.

It is well known that Bulgaria is a very popular destination among the Westerners. They invested in the Bulgarian real estate in far more numbers than in any other South East European country.

As a matter of fact from 2005 Bulgaria, is the third favorite destinations for the British, thanks to massive advertising, especially via Channel 4 program “A place in the Sun”.

Forgive me, but I haven’t seen much sun in Bulgaria, except 1 month or 2 in the summer.

Doesn’t matter though, out of the blue a massive advertising campaign started in The British Isle around the year 2004-2005 if I’m not mistaken.

Bulgaria on television, Bulgaria in the newspapers, even Bulgaria in the tube (subway), banners everywhere. To tell you the truth, (no offense to the wonderful Bulgaria) I got intoxicated with Bulgaria.

As a matter fact I left UK just to get away from Bulgaria. (Kidding again)

No wonder, one of the favorite destinations of the British was….guess….yap…Bulgaria.

As a coincidence, I know Bulgaria; I’ve been there for over 20 times, first time when I was only 9 years old; an ex communist country where the corruption is as huge as In Romania, but compared to the Romanians, they knew how to sell the only valuable thing they possessed: the beauty of the country, nothing more. They have mountains and they have the Black Sea, so through aggressive marketing they attracted foreigners, happy to buy for a few dollars a collapsing house, or a plot of land which nobody wanted it.

The average westerner bought nothing more than rubbles, after which they invested in refurbishing more than they paid for the property itself.

You will wonder why the Bulgarians sold their own houses to the enthusiast westerners, for little money. Because with that money they could run away from the deserted places where no Bulgarian wanted to live, and migrated to the small cities or other places where they could build another house for that money and still have a profit.

I’m not talking here about the big investment companies but about the average real estate investor.

Once Bulgaria became popular, hundreds of new residential buildings were built, especially at the sea and in the mountains. Foreigners started to buy off plan properties and so Bulgaria was flooded with investors.

And they kept on building; they are still building as we speak

Guess what, last summer, many of the hotels from the touristic locations especially at the sea, were almost empty. Do you know why?  Because they won’t stop building

Run a search on Google for “Bulgarian property” “Bulgarian real estate” or whatever related to the real estate in Bulgaria and you will see hundreds and hundreds of competing real estate companies selling sometimes the same property. Many of the websites are .co.uk (surprise)

If the property in Bulgaria is such a good investment, why so much advertising?

I learned along the years that an over advertised item is a hard to sell one or the marketer has huge success in selling that item, and he keeps on advertising, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the item is high quality, it just sells.

So: to buy or not to buy a property in Bulgaria?

In my next article, I’ll provide you with facts, and I’ll let you answer the above question for me.