can i ask somebody who is reading this to let me know if i did buy it would i be able to sell it again ...............would some please inform me before i make the biggest mistake of my life.
Gerry
Will you be able to sell it again? No, unless at a substantial discount on what you paid. If you keep it a year or so until the inevitable crash, you are looking at at losing around half your money.
Biggest mistake of your life? Hard to say, have you followed the crowd before into similar sirtuations? Did you buy loads of Eircom shares maybe, or did you fall for "women empowering women"? Do you send money to Nigerian scammers? It will certainly be up there with some of your worst mistakes for sure.
Can I again spell out the whole Bulgarian thing for anyone thinking of putting their hard-earned cash into this nonsense?
Firstly, all the coastal and ski property is being offered at a multiple of the local market value. I have seen such extremes as apartments valued locally at 40k being sold to Irish buyers at three times that amount.
Secondly, the prices include some of the highest commissions in the industry, up to 15% in some cases. In other words, even if the property was worth the asking price, you have an immediate setback of 15% if you were to sell it on on the same day you bought it.
Thirdly, most of this stuff is pushed on people with the promise of a guaranteed rental, usually of 5% for 2 years. No such rental market exists. If it did, given the 10 week season, the returns would have to be in excess of 25% per annum pro rata. Not in the real world! The "guaranteed rental" is created by adding the cost on to the price; this was done in the past in some other places, including Hungary in a limited way, but has been brought to an art form in Bulgaria -- because it works! Greed will sucker in the amateur buyer every time, regardless of the advice that I or others give; there are people reading this who will still be suckered by a fast talking salesman in Bulgaria, but if it helps one person...
The "guaranteed rent" will usually be paid ok; you will be given back your 5% p.a for 2 years, your own money back but minues a handling fee, and you will be liable for income tax on it -- some "investment"! At the end of the 2 year period you will suddenly be wondering why the rent has dried up. This won't be too bad if you didn't also swallow the line peddled by many salesmen, that "the rent will pay the mortgage". A surprising number of Irish buyers have fallen for this line, and from PMs to me I am shocked at how many otherwise sane people have taken this advice from salesmen chasing these huge commissions, and have bought multiple units on borrowed money.
The big problem in Bulgaria is what happens when the big glut of "guaranteed rental" dries up. The bulk of projects sold in the recent past have yet to be completed or are only now being completed, so the effect of this implosion will not be felt for a couple of years. Anyone who is stuck in this mess now should get out with as much as they can. Throwing good money after bad, i.e. completing on a property where only a small deposit of 5 or 10k has been paid, is probably not a good idea.
