Why St Vlas?

Sveti Vlas, as it's known locally, is a small coastal village on the Black Sea. It's a couple of miles round the coast from Sunny Beach, which is probably the biggest coastal tourist development area in Bulgaria. The village of St Vlas is a more established, traditional area, with exclusive complexes being built for the more discerning visitor. Around the other side of the bay is Old Nessebar, which is a historical area with fantastic buildings and structures. I know, it sounds like an advert, but to buy there, I have to like it, right?
The area is being revamped by the builders Dinevi & Co. They're building a number of exclusive resorts, and decided to deliver some of the infrastructure to support this, which include an ampitheatre with shops, children's play area and piano bar.



The biggest change they're making, however, is the building of a new marina. While still a work in progress, there's already signs that this will be an impressive area which can only raise the profile of the village as a whole.
The natural surroundings of St Vlas, surrounded by mountains as it is, and the Black Sea on the other side, will limit the amount of growth through building, and will serve to maintain the overall exlusive feel of the resort.

St Vlas has been in existence since the second century, though it was only named Sveti Vlas around the 14th Century. The feel of the village has been maintained, with relaxing little bars and shops and a village square which maintains it's local feel.

Why Bulgaria?

Why did I choose Bulgaria to invest in?

My main motivation for investing in property was to generate long-term capital gain. This isn't exactly unusual I suppose, but not being an expert, I had to do a bit of research into whether to go down the route of buying locally, or going for a more primitive market.

Bulgaria is in the process of changing from the old communist country to a fully fledged member of the EU community, with all the advantages (and disadvantages) that this entails. If the entry goes ahead in January 2007, then this should boost the country as a whole, and the protection that the EU body provides for an investor should mean even more people identifying the country as a valid investment market. If this doesn't happen, the EU have committed to a January 2008 timescale at the latest, and would need to lose a lot of political credence if they were to delay beyond this time.

So, it would appear to be a relatively safe bet, with a lot more protection than investing in some of the other 'hotspots' around the world.

I did look at a few more places, like Poland and Romania, but Bulgaria seemed to come up trumps in terms of safe(ish) investment, potential growth and is, in fact, a lovely country steeped in Eastern European history, which should be a draw to the kind of holiday maker that wants a change from the Costa Del Sol or the south of France. (Not to knock those places, but a change is as good as a rest, right?)

I did do a bit of searching - on google of course, which found a bundle of other reasons that are probably a bit more scientific.

A taster

I've bought in a complex called Bells 2. This is the second phase on the Bells complex, and is a small complex consisting of 28 apartments.

I bought a south-facing apartment, on the ground level overlooking the sea, the first thing to do is show off the view.

Introduction

I'm in the progress of buying a property (2-bedroom apartment) in St Vlas (Sveti Vlas, in Bulgaria).

Just up the road from Sunny Beach, this is an exclusive area with a traditional village being sensitively merged with a number of luxurious complexes, which are linked together to result in a wide range of facilities, restaurants, private beach and wonderful views over to the ancient city of nessebar.

I'll try here to give updates on the progress of the build and give some details on the buying process in Bulgaria - perhaps even find out whether I can rent the thing out once it's done...