St Vlas Square and Marina

Well, Ros and her mum made it back in one piece. By all accounts they had a 'relaxing' time, mainly due to it being the start of the season and little really being open. The main updates are that the St Vlas square has been refurbished and is now a bit more friendly and attractive. The Dinevi Marina, which is one of the main attractions, is almost complete, with a selection of shops and bars opening by the day. We did find out that a new complex (Bells 3) is being built on the land that was vacant in front of us, it remains to be seen whether this will impact us too much, but the plans look like it's an attractive complex with a design that will complement the area. Photos are on Bulgaria Photos.

I work, she plays

We've just booked flights for Ros to go out to St Vlas with her mum next Saturday to check things out at Bells 2 and get a little break. The weather looks pretty good at the moment, hitting the 30's during the day!
The flights were pretty decently priced, I've been watching them for a while using the site I built and waited till they were under 200 quid each, and they ended up well under that.
I've armed her with a camera and instructions to take photos of everything so I can update the photo gallery and map with a bundle more snaps.
She can also take photos of the new complexes that are being built and get a feel for their locations and look. If anyone's interested in some advice/opinions on the new locations, give me a shout using this

St Vlas, maps, apartments and holidays

Wow, it's been a quick year (well, almost).

Most of the apartment stuff is dealt with, I stayed for two weeks last year, and my parents went over with my sister and child for a couple of weeks in August. The good news is that the apartment is great, very roomy and the spare toilet comes in handy if you go out with Robin Barrasford the night before (yeah, I blame the chicken).

On the whole it's been a pretty painless experience, pretty much all of the Barrasford and Bird staff are as helpful as they can be, though you need to make allowances for the Bulgarian work ethos, which I haven't really discovered just yet.

I've put together a website for apartment rental which shows the apartment and a number of photos of the area that I thought were nice. I plan on being over there a few times this year, so the availability is quite sketchy. Of course, customers come first...

I've also put together another couple of websites. One to track the flight prices from the UK to Bulgaria (Watch Flights). One to allow owners/visitors to share local knowledge by adding them onto a map of the area (Bulgaria, Vlas map), and I've moved from Flickr to my own website for hosting photos, just to save the membership fee they charge (Bulgaria Photos).

I'll be updating all the information as I get it this year - the marina is coming along nicely, the amphitheatre is about finished, Vlas square has been revamped and there will be a number of new complexes. It'll be exciting to see how it all fits together.

Completion Trip Begins

Although the contract had stipulated at completion date for the Bells 2 complex as the 15th May, there would be a six week period after this for the furnishing to be put in. To be on the safe side, I'd booked flights directly from Glasgow to Bourgas for the 18th July. This seemed prudent, and to make sure I got the flights I booked them a good few months in advance. Unfortunately this meant that I had to pay through the nose for them, which only became clear a few weeks before we were due to leave when the flights came down to half the price I'd paid. Fortunately Barrasford and Bird had arranged transport from Bourgas airport to St Vlas, so that was one less thing to worry about.
A couple of weeks before we left, we got a message from Barrasford and Bird saying our apartment may not be furnished in time due to the St Vlas company that was doing it being a bit snowed under in the area. The message did include the comforting note that Barrasford and Bird would provide accomodation at their expense if the work wasn't done, a nice touch. We were also given some priority since we'd already booked our flights to Bulgaria.
On the Friday before we were due to leave, Barrasford and Bird phoned and told me that most of the work had been done, but a few minor things were outstanding. I, of course, asked for the details and it turned out to be things like an iron, which wasn't a big deal at all. The only thing that bothered me was curtains, and they'd fitted a temporary set to ensure we had some privacy.
We flew out on the Tuesday afternoon with Thomson Fly, which was pretty painless. The flight took just over 3 hours, and we'd been expecting closer to 4, so that was a bonus. The taxi was waiting for us as we got through customs and we were at St Vlas within the hour. It only took 20 minutes to track down someone with a key, and there we were, standing inside our first Bulgarian apartment.

Banks and Couches

After the purchase the contracts arrive. Bulgarian contracts seem to be somewhat brief, not anywhere near the same level of detail you would expect from a British property purchase. There were a couple of pages of reasonably translated Bulgarian, with clauses that seemed to be quite weak and, in some cases, looked unenforceable. The only real concern I had was that the contract had changed in it's content for some key areas from the one I'd seen in Bulgaria. There was a 10% penalty to the builder if the St Vlas build overran, which seemed to have been removed in the final draft. I'd been in St Vlas in January anyway, and had seen the progress for myself, so didn't have too much concern in this regard.
I started looking at furnishing at this point. Although Barrasford and Bird offered a complete deal, which involved a local company (local in Bulgaria, obviously!) who would do everything from the kitchen to the last teaspoon. I'd wanted to shop around a bit though, so I looked at various companies in Varna, Bourgas, Sunny Beach and St Vlas but, short of going out to Bulgaria for a couple of weeks, it proved difficult to source the right material for a beach apartment rental at a better cost. I ended up getting package from Barrasford and Bird, which was fine quality for a breach holiday rental, and upgraded to things like washing machine and coffee maker just to give a more luxurious rental to stand out from the normal package holiday. I'll find out over the next year or two's rentals whether it was worthwhile or not.
While doing this, I had to figure out how the payments were actually made. I appears that this particular builder, while Bulgarian, required payments in Euros. This makes it a little easier to organise since there are a number of companies that deal with this. I used a company called MoneyCorp, who seemed to be just the same as any other number of companies, so I won't recommend them or not. The only strange thing was that the ask questions about the money such as "What is the money for?". I, of course, answer "To buy property in Bulgaria". They then ask 'Where did the money come from?". I, of course, answer "The bank". I assume this is to meet money laundering regulations in the UK, but it did seem like a pointless exercise to me.
So, that was Bulgarian currency sorted out, transferring money to Bulgaria, buying furniture in Bulgaria, all without having to actually travelling to Bulgaria.
I suppose it was only when Barrasford and Bird told me that the furnishing company were going to let them down it became an issue...

Barrasford and Bird

Barrasford and Bird are a UK based agent, who have the exclusive rights to sell the Dinevi & Co properties in the UK. I talked with the sales team, Helen in particular, who offered their own advice in which apartments, which complex, which area to invest in. Some comfort was had by their putting their money where their mouths were - Helen herself had bought in the Bells 2 complex. I was looking to spread the risk by buying two apartments in differing areas, which Helen suggested would be appropriate for increasing rental yields as well. I'd actually decided on an apartment on the Friday, but hadn't actually reserved it. On the Monday, it was gone and I settled for another one (Directly below the one I'd initially chosen, if I remember correctly). So, I'd bought my first foreign property then, apartment 6 on the right. Not much to look at right now, but I used my imagination.

I sent off the £500 deposit, and started making arrangements to go over and see the site for myself before commiting to the purchase fully, with the knowledge that I could switch to a different apartment, even in a different complex once I'd seen them in person.

I flew over in January, to an airport called Varna, which is a couple of hours north of Sveti Vlas. A couple of the agents representatives from the agent met me at the airport and drove down to the hotel in Bourgas where I was to stay for a couple of nights. The weather was pretty cold, and there was a lot of snow around. We traversed the mountain passes at pretty high speed and made good time to the hotel. I, of course, was a little nervous, but it was dark, so I couldn't see just how far we would have fallen if we'd went over the edge.
In the morning, I was taken to the site of Bells 2, with a tour around the area and into the office to look at more plans. I'd pretty much decided by that point to go ahead with the purchase, the area seemed nice, the apartment seemed to have a good location and aspect, and I imagined if I was enjoying being there when it was -5 and a building site, people would enjoy it when it was 30 and landscaped.

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...