Such simple things as buying property in Bulgaria, vacation and residence in this country, sometimes become overgrown with overwhelming myths and misconceptions. We are presenting to your attention some of the latest and most popular.
Myth 1:
When buying the real estate in Bulgaria you can immediately obtain a residence permit
No, it's not true. When buying a house or apartment, any residential property, the owner can receive a long-term Bulgarian multivisa for 1 year with the right to stay up to 90 days in each half of the year. Similar visa support for property owners actually operates in many European countries.
For obtaining a visa, in addition to a passport, the health insurance and photographs, the document confirming the ownership of an apartment or house (title deed), and the receipt for payment of the annual property tax (usually taken in the community for the payment of this tax) as well must be submitted to the Bulgarian visa center.
However, those people who want to live in Bulgaria permanently or at least more than 90 days in a half of the year try to obtain residence permit. For this purpose there are several grounds provides in the Aliens Act, the most accessible of them is the status of the pensioner. Simply put, any Russian pensioner, who is also the owner of the Bulgarian property in Bulgaria, can receive a residence permit.To do this, however, you need to collect a hefty package of documents, and then apply to the Bulgarian consulate; moreover, the process of registration and obtaining a residence permit will take several months. But if the ultimate goal is getting the status, that allows you to leave Russia forever, the game is definitely worth the candle.
During the first five years of such a residence permit you will need to renew it every year in the Service of Migration in the Police Department at the location of the real estate. After five years of permanent residence by right temporary residence permit you can obtain a permanent residence permit.
But the annual preparation of the necessary documents for the extension is worth around €150 (including mandatory medical insurance) and the state duty for obtaining each annual permit to stay in the country costs €250. Therefore, if we are still talking about the periodic visit to the country, it would be much easier and even cheaper just to obtain a multivisa.
Myth 2:
A foreigner cannot buy a house in Bulgaria, but can only rent a property
The aforementioned statement is unfaithful. The procedure of buying a property in Bulgaria is the same as in most countries of the European Union: you need only a passport and money for the transaction. But these terms are valid when you plan to purchase an apartment. In case if you want to implement a purchase and sale transaction of rural home, then you must register a legal entity because a plot of land on which stands the house, cannotbe registered into the ownership of an individual who is not a citizen of the EU. A house without the land, of course, is not available for sale.
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"The purchase of a house with a plot of land in Bulgaria is a simple and organized mechanism"
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A legal entity, to put it simply, a Bulgarian company, which can be establish by any Russian citizen or a group of citizens,will registered by a Bulgarian lawyer before the transaction. The cost of the lawyer’s services with the state fee for registration varies from €300 to €500. For this purpose, again, you need only a passport and one or two weeks for the processing. It's perfectly normal, simple and organized algorithm that is always applicable when buying rural houses in Bulgaria.
Subsequently registered firm may engage in commercial activities, of course, if the owner will come up with an appropriate business idea. Actually it is not that mandatory, the company is allowed not to conduct business, - Bulgarian legislation authorizes the existence of such firms,which give when submitting tax reporting zero balances, for an arbitrarily long time.
Myth 3:
The property in Bulgaria is very cheap
This is not entirely true. Indeed, considering the high density of development in many regions of the country, especially along the coast, in Bulgaria, you can buy quite cheap houses and apartments. But we should understand that qualitative and conveniently locatedproperty costscertain amount of money, although, of course, in any case, it will be cheaper than in most regions of Russia.
For example, you can purchase an apartment on the seashore for €17-25 thousand, but you do not have to suppose that in this case you will be able to choose meticulously between the first, second or even third coastline. No, it will be a small studio apartment in the complex, which is quite far removed from the waterside, for instance, 3 km from the sea. There are such options of apartments in Sunny Beach. If you need a comfortable one bedroom apartment overlooking the sea for summer family accommodation, the budget for such a purchase will varyfrom €40 thousand.
Myth 4:
Property in Bulgaria can be conveniently rented out for the purpose ofmaking profits
This is not true. The resort real estate in Bulgaria has no longer being considered as a source of income away back. Market of seasonal offers for rentals of real estate on the Black Sea in recent years is oversaturated, and the beach season in Bulgaria is only about 3 months. Maintenance, depreciation, labor costs in the process of finding customers will "eat" all the possible profit.
Partially we can talk about the advisability of renting out the apartments in major cities for a long time, but not always and only under certain conditions. The most important thing is that you should notsave money on the purchase of the apartment bought for the rental. Cheaper options are not rented out.
Myth 5:
Property in Bulgaria can be purchased through the Internet relying on the photographs of real estate
No, no and no again. Those timesare gone long ago, when it made sense to make a deposit directly at the exhibition, because otherwise the desired apartment tomorrow would bealready bought by someone else, or would rise in price by 20%. Moreover, when buying a property prior to 2008, it was actually nothing tolook at the place, where the property was located, because the overwhelming number of options have being sold in the early stages of the construction, and the finished housing was veritably in short supply.
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"Before purchasing a property you should come and look around: what type of district, what kind of neighbors, how far is the apartment from the sea"
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Currently Bulgaria is a market of finished apartments, and each of them has its own pluses and minuses, obvious and hidden. Therefore, it is necessary to come to Bulgaria before purchasing in order to evaluate the object, which you plan to buy, howitactually looks and how much the real object coincides with the descriptions and the photos on the website.
Now we are talking not just about how the object looks like itself, but mostly about what is going on around. What is the actual distance to the sea, who are the neighbors, whether there is near landfills or Romany Mahalia (Bulgarian: "block", "neighborhood"), whether another complex is located too close to the apartment, so that even the windows of neighboring buildings would be back to back, whether declared infrastructure works properly.
And if we are talking about the purchase of non-standard option – not a regular apartment in the complex, but the usual city apartment for a permanent residence, moreover, on the secondary market, or especially when buying a rural home, then under any circumstances you should not implement any transaction or even sign a preliminary contract, before you will have a chance to look at the object by your own eyes. Here the most important point is not even the actual facade of the object in the picture and in reality, but precisely the object’s environment and atmosphere of the selected area.
Text: Julia Lozovskaya, exclusively for ee24.com