SELLING YOUR PROPERTY

We have no direct experience of this yet, although we do have a rough exit plan in mind. We will probably sell all of our Bulgarian properties over a five year period, staggering them in order to reduce capital gains tax by utilising our annual capital gains tax allowance.

We are looking to see what effect the EU entry in January has on prices next year. Google trends showed an immediate upward surge of interest when EU accession was announced. We are expecting prices after that to slow down a little as people begin to take profits.

We are working on the basis that in Sofia at least, with increasing investment into the country as a result of EU membership, there will be a steady increase in wealth of the local population and therefore a desire on their part to move to better housing. As a result we do not believe the price of accommodation is going to go down. However this is purely our opinion and we may be wrong, but we hope not.

Our apartments in the Sofia complex are aimed at young professionals local or from overseas. We are not so naïve that we believe we are going to double our investment overnight and it has been suggested since launching this website that we could have done better by investing elsewhere other than Bulgaria. That may be the case, there are constantly emerging investment opportunities as we have discovered in our learning process over the last two years. We committed to Bulgaria in 2005 and therefore bought at prices prevailing early on in 2005. On paper, we have seen gains. It is only when we try to sell will we discover if those gains can be translated into real gains or will remain merely paper gains. We have not tried to sell our properties before completion or 'flip' them as it is known. That wasn't our plan. We are in the market for 3 to 5 years. If we feel that within that time we have made a reasonable profit, not necessarily double, then we may sell.

Our purchases on the coast at St.Vlas was a difficult one, we felt in 2005 that the market was becoming saturated on the coast. therefore instead of buying 1 bedroom off-plan apartments we decided to purchase only 2 studio apartments in a prestigious complex. It may be the case that ultimately we will sell our other investments in the country and keep these at St.Vlas for our own use if we are unable to achieve worthwhile gains in the medium term.

There is no established resale market in Bulgaria yet, so it is still a bit of a gamble, but we are quietly confident.

Page last updated: 20th January 2007