Hi from Bulgaria

[jenny2803]

Hi there to all expats around the globe,
My name is jenny and I live in Bulgaria have been there for over a year now and we love it.
look forward to chatting with new friends on here.

[skulamus]

Hi Jenny,
Hope you make some new friends on this site.

I would love to hear your experiences of moving to Bulgaria.
How long did it take? How difficult/easy was it?
I am considering various countries at the moment, but am interested in Bulgaria as well.

Love to hear more!

Karin

[jenny2803]

Hi there and thanks for your message, We also looked at a lot of other countries including Spain,Cyprus etc but decided that the cost of living and the price of property was far too expensive.

So we decided to look at Bulgaria as an option and found out that we could quite happily live on my hubbys fire brigade pension, we also own our house outright with no mortgage or loan etc,

House prices are cheap compared to other countries as well but obviously not the sam standard as some of the other European places.
Cost of living is fairly cheap for food etc but can be a little bit more on things like building materials but labour is cheap as well so one usually offsets the other.

We picked South East Bulgaria which tends to have long hot summers and short harsh winters we are in a rural location with lush green meadows and forests around us but still only 15 mins from a large town where all supplies can be bought and only 40 mins from the larger town of Yambol.
Burgas airport is just over an hour away which is great.
Bulgaria is moving with the times now and the infrastructure is getting better all the time, we think we moved at the right time for us and still believe that it's an up and coming country and definately one for investing your money into.
The banking system is strong and stable and is offering a whopping 10% on your savings, The leva is very strong at the moment at 2.26 for 1 gbp,

House prices can start as little as 10000 euros up to whatever you want really, the price for a new build excluding land is around the 49 euro per sq m so for a house of 100 sq m it will be 49.000 euros and that would be absolutely everything down to the colour of the tiles.
Electricity prices are .16 stotinkies per unit and gas is 90 stotinkies a ltr.
A 28 ltr bottle will cost you 68 leva to buy and then 20 leva to fill which lasts us 3 months.
Water is metered and is 1.34 per unit our average water bill is 20 leva a month whcih is under 10 quid.

If theres anything else I can help you with then please just shout.
Jenny

[daniellle]

can you see mountains from where you are?

[jenny2803]

Originally Posted by daniellle

can you see mountains from where you are?

Hi Danielle,
All around Bulgaria there are various mountains of different sizes. we stay not that far from the Stara Planina mountains.
The scenery is wonderful and the air is so clear.
When we first looked into Bulgaria I wanted to live in the mountains of Sliven area but decided that the practicality of that just wasn't feasable. You can easily get cut off by snow in the winter and they quite regularly do.
So we decided that we would live in a rural setting instead.
jenny