A small Bulgarian village, where goats wander
the streets, guided by an elderly woman dressed in black, may be an unlikely
place to buy a retirement home; but a growing band of British couples
are doing just that.
The choice of Kosharitsa as a retirement haven has a good explanation. Most package
tourists do not make it further than Sunny Beach, Bulgaria’s huge resort
by the Black Sea. For those looking for a permanent foothold and respite from
the crowds, however, Kosharitsa is pretty, unspoilt and just a few kilometres
inland.
Yvonne and Stephen Kent, 52 and 50, pitched up in Bulgaria in 2003, having dismissed
France, Italy and Spain as retirement choices. “They were too built-up
and commercialised. Bulgaria was lovely, and, although there are a lot more people
here now, we still think it’s great,” Yvonne said. The couple went
house-hunting, and last year sold their three-bedroom bungalow in Rock, Cornwall,
and moved to Kosharitsa, buying a newly built two-bedroom house with three bathrooms
for a mere £34,000; it has a walled garden big enough for a pool and a
barbecue terrace is to be built. Yvonne added, “If we'd been thinking of
an investment, we chose the right time to buy, because the house is now probably
worth three times as much; but we think of it as our home, and plan to stay here
rather than take the profits. We're both learning Bulgarian, which must be one
of the hardest languages. We can say ‘hello’, and
ask simple questions.
“In this village alone, there are five retired British couples who live here full time, and a lot more who spend half the year here and half back in Britain. There is talk of forming an expats’ club, but we probably won’t bother. We want to mix with the Bulgarians, and become part of their community, rather than stay in an English set.”
| The Kents’ decision to abandon Britain — even though they lived in what many Britons would regard as a perfect retirement spot on the Cornish coast — was driven by a liking for the Bulgarian way of life. They admire the family-centred style and the Bulgarians’ warmth and moral standards; but at first they found it strange adapting to cultural differences. “When you hear people speaking, they sound gruff, abrupt, and they do shout a lot, but then you find that it’s just their way, and they aren’t really arguing. If you ask for directions, they go out of their way to help, and couldn’t be kinder,” Yvonne explains. The couple now have Bulgarian friends who help them out in emergencies. “We paid our electricity bill twice by mistake, and didn’t have enough of the language to sort it out ourselves,” Yvonne says. Because rural parts of Bulgaria have, so far, not been invaded by coachloads of tourists, the couple still attract quite some attention when they visit remote villages. |
A big attraction for Britons is the cost of living in Bulgaria. Yvonne's and Stephen’s monthly water bill is only £1.50, and electricity costs between £10 and £15 a month. A good bottle of wine costs £1, a beer 20p, and a slap-up meal for two, even in a tourist resort, less than £10. Groceries are also cheap — not to say free in the summer months, when Bulgarian neighbours with market gardens and orchards call to share their tomatoes, apples, pears and vegetables. All the Kents miss about Britain is bacon, friends and family. Their days are spent doing DIY — Stephen was a builder in Britain — and walking in the beautiful countryside, where a huge variety of birds can be spotted, and even, occasionally, wild boar. It is also rumoured that bears still exist in remote areas.
Mike and Margaret Mellor have also retired to Kosharitsa, in an attempt to stretch the small pension that Mike receives from British Steel, for which he worked as a joiner in Teesside. Rather than buy a ready-built house, they asked a Bulgarian who befriended them to put one up to their plans. Incredible though it may seem to those with a less trusting nature, their faith in their new friend was amply repaid, with a fine three-storey detached four-bed house, with a sun terrace on the first floor and a verandah upstairs. The deal, including central heating and a good finish — neither normally supplied as standard by Bulgarian builders — cost £60,000.
Mike said, “We could have stayed in England, but we would've had to penny-pinch. Here the same pension allows us to live very well. The people are friendly, and go out of their way to help. They invite you in for drinks, and arrive with trays of grapes, tomatoes and red wine after the harvest. If you’re not careful you can be tipsy by teatime every day. We were lucky with our builder, although you do hear horror stories of people building half a house, taking the money and running.”
Like their friends the Kents, the Mellors are learning Bulgarian and intend to stay for the long term. Margaret says that she has already picked her burial spot. To those who predict that most Bulgarian retirees will return to Britain sadder and wiser once old age sets in, Margaret replies that they have already encountered one emergency, and survived. When Mike went down with food poisoning, a consultation with a doctor was arranged quickly and easily. That and the cost of medication amounted to £3.50.
Amar Sodhi, from Avatar International estate agents and consultants, said, “Probably a thousand or so Britons are now buying in Bulgaria each year, but most are investors and holiday-home owners, rather than people planning to retire. The cost of living is very low. If Bulgaria joins the EU, prices will rise, but, if locals are still earning the same wages, it'll remain comparatively cheap.
“It's a better plan to retire to a city or village, rather than
a resort, because at the end of October resorts become ghost towns. Prices
are also cheaper in places where local people shop. In resorts there's
sometimes two-tier pricing — for the locals and for tourists; Because
rents are high, restaurants and bars have to do this. My tip to those
thinking of retiring is to look to the new ski resorts, set in beautiful
scenery, where it's a lot cooler in the summer months, but where there's
something going on all year round.”
Full details about the ‘Super Borovets’ project, price madness
in Bansko, golf developments in Bulgaria, and new apartments in Bansko and
Borovets can be seen at the Bulgaria Properties Ltd web site www.BulgariaProperties.net.
You can e-mail questions to advice@BulgariaProperties.net,
or, if you have no Internet connection, call the company (in UK) at 0871 226
2296 to order a free 30-page hand-out, or just for a chat, if you prefer. They
always have time for you.
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