Quest Bulgaria - Property and Lifestyle

A new insurance helpline has been launched which removes language barriers for property owners abroad, including Bulgaria. With nine out of ten homeowners abroad unaware who to contact in an emergency, one of the UK’s largest holiday home insurers, Towergate Connect, has launched a helpline fronted by travel celebrity Jasmine Harman, to take the stress out of crises abroad. The new service, ‘Overseas Assist’, includes a Pass the Phone interpretation service and a 24-hour Domestic Emergency Helpline, enabling thousands of Brits to overcome the difficulties that language barriers and foreign procedures can cause in the event of an emergency, as well as everyday living.

Amidst the crisis, it is easy to miss the signals that the Bulgarian property market has pretty much reached bottom and we should be able to look forward improvement in 2010. This is because we are nearly all feeling the pinch and our pockets are not as full as they were and the pound to euro exchange rate is not helping those who rely on sterling for their income. Nonetheless, those who have bought Bulgarian property, or are seeking to become expats in Bulgaria, are usually buying a home for lifestyle reasons such as the incredibly low cost of living, lack of violence and better way of life.

How much does it cost to live in Bulgaria? Further to our most popular article, The Cost of Living 2008 , which has been read thousands and thousands of times since we published it in September of last year, we thought we would bring you an update on an basket of some items here in Bulgaria compared to those back in the UK, together with the real life monthly property and living costs of an expat couple living in the country on a permanent basis.

It has recently been reported by Holiday Rentals that Bulgaria is the best destination in Europe for a self catering holiday. Apart from cheap property rentals, the cost of living is staggeringly low and won't make a dent in your visitors' holiday cash. More good news is that almost a quarter of all overseas holidays are taken in privately owned properties and more than 70% of these are booked online.

Two thirds of expats feel that the economic situation in their new country of residence is better than in the UK. The figures released from Halifax International also reveal that one third of expats believe the value of their property abroad has remained the same since January last year.

If you have bought a property to rent out, then you do need to give careful consideration to contents insurance. There are a number of both local and international insurance companies in Bulgaria. The process of applying for insurance can seem more complex when compared to how it is dealt with in the UK. However, this is primarily because you will need to provide a more detailed account of the risk that you want to cover. Jonathan White author of “Buying a Property in Bulgaria” gives some valuable advice on tackling this issue.

‘Living the dream,’ the catchall for getting out of the UK rat race and emigrating to warmer climes is often a misnomer. Whilst expats to Bulgaria maintain that quality of life is certainly much improved by a move here, everyday reality soon returns once you have settled in and the country starts to feel like home. Most expats under retirement age have bills to pay and an income to earn, kids to enroll in school and medical issues to sort out, but one area that keeps getting pushed to the back of our minds, or worse still not even thought about is pension planning.

The global financial crisis has not affected Bulgarian households, according to a recent report which has been issued on the financial situation of Bulgarians during the last quarter of 2008. The survey is by Bulgaria's Industry Watch and comprises data from the Bulgarian National Bank, the National Statistics Institute and the Financial Supervisory Commission, together with information from mutual and volunteer pension funds.

If your dream is to start a new life in Bulgaria, but you feel you can’t get away because of the depressed UK housing market, or the fact that banks just aren’t lending like they used to then you need to consider a more creative way to buy your dream property in Bulgaria.  We all know that there is a shortage of buyers out there for our UK property but this does not mean there is no way out; many people are exploring the concept of house swaps.