Sell it before it's too late: Russians are worried about the fate of their property in Bulgaria

Russian owners of real estate in Bulgaria have found themselves in an extremely unpleasant situation. For the second year now, they cannot get into their houses and apartments - entry into this country is allowed only for those who have a residence permit - residence permit, permanent residence and permanent residence. According to official data, Russian citizens currently own about half a million (!) Real estate objects in this country. As a result, the so-called "summer cottages" stand unattended, and many of them are slowly being destroyed - especially for houses in Bulgarian villages.

As Marina Waltsifer writes in her channel:

“Unlike apartments in apartment buildings, a rural house with a plot, a garden and a vineyard requires constant care and supervision. And, if with a soundly renovated house (and for most of our "summer residents" they are just like that) for a year or even two, nothing critical should happen, then with plots and gardens the situation is much more sad. In the local climate, even a very well-groomed site is overgrown with weeds literally in a year, and not anyhow, but powerful and harmful. (...) And if the site is not dealt with for two seasons in a row, then the jungle is already formed there. It's only mid-April, and it's time to mow my site, the grass is knee-deep. This is despite the fact that spring is cold and late today..."

The fashion for buying real estate in Bulgaria began 20 years ago, in well-fed times, when the ruble exchange rate was high. At that time, many Russian citizens, who were not wealthy enough to buy houses and apartments, for example, in England, Germany or Spain, did so in traditionally friendly Bulgaria. Since then, however, the ruble has fallen almost threefold, and the flow of applicants began to dry up. But it turned out to be very difficult to sell the housing bought once...

In addition, the political situation has changed: Bulgaria, as you know, has joined NATO and the European Union, and now we have to forget about the former friendship. The latest events, when Bulgaria expelled Russian diplomats from the country, do not add optimism.

True, the attitude of Bulgarians towards Russians remains, if not warm, then quite cordial. Many are still grateful to Russia for helping to free themselves from the Turkish yoke, and Russians still make up a significant proportion of foreign tourists during the holiday season.

The Bulgarian blogger, author of the All About Bulgaria and Beyond Channel testifies:

“For a year now, the indignant owners of Bulgarian real estate have come to me (perhaps not only to me) and make claims against Bulgaria, which does not let them go to their“ summer cottages ”. I sincerely sympathize with these people, if they are not too aggressive and do not demand that I personally immediately put things in order. Someone is simply indignant, someone is sad, and someone is going to take revenge on the Bulgarians without paying taxes, someone has taken decisive action. Namely, he began to write letters everywhere and everywhere describing the problems of Russian owners of Bulgarian real estate and asking for help in solving these problems..."

It seems that the ice is about to break. On April 17, the Bulgarian media reported that the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria are jointly seeking permission for property owners to enter the country, of course, subject to anti-epidemic measures for owners of both resort and rural real estate.

And in the Bulgarian media, a collective petition of Russian owners for permission to enter Bulgaria is already circulating, and many Bulgarians support it. So there is still a chance that owners will be allowed to enter. True, there is no talk of ordinary Russian tourists who want to relax in the Bulgarian resorts.

True, the analyst warns that although the Bulgarian government has nothing specifically against Russian property owners, it simply does not think about them, since Bulgaria has many much more pressing problems:

“The decision to send a petition personally seems to me the right one. Another question is that I am not too optimistic about this, and I doubt that this step will be really effective. On the other hand, timid silence is even less effective, but here at least there is a chance. It cannot be said that the wave has risen large, but there are still some movements..."