I'm looking to invest in property abroad. I have heard that Bulgaria is an up and coming place. Property over there seems to be extremely cheap,you can pick up a 2 bed house/cottage for less than £10k! Do you think that if i were to buy property there, i would make any real money?? Apparantly now is the time to buy at such a low price, do you think it's worth my while.
Hunnipie - Not sure if it's an up and coming place, maybe a few years back but not now.
You just have to ask yourself a simple question - why would someone rent my apartment (rather than all the 1000s of others). I believe it is still a huge building site. Go to one of the expos and you'll see dozens of developments on-sale. Also heard that the 4% guaranteed income, is the interest that is made from depositing your money in a high intest account. As fws mentions, promises of property price increse is only ture if there is someone there to buy your property and so there needs to be a demand (and not just off-plan).
think carefully - ask yourself the obvious questions, then decide.
You need to be very clear about just why you are investing abroad, and what you want from your purchase. If it's just a simple return-on-investment and you never plan to use the place, then as has been suggested, you need to compare this to returns on all other financial instruments. Remember that in the 12 months prior June 2006 buying gold would have got you 29% (UK tax-free) ROI; many equities hit 20%-30%; even Premium Bonds statisticaly hit about 5.5% ROI (and you can never lose your money); etc. In particular, always remember that there's a relationship between ROI and risk: Above about 6% and you're trading return against risk - there's no 'magic' way around this. At the other end of the spectrum, if buying somewhere is principally a lifestyle thing (you've always wanted a skiing apartment and now you can afford it) then you might no care about ROI. Like your principal residence, you can view capital gain and rental income as icing on the cake, but not essential to your happiness. It's all a matter of deciding what you are after.
