The Downside Of Living In Bulgaria

In the summer season Bulgaria is a stunning country to live in, to visit, to explore and enjoy.  In the winter, unless you’re tucked up in the Kempinski Hotel in Bansko for example, it can be pretty grim living in Bulgaria according to award winning journalist Isak Gozes from the Bulgarian daily newspaper the Standart.

In a recent article about what it’s really like living in Europe’s poorest member state, the writer shed some light on the downside of living in Bulgaria that we thought we should share with you so that you can be forewarned and forearmed before you begin to think about expatriating permanently.

It seems Bulgaria is not geared up to deal with snow – even though it suffers from an annual influx of the white stuff with some regions experiencing snowfall from mid October right in to May!  The airport in Sofia may be able to clear its runways so that planes can arrive and depart – but the access roads suffer terribly when snow falls and those in charge are not roused quickly enough to clear them!

So, you can get to Bulgaria but getting around in the winter can be a problem.  This doesn’t bode too well for those coming on winter holidays to Bulgaria and it should make anyone serious about buying property in Bulgaria in the nation’s winter sports resorts such as Pamporovo and Bansko keen to test out travel and accessibility during peak winter season to ensure their potential tenants won’t be put off from re-visiting or even complain about their visit.

Aside from the snow impacting travel, it apparently has quite a dramatic and negative effect on the economy in Bulgaria too according to Mr. Gozes.  Following heavy snowfall across Bulgaria this last New Year’s Eve an estimated 170 million levs were lost from the economy when the next day record numbers of Bulgarians failed to get in to work!  Never mind though, on a positive note My Gozes points out that the Bulgarians know how to party and spent billions on food, alcohol and fireworks during the festive period…not bad for a nation with the lowest standards of living and the poorest economy in the European Union!

We think Mr. Gozes’s points are well made – but even so, living in Bulgaria is an attractive prospect for those who can relocate and exist there without having to rely on the local economy for an income.  After all, the cost of living is low, property remains affordable, the people are friendly and enjoy a good party…and snow can be fun too – if you don’t have to make it in to work in the morning! shelteroffshore.com