REGULATED OR NOT?
Within Bulgaria there is currently a great deal of land for sale, some under regulation and some agricultural, certain Estate Agents and Sellers are all too fond of stating that the status of non-regulated land can easily be changed, however the buyer should be very cautious when believing all they are told about this type of plot. You should check with the local area maps at the appropriate authority offices. Generally all land in regulation and ear-marked for regulation should remain so for the foreseeable future, land not in regulation, such as agricultural and forestry land, is very likely to remain so, and will generally not obtain permission for a change of status in the foreseeable future, so therefore making this type of un-regulated land a very poor purchase for the foreign investor.
Most un-regulated land will remain so and too many plots are sold to unwary buyer’s based on false promises of regulation being obtained at some vague date in the future. In fact many unscrupulous Agents and Sellers will make promises they will be unable to keep. Although often in areas of natural beauty and looking very cheap when compared to prices of regulated plots in other areas, permission to build is very likely to be denied, making the land useless to the investor and resulting in it becoming worthless. Foreigner buyers should be extremely wary of land in the middle of nowhere, the only people likely to make any real money are the unscrupulous Agents and Sellers.
A cosy relationship between developers and local council officials seems to be a very common scenario, which is obviously detrimental to the small buyer looking for that bargain land plot. When Bulgaria joins the Common Market most of these practices will come under EU scrutiny, resulting in far more transparency in local government office dealings.
The lesson to be learned is that if it cannot be proved in writing what the current status of the land is and will be, don’t under any circumstances buy it. You have been warned!!!!
