Inflation in Bulgaria - Good for business?

I seems that we have a growing unrest in Bulgaria regarding low pay. Firstly the teachers have been demanding 100% pay rise and are currently on active strike. Taxi drivers of course never miss a trick and joined the bandwagon. Then it was social workers who are looking for major hike in pay and now the forestry working force are also demanding another 25% on their salaries.

The government are going roughly half way to meeting demands of these different workforces which means that inflation in Bulgaria will also take an inevitable hike over the next year or so.

The knock on affect of inflation ends up with property prices increasing, good news to those who have bought already in Bulgaria with good prospects in return on their investments.

It is really a case of getting in while the going is still good with prices in Bulgaria being still unbelievably cheap. With all these wage increases other workforces joining the queue, it is surely only a matter of time before the true value of property and land will be realised in Bulgaria.

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Dirt Cheap Bulgarian Land for Profit

There is a question posed right now What are the prices of agricultural and are there regions that have particularly interest
because of low price and potential?

Agricultural land in Bulgaria is considered undervalued compared to other EU members. In 2005 farm land prices in new EU member
countries such as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were four times the cost of comparable land in Bulgaria.

South of Yambol and the Elhovo region in South-East Bulgaria has proved to be the areas with one of the best land investment potentials.
The reasons for this are that the area is suitable for development of wind power stations not only that EU funding is available for such projects.

It is still not final whether the pipe-line Bourgas - Alexandroupolis will go ahead. For this very reason many buyers are purchasing of plots
of land in the territory. This is in hope that their plots will be in the right spot and profits made.

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Bulgaria - Best investment in Europe?

A survey completed this weekend shows that the rise in property value in Bulgaria generally is still a good source of investment. It also said that Bulgaria remains the best investment in terms of value for money compared with the rest of Europe.

Bulgaria, which joined the European Union on January 1st 2007, has seen the value of estate grow by 18 per cent this year, according to research by Green Life Property Development.

The firm has also found that UK investors account for 20 per cent of property investors in the country, a figure which has risen in real terms but fallen as a proportion from 80 per cent in one year due to an influx of other foreign investors, particularly from eastern Europe.

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Bulgarian Summer Rush Over

Wow what a Bulgarian summer! July and August always brings about a mad rush of clients into the BRE office, this year was no exception, all staff here have been rushed off their feet.

It's often the case that many come here just for a holiday and end up buying property during that time. It is quite staggering how many case we see of this happening. Can you blame them as the price of some properties are the same cost of a holiday anyway!

It is now the middle of September and things have calmed down a bit but clients still roll in, mainly those with no children with school starting back this month. Also many take advantage of the cheaper fares over now that in some cases double during the peak tourist season.

It is often said by Bulgarians that May, June and September are by far the best times to holiday here. It's not so busy and the travel and accommodation is cheaper. let's be honest, the weather is just as good, in fact a more pleasant heat. Shame the market is so unfair to families with children.

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More Investment Promised for Bulgaria

Encouraging investments in Bulgaria

09:00 Mon 17 Sep 2007 - Elitsa Grancharova

The state will start encouraging new investments in the processing industry, electricity production from renewable energy sources, the IT sector and research and development.

The Cabinet decided this on September 5, approving regulations to implement the Investment Encouragement Act (IEA). The move is linked to previous IEA amendments and appendixes, which came into effect on August 30 2007....

The Cabinet said that the measures were being taken because the business sector had shown that there was a great need for new knowledge and practical skills to implement new technology.

The aim is to boost the competitiveness of Bulgaria’s economy by increasing investments in the development of technology and in other fields that have high added value.

The Cabinet hopes to make Bulgaria more competitive by recruiting new capital, as has been done through similar plans in other Eastern and Central European countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

A new procedure is also to be implemented to assess and decide on investment projects that will get help from the state budget. These will be assessed and chosen through a competition procedure. The appraisal will be done at two stages through the calendar year.

The criteria and the priorities for classification are also defined, and will be the basis for the methodology and assessment procedure, which will be decided by the minister of Economy and Energy, and will be published on the ministry’s website.

Taken from Sofia Echo News

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How to Re-Roof your Bulgarian Home

This has been written as an aid for those about to have there BG homes re-roofed. It does not go into full detail but covers the major points. This is intended as a guide only and will not be suitable for all types of houses. It is intended for a BG village house with ‘normal’ BG tiles and not Turkish ones. It will however help you if you have a modicum of common sense and are attempting it yourself or are employing trades men. No mention of safety is given here and again, I leave that to your common sense.

So, let’s start!

Stripping the old roof:

The first step is to strip the roof and find out what is underneath the tiles. You can get a good idea of this before hand by poking your head through your loft hatch and having a look. There are many variations on how this is usually done but they all follow the same basic principles. First is to put something on top of the roof trusses, then cover this with a waterproof material and then put the tiles on. In an older property you may have wooden slats, reeds or rough sawn boards which is then covered with mud. On top of this are the tiles. If you have rough sawn boards leave them. Everything else strip off (keep the old wood for your wood stove in winter)

Assessing the existing roof structure:

Now you have the bare bones. Check all the timbers and see which are damaged, rotten, worm eaten or too weak for the job. Replace these with new ones. I prefer 10cm x 10cm x 400cm square beams but this can change due to the nature and economy of the work.

Sheeting the roof:

Sheeting provides a skin to the roof structure. This is generally not done in the UK. Sheeting massively increases its strength and provides a flat level surface to put the tiles on. Sterling board (or OSB in BG) in sheets of 144cm x 244cm x 1cm are generally used. Thicker OSB boards may be used but again this is a question of economy and the problems that could ensue from the extra weight. Most manufactures specify to fit a WBP (weatherproof and boil proof) sheet in new roof structures. This is an equivalent to marine ply and is perfect for the job. However at about 400% more expensive and much heavier the economics and structural suitability of an old house, they may not be more suitable.

When sheeting the roof it makes sense to spend more time to make the roof flat and level. This is not necessary but gives an easier surface to tile neatly on and give a more aesthetically pleasing finish at the end.

Flashing:

Flashings are the vertical boards at the edge of the roof to which guttering is affixed. At this stage it will make your life easier to affix them now. Make sure they butt up neatly and have been stained, varnished, protected etc.

Waterproofing the roof:

This is simply placing a waterproof material on top of the sheets. Makes sure the sheets overlap by at least 15cm, overhang the lashings by 15cm and use your common sense. The standard material is ‘cherna hartia’ or black bitumastic roofing felt. I prefer breathable membranes (please see my other post on this http://www.ourbulgarianworld.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=254&topic=470.msg3103;topicseen#new ).

Waterproofing the gullies:

Where you have a gully where two faces of the roof structure meet, this is called a gully. In BG we used sheet tin for this purpose. Again make sure the tin overlaps from top to bottom and that it is about 70cm-90cm wide. It has to be this wide so it extends under the roof tiles. There are various tips and tricks to this but I will not go into this here.


Battening the roof:

Horizontal wooden battens are nailed on top of the waterproof material into the wooden roof structure. You start from the bottom and work your way up. Make sure the bottom row over hangs the roof and flashings by about 4-6 cm. This is so that rain will drip of the bottom row into your guttering. Determine the distance to the next batten up by the type of tiles you have. On long roof structures run a line (a taunt bit of string) from end to end to make sure the run of tiles stay level and straight.

Again there are various tips and tricks to use but you might consider treating the battens to prevent them rotting and vertically battering before horizontally battening to prevent water pooling behind the tiles.

Tiling the roof:

Chances that after you have stripped the roof you will find different style tiles. These will have to sorted into the different styles and make sure that you only use one type of tile on each roof face. You will also find that a lot or inadequate or broken. You will have to source more locally, think neighbours, friends, reclamation yards etc.

Tiling is a skilled job and there is far to much to cover here, Just think about what will happen when you get to the top, sides, gullies and chimneys. How will you seal the tiles again them? Will you cut and form flashing from tin metal or use a big dollop of cement? How ill you dress (cut) the tiles when you reach a gully?

The last job of tiling is to mortar in your ridge tiles. You will most likely need to have sourced extra because when the roof was stripped you will break a lot of them out of their original mortar. Pay extra attention here for durability and waterproofing are most important. The tradition method is to use lots of Var and cement and splatter and smear it all over the roof. This may be effective but it is not pretty.

Guttering;

If you have followed all the directions above then the tiles should overhang the roof and hang in roughly the middle of the guttering. The extra roofing felt/membrane should be trimmed so the in hangs neatly into the bottom of the guttering. This makes the roof work effectively with the guttering and will keep water out or your house.

Guttering can be a black art. You have to have a slope (or run) to move the water to the down pipes to prevent them flooding but on a roof which isn’t level (which most aren’t in BG), this can be tricky to make look aesthetically pleasing. My advice is to spend some times with string and spirit levels.

Placing of down pipes can be tricky. The generally have to sited in the most unsuitable places. Just bear in mind where all the water from the roof will go. This will put a lot of water at ground level in a small area. Just think where it will go and if it could cause flooding or damp problems. Most BG house don’t have a hard runoff sloping from the house like England.

You should now have a lovely renovated roof which is sympathetic to your local environment.


I hope this has been of help.


Jerrard
Jerico Estates

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Sit Down - No Chairs!

Now there was a very funny thing at the BREonline office meal on Monday Evening.

It took place at the Dublin Bar in Yambol and if you have ever been there you will have noticed the pictures on the wall whilst waiting for your rakia and salad. All around the walls are giant framed coloured picture of Cities from around the world, London, Paris, New York etc. very impressive indeed.

After some surveying of the framed work of art I noticed opposite from where I was sitting a picture of Sydney, Australia. The picture actually have in big letter the word Sydney embossed on the picture. Now I knew that the word 'Sydney' means 'sit' in Bulgarian and this immediately made me laugh as this was the only picture out of about 10 that had no seating area around it.

Well it was very funny at the time and even fellow Bulgarians colleagues thought it was as well when I mentioned it to them!

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Bulgarian Building Standards

Coming to terms with how things are in Bulgaria is a very difficult for some people and to deal with this it is very much a open mind that you have to bring with you.

As to laws and regulations laid down to building and renovation it is a case of bringing your own standards into place but at the same time using Bulgarian local knowledge.

In fact a partnership of foreign management and supervised Bulgarian workforce is the real secret of success, unless you are totally determined to cut corners and pay the price further down the line.

Work done to correct regulated specification will stand the test of time with this set up. Many building companies here now have this working hierarchy in action BRE Building Services for one. Many of course don't but that's the choice in the building and renovation market.

You have to understand the Bulgarian mentality to understand why regulations are ignored in the main, then you may come to terms with accepting this as the Bulgarian way.

There is of course no excuse for foreigners who come here and feel that this loophole in regulated practices in the building trade can be ignored to the detriment of clients they hood-wink. These clients are preyed upon from the point of their naivety and business exchanged just from the point of English speaking comforts. This is very short lived as in many cases, The 'Queen's English' brigade move on with their pockets lined with the crown jewels and the now much wiser clients dethroned of their right to regulated adhered renovation finding their castle crumbling around them.

How many times have I heard of these stories? Too many! When will people learn that you pay peanuts to monkeys in the main or for a better analogy, you pay beans you get cowboys!

Just one other point about guarantees - Many have guarantees as a selling point but a guarantee is difficult and in some cases near on impossible to take up. The assurance factor is suddenly taken away with the frustrations that set in with, not least because the work that been done in the first place was not up to standard. In Bulgaria, building and renovation in many cases guarantees currently are just about as practical as an ash tray on a motorbike!

Welcome to Bulgaria a world of differences you have to be here to believe!

But all said and done, that's one of the beauties of the country and its people who in the main build and renovate things as cheaply as possible! The term 'long term investment' really doesn't have any meaning here - They live in a world for today!

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Bulgarian Holiday Systems

September the 6th in Bulgaria is Unification Day where the country has a public holiday to celebrate this significant date in their History. A Day in 1885 where the unification of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia took place.

This day falls on a Thursday, not a convenient day for an extended break so the Friday was also included as a Public Holiday but not for free. The following Saturday is now deemed as a weekday and for Banks, public servants and indeed most other businesses is now to be a full working day.

This has been done on many occasions before where an extra day to extend the uninterrupted holiday period over a weekend - and why not?

At BREOnline the offices will alway be manned throughout of course for clients.

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