Discovering Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast

Golden sands, Sunny Beach and Varna are not the only destinations on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.

Just five years ago Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast was still an unknown destination for Brits looking to spend their holidays away from the UK. Today, however, the merits of the country’s coast are well known. Boasting over 80 miles of gloriously sandy beaches, average summer temperatures which easily exceed 20 degrees Celsius and a cost of living that puts other popular European locales to shame, it’s no real surprise that in a relatively short space of time many of the resorts located along this stretch of coastline have gone from being popular retreats for holidaymakers from former Eastern European communist nations to hotspots for holidaymakers from all over Europe. Brits in particular have found themselves increasingly drawn to the Balkan country. In 2002 just over 100,000 British tourists visited Bulgaria while last year in excess of 400,000 are estimated to have visited the country.

In May, research from currency exchange specialists HIFX revealed that Bulgaria was the third most popular country for Brits looking to buy a holiday home abroad, behind Spain and France, whilst in June investment experts Assetz announced that the country is currently the world’s number one property investment destination, offering investors potential financial gains of 137 per cent in 12 months.

While areas like Sunny Beach and Golden Sands still have a very long way to go before experienceing the sheer amount of development that has occurred in Spain’s Costa del Sol, the scale of work carried out in the most popular Bulgarian coastal resorts in recent years has certainly given these areas enough of a facelift to ensure visitors would now encounter a very different looking place to what they would have as recently as half a decade ago.

Strange as it may seem, given Bulgaria’s status as an ‘emerging’ property market, it could already be wise to start looking at properties on offer in some of the more secluded destinations of the country’s Black Sea coast. Christophe Gater of Bulgarian property specialists New Estate certainly thinks that Brits looking for a longer-term investment bet should consider searching for a home in one of the coast’s less traversed areas. “Like everywhere, in Bulgaria investors have to constantly balance the level of development and quality of infrastructure against the tranquility and unspoilt nature of the local area”, he explains. “Unfortunately, this is hard to do as developed areas have a habit of expanding rapidly. Simply looking at Spain as a model we can see areas that were spoilt by overdevelopment have, on the whole, stayed that way, while areas that took longer to come into the public eye have been better planned and as a result live up to the high market growth rates which are talked about in the media. These are not places where you can make a quick buck, but long-term it’s definitely best to go for places with charm, quality and character”, he adds.

Of course, this isn’t to say that Sunny Beach, Golden Sands and all the other already established Black Sea resorts that are heard of don’t still offer extremely good investment potential. These undoubtedly do. Property prices rose by over 30 per cent in Sunny Beach last year and are expected to grow by a similar amount again this year, while more and more tourists are arriving in such resorts annually, enhancing the rental potential of properties located in these areas. Moreover, Bulgarian newspaper 24 Chasa also recently announced that Sunny Beach ranks highest in the list of the country’s resorts attracting property investment from overseas. Although the paper also warned that some coastal regions already faced problems with construction density. “I think that the Bulgarian coast has all the ‘resorts’ it needs, and that the local authorities will sensibly encourage the development, restructuring and renovation of coastal towns, not create whole new resorts”, comments Gater.

For those who are prepared to gamble somewhat and not follow the crowds, there are a number of lesser known towns and resorts dotted along the Bulgarian coast which have not yet experienced such high development levels, and may just offer the kind of long-term investment potential mentioned by Gater.

Northern notables

“Two of the less obvious resorts for purchasers which are fairly well established nevertheless are Albena [situated 25 kilometres north of Varna – the biggest city on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast] and St Constantine and Elena [ten kilometres north of Varna]”, says Helen Craig of Bulgaria Varna Property. “The suburban areas and villages surrounding these resorts are very much sought after.” Craig continues, “Both of these resorts were established in the 1960s and were once the holiday areas for the wealthiest of the Russian hierarchy at a time when Bulgaria was still very much under Communist rule. As a result both resorts are now very well established and elegant.”

Albena, a purpose-built resort situated a 40-minute drive away from Varna international airport (which welcomes regular charter flights from the UK), is best known for its 150-metre-wide, six-kilometre long beach, not to mention the green splendour of the Balata National Reserve – one of the northernmost flooded forests in Europe – which surrounds it.

Enjoying an average of eight to 11 hours of sunshine a day in the summer and temperatures between 20 to 25°C, Albena boasts a fairly lively tourist season between April and October; although being quite a small town it does not draw the same number of visitors as the nearby more popular resorts of Golden Sands or Varna.

Slightly further south, St Constantine and Elena – named after a nearby monastery – may not be that well known to Brits, but is in fact the oldest holiday resort on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, having been first visited by Eastern European tourists back in 1948. Located in the middle of natural parkland and with a broken coastline, small bays and scattered cliffs, the resort is undoubtedly one of the most secluded and picturesque on the coast. Along with its long tradition as a hospitable holiday resort, the area is also famous for the abundance of mineral springs that abound there. Something that will probably make both of these destinations even more appealing is the fact that neither are likely to suffer the kind of mass development that many would argue could spoil such picturesque resorts. “There will be no further development in Albena and there is restricted development in St Constantine”, explains Craig. “The suburban properties close to both of these areas are extremely popular and much sought after by both Bulgarians and overseas purchasers. Vinitza, an exclusive suburb close to St Constantine, along with Kranevo Village and Rogachevo Village, close to Albena, are all popular with purchasers”, she adds.

According to Craig, property prices in both Albena and St Constantine tend to be around 10 to 15 per cent higher than what you could expect to pay for a similar property in either Golden Sands or Sunny Beach. A three-bedroom house close to Albena with a sea view is currently on the market for 137,000 euros (approximately £93,675), while a four-bedroom property in St Constantine and Elena, sandwiched between pine forest and the beach, would set you back 185,000 euros, or £126,465.

Also located in the northern reaches of the country’s coast, Balchik, along with the towns that surround it, is likely to become a far more popular destination with property purchasers in the coming years due to the construction of a major golf village in the area. The village will consist of three courses, including one designed by Ian Woosnam and two Gary Player signature courses, and a luxury marina development.

Tahir Ali of Bulgaria Revealed suggests looking at the property options on offer in the nearby town of Kavarna as it is less developed than other Black Sea resorts and very close to the new golf courses in Balchik. Despite being the seventh largest town on the country’s coast it retains its peaceful and tranquil atmosphere, while the town’s beaches are all very clean and sandy, he adds. The price of a two-bedroom apartment in the Kavarna Gardens development, the second phase of which is currently under construction, will cost around £43,600.

Southern stunners

The southern areas of Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast are equally worth looking at should one desire a second home away from the main holiday crowds. Boasting a slightly warmer temperature than the north and a similarly high quality selection of beaches, the south is also well served from the UK, with regular flights from Britain flying to Bourgas airport. What’s more, according to 24 Chasa property in resort towns near Bourgas sold three times quicker than estates in the Varna region in 2005.

Sunny Beach marks the start of the southern region of Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast but Gater says it is worth looking much further south than this in order to unlock the possibility of finding some hidden gems. “Many buyers who are looking for a longer-term investment would be wise to look towards ‘the wild south’ which is known by the natives to have the best beaches on the coast”, he says. “However, this area is no Sunny Beach and if booming clubs and bars are your thing, then this is not the place to look. I would recommend Sozopol for anyone looking for a nice blend of traditional culture and night time entertainment”, Gater adds.

Sozopol is located 34 kilometres south of Bourgas, and mixes old town charm with the vibrancy of a buzzing tourist resort. As one of the oldest settlements on the Black Sea coast – relics found in the area date the town’s history back to at least the Bronze Age – Sozopol is one of the coast’s more unusual, if interesting, looking towns. The old town area is particularly unique in its appearance. Full of quaint wooden houses which were built during the Renaissance period, this part of Sozopol displays what is undoubtedly some of the finest architecture to be found anywhere on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, if not in the entire country. However, Sozopol’s new town district is far more synonymous with the look of many of the other popular tourist haunts that are situated along the coast. Boasting two beaches – Central beach and Harmani beach – the resort offers a good variety of restaurants, cafés, night clubs, and shops, which should keep those who are after a mix of solitude and a buzzing nightlife more than happy. An apartment in the relatively new Gardenia holiday development in Sozopol, offering 80 square metres of living space, costs from 860 euros (approximately £587) per square metre.

Ali, meanwhile, suggests Lozenets, located 25 kilometres south of Sozopol, as being another area that a buyer looking for an alternative to the more established Bulgarian coastal resorts may wish to consider. “Lozenets is situated away from the Black Sea coast’s industrial areas and all of its pollution, including noise pollution”, he explains. “It is close to the popular resort villages of Carevo and Primosko, and is easily accessible from the international road which connects Bourgas to Istanbul in Turkey.” Already Lozenets has started to attract more tourists from from overseas, especially those who want to escape the more noisy commercial Black Sea resorts and relax on what is regarded to be one of the best beaches in Bulgaria. Moreover, Bulgarians looking for a coastal holiday home, particularly those who hail from the capital, Sofia, have known about the delights on offer in Lozenets for a while, and a lot of land has been bought there in the past 12 months by Sofians, with the intention of building holiday homes on it. That said massive redevelopment is considered to be unlikely to happen any time in the foreseeable future. Ali says that prices for a property right on the coast in Lozenets would cost on average around 1,200 per square metre, while in Sunny Beach a frontline property would be closer to 1,300 to 1,500 euros per square metre.

The future

With all these in mind, is it likely that an increasing number of Brits will start to look outside of Bulgaria’s more popular coastal resorts for their properties anytime soon? “It’s happening now”, answers Craig, “but as a majority of the publicity surrounding the Black Sea coast is focused on larger resorts where the bigger developers are based, many smaller areas aren’t that well known yet. Instead, lesser known areas tend to be favoured by wealthy Bulgarians who know their appeal and potential for year-round rental.” Ali agrees that smaller, more secluded towns and villages on the country’s coast are fast garnering more attention, particularly, he says, with “families who are looking for less busy and more relaxed resorts”.

In terms of the capital appreciation potential of homes in the less-established resorts, obviously even the World of Property crystal ball cannot tell exactly just how promising the future is compared to those where prices have already experienced impressive increases. But Gater is confident that those who do gamble and find the right property away from the current second home meccas, may just reap the rewards. “It’s a common mistake to think that by buying any old property in Bulgaria you will automatically see gains of 30 per cent each year”, he says. “It’s key to look to the future and speculate as to what area will be next by asking yourself what people will want from the market in five years time? My guess is that it’s not areas like Sunny Beach and it’s not likely to be 20-square-metre studios. More likely it will be detached villas with views and swimming pools.”

Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast has come a long way since the days when it was viewed as little more than a stretch of coastline in an undesirable Eastern European country. With it seemingly only being a matter of time before even more areas become known to purchasers, it appears unlikely that anyone will be forgetting about the Bulgarian coast any time soon.

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Discovering Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast

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