Investors make mistakes every day. If they did not then the developers, estate agents and lawyers will stop making money. Investing in Bulgaria is even more risky than most of the other countries mainly due to the lack of judicial system and enforcement of laws.
Here is a list of five such investor mistakes from which it will be hard to expect any return at all:
- Bulgarian Dreams and their network of interconnected companies leaving half of Bulgarian with unfinished projects with bombastic names such as Aquamarine, Belle Vue, Bell Tower, Breeze 1 & 2, Cedar Lodge, Cedar Heights, Golden Fort, Green fort, Interpred Development, Iskar Central, Museum House, Panorama Fort club, Paradise Villas, Park Residences, Pirin Place, Bansko Hill Road, Ravda Village, Sofia Hills Mansion, St Vlas, Summer Dreams, The Sands, The Orchard, The Residence, Vega Village, Waterside Quay and White Lagoon. At least the big number of deceived investors lead to their uniting in groups such as offplancollective.com. However, the mess created by Robert Jenkin and his fraudulent schemes is so big that it will be hard to find a way out soon.
- Golden Pearl Holiday Resort, Varvara, Bulgaria – advertised by the “excellent investment opportunities provider” The Right Move Abroad Ltd. After several years of disputes finally the development was founded to be completely illegal. It is strange that its development was allowed in the first place and what is left now is to find someone to deal with the bricks, rubbish and concrete left on the site. This, however, does not stops the awarded estate agency to continue advertise the development even as “sold”.
- Oasis VIP Homes. Built right on the sands next to the sea this development is illegal by all means of the law and Bulgarian constitution. Sooner or later it will be demolished.
- Golf Club Ibar – “the first Nicklaus design Golf Course” in Bulgaria and probably their last. The development of the two cousins Lazarov & Nedev has become famous with its fake documentation and forged habitation certificates. Among the other problems the developers have been sued even by the local Municipality.
- Sunny Beach and even more now with surrounding towns of Nessebar, Ravda and St. Vlas. What used to be the nicest Black Sea resort is now a concrete monument of construction madness and corruption in the real estate sector in Bulgaria. It will take years to recover from the damages caused by uncontrolled building in the area.
Who is to blame for this? Surely the Bulgarian authorities who allowed this in the first place and were amongst the main beneficiaries of bribes and organisers of all sort of schemes to circumvent laws and materialise developer’s greed.
The list above does not pretend to be a comprehensive one but rather a start and challenge to everybody else with experience is this area. Any comments or suggestions are welcome and I will love to hear from you criticism or recommendations.
Related posts:
- Counting naked swimmers…
- Bulgaria Real Estate Agents Guide
- Real Estate Bubble wiped out BGN 83 bn from Bulgarian households
- Another successful investment in Bulgaria
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by mz
18 Jun 2009 at 21:11
You can easily add also MRI – http://www.mrioverseasproperty.com and their fraudulent schemes in Bansko and elsewhere. There are rumours that nearly 300 people are cheated with some “fantastic” deals only in Bansko.
by Dwayne
08 Jul 2009 at 06:53
Can you confirm how you came to your information about Golf Club Ibar?
I own an apartment there and I was under the impresssion Ibar were suing the local council, not the other way around. And your other facts – please explain?
by sticktoitgolf
09 Jul 2009 at 09:00
Very interesting blog. Where does the information about Golf Club Ibar come from, especially the false documents. Can you point me in the right direction.
by survivor
09 Jul 2009 at 10:05
If you have the information about the court actions then you can check the case and see who is suing who. The case then will speak for itself…
It is not a secret that many developers are trying to find all possible excuses for their delays but these people went way over blaming others for their mismanagement. You might recall even that at some time last year most of the buyers were offered very lucrative “exchange rates” in order to get their payments just before the whole thing start smelling.
by Dwayne
10 Jul 2009 at 10:16
So where did you get your info from then on Golf Club Ibar – did you the chceck the case out at all?
by survivor
10 Jul 2009 at 14:26
Let’s say that I have sources that I trust. Anyway, it won’t hurt if you check the case yourself and make the appropriate conclusions. For me the whole thing is exactly as explained above.
by Dwayne
11 Jul 2009 at 10:05
Yes I would definitely want to check it out. I think I would need to hire a lawyer would need to source this info wouldn’t they as I do not know the actual court actions. What do you think?
Can you tell me if your source is someone in the legal profession? Ibar think this bad publicity is someone who has something against them aparently. I don’t think this is the case?
That is the problem. I have the internet that is all as I am based overseas.
Any more help would be greatly appreciated as in specific websites to investigate. Plus the languauge barrier too – they would be in Bulgarian would they not?
Thanks
by survivor
12 Jul 2009 at 14:03
A good starting point would be the site of the Supreme Administrative Court in Bulgaria. They have a database of all cases and in fact they do not deal with “bad publicity” or anything of that sort.
Unfortunately, the website (and the materials there) is only in Bulgarian but in order to understand the complexity of the issues you would definitely need a lawyer.
As explained in the forum http://www.hg.org is one of the places where you can look for a lawyer.
by Retirement Homes Bulgaria
03 Sep 2009 at 16:58
What about all these holiday homes and golf courses between Balchik and Kavarna – surely the people who invested there now deeply regret.
by owain
02 Feb 2010 at 14:52
Hi survivor,With regards to Ibar,Have you got a case number and date for the Supreme Court website?
by owain
03 Feb 2010 at 13:36
It’s ok,found it
by survivor
05 Feb 2010 at 11:09
You can login there and search with their name but it is in cyrillic only so somebody who understands Bulgarian should do it.
In fact it is not just one case so good luck!
Here is the link – http://www.sac.government.bg/WEBDIS.nsf/vPagesLookup/home~bg.