At first sight rural Bulgaria can come as a shock to people used to the pristine villages of the UK.

There is apparent neglect and dereliction all around, but once you acclimatise you may begin to see the many positive attributes that lay beneath the surface material veneer.

Council Tax

The equivalent to Council tax is very low at around 12 pounds per annum and as yet there is an absence of the tiers of council employees that we experience in the UK, parasitically sucking their citizens for every penny possible.

People here are welcoming and interested; they will help with your endeavours whenever possible. The children are not cosseted in cotton wool and experience the countryside as children once did in England. The paranoia of parents towards their siblings is absent, as everyone knows each other, and therefore the behaviour of their children is also far better.

Children are now being taught English in their schools and relish the opportunity to test it out on ‘real’ people.
In essence the experience of moving here is akin to time travel with a real twist: whilst the rural villages are circa Britain 1930’s, the towns offer all the modern 21st century amenities and shopping. It is therefore possible to travel 30 minutes and visit the holiday complexes with their pools, bars and restaurants and then return to a completely different age.

It is somewhat unfortunate, although predictable, that the younger generations tend to migrate to the towns and cities in search of work and the wealth that is required to afford the exciting new prospects that modern living offers. As one who has come from that future and witnessed the ceaseless grind of modern consumerism, I think it very likely that further down the path many will return and once more place quality of life above material possessions. Of course that is easy to say if one’s income is adequate for one’s needs:

Just as in the UK during that 1930’s - 1940’s period a revolution is occurring in the countryside.

Fuelled by the twin drivers of labour migration and modernisation of agricultural methods, the opportunities for younger people to both live and work in the villages are diminished. The challenge is to provide new enterprises that are sustainable. Labour is relatively cheap here; the average Bulgarian wage is 250E per month, and this combined with the ‘time travel’ aspect affords the entrepreneur a unique opportunity to establish products and services that currently do not exist but that will become sought after as the overall economy and wealth grows. Added to that, the inclusion of Bulgaria into the EC, means that the many policies currently being incorporated into Government legislation, generates demand for products and services that are not yet adequately served.

Given that it is a present requirement to establish a Bulgarian Ltd company in order to purchase property (with the exception of apartments), English settlers have a prime opportunity to explore enterprises that would take them outside of their typical UK roles and start a completely new life. As the cost of ‘standing still’ or covering basic overheads is so much lower than in the UK the level of stress and necessary workload is similarly so.