Great News, Bulgarian mortgage product available to foreigners

Written by Dave Moore

Whilst many of you will have heard the great news yesterday from the Bulgarian-run ‘Home Point BG’, some of you will only be hearing for the first time today that there is now a Bulgarian Mortgage Product available to foreigners. The constant phone calls, emails, letters and visits to the various Bulgarian Banks seems to have finally worked and Unicredit Bulbank are now offering a mortgage product to certain individuals who have bought in certain developments. These limitations are detailed below.

Whilst I applaud the news and definitely see it as a positive step in the right direction, I am approaching it with a certain level of caution. In short, I’ve heard it all before – many banks advertise that they are lending to foreigners, but the reality in the past has been that it is never as easy to get a mortgage, as it appears on the face of it .I do however believe this mortgage product is bona-fide, but would like to bring your attention to the limitations before we go too much further;

• It is only available in certain developments (detailed below), more than likely, these developments have h been funded through Unicredit Bulbank during the construction phase
• The interest rate is not exactly cheap 10.10% when the Euribor rate is below 0.5% - This is obviously a large margin.
• 6 Months mortgage instalments will be locked in your account from the beginning (this means that if your mortgage payment is £500/ month, you will need to deposit £3000 into your bank account and it is locked in there for the duration of your mortgage)
• But most importantly – the loan to value is stated that up to 70% of the current market value. The paragraph in blue below will explain this in greater depth.

The loan to value, should never be confused with a loan to purchase price. In many areas of Bulgaria, prices have dropped as much as 50%, and the bank will only lend up to 70% of the current value, not 70% of the amount you agreed to pay. If you agreed to pay €100,000 and the bank now states your property is worth €50,000 – the maximum loan available to you would be €35,000. Rarely will the loan offered, exceed 40% of the purchase price.

Before proceeding with a mortgage, take a few moments to think about how a market develops. Almost never will the best product or idea be the first one released, invariably they are improved over time with consumer feedback, technical advancements and most importantly competition.

Take the first i-Phone for example, it had several glitches, appeared to be a fairly poor phone, had no camera and few other features – compare it to the latest one and there is no comparison. It got better through consumer feedback, technical advancement and competition – Bulgarian mortgage products will follow a similar pattern.

What I am trying to say is that the mortgage products will get better in the future, don’t be pushed into applying for this mortgage by a developer who’s taken 2 or 3 years too long to build your property. Only take this option on if you think it’s the only way to complete, or if in the near future, nothing better comes along. It may transpire that this is indeed the best offering and that valuations will stack up, but I am treading cautiously at this point.

If you are one of those people who would like to apply for a mortgage, there is no better place to do it than Balkan Legal & Finance ltd. the reasons to apply through us are numerous;

• You have a UK contact who is only a local call away, we speak English as a first language and offer the service standard you would expect from a professional UK company.

• We offer an identical pricing strategy to Home Point BG (therefore it won’t cost you any extra, but will save you the hassle of trying to transfer euros)

• All fees and charges can be made in sterling or euros both over the phone or via bank transfer) – this saves all those trips to the bank

• You will be dealing with professionals who have operated in the industry for 5 years now

• We understand your concerns, our job is to explain things carefully and comprehensively – we offer practical, understandable advice.

• We will deal with all standard postal and courier requirements* to get paperwork to Bulgaria (this will save you much hassle and money)

Mortgage details and limitations;

Table 1 Holiday Developments Approved for Financing from UnicreditBulbank

Source: Unicreditbulbank

Table 2 Non-Holiday Developments Approved for Financing from UnicreditBulbank

Source: Unicreditbulbank

The current product has the following parameters:

Exact terms, qualification criteria and fees have not been finalise as yet, but will be shared with interested parties over the coming week.

I hope this update has been of use to you. I am happy that things are moving in the right direction for the Bulgarian finance industry and can see better days ahead.

If you would like to register your interest for this mortgage product please call Dave on 01142852958, 07738887555 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Or if you would like to know if applying is your best option, give me a call for a free, no obligation chat about the best way to move forward.

For any other questions, queries, comments or anything else, please get in touch with me.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.


Written by Dave Moore, Director, Balkan Legal & finance ltd.