Property Developing Abroad (five): Novice property developer Georgina earned the sort of praise you don't often hear on a TV programme like this. "You've done a fantastic job," presenter Gary McCausland told her.
This isn't the norm when Brits buy a home abroad. They're normally defeated by the language, local regulations or cowboy builders - bad for them, good for us as other people's misfortunes are what make such shows so watchable.
So pity the producer who finds plans progressing smoothly, although Georgina didn't have a totally problem-free time. Her new apartment had dodgy electrics. Every time she put a plug in a socket, it promptly popped out again, sometimes accompanied by sparks.
I'm no electrician, but this isn't what you expect in your ohm sweet ohm. McCausland agreed, advising her to retain the final five per cent of the price until she was happy (or electrocuted, I wanted to add).
What became apparent was that property developing in Bulgaria is a licence to print money. Buying to rent or sell on, you're likely to make 30 per cent profit in just a few years.
"I can smell the potential," she said. It's certainly better than smelling the drains. Her instinct was right, she made £1,000 on her property between buying and moving in.
Bulgaria has some of the best skiing in Europe and Bansko, where Georgina went property hunting, is the number one ski resort. It looks more like a building site as houses, hotels and apartment blocks are constructed.
Georgina had a £100k budget for a house or apartment she could rent for a period and then sell at a profit. Some of the places she inspected left something to be desired.
"It's not the Ritz, but very nice for a holiday home," McCausland said of one apartment. But who, you wondered, would want a tiny bathroom where you could go the toilet and have a shower at the same time?
The colour wasn't entirely to Georgina's taste. Entering a pink-painted room, she said, "It's a sex shop".
Her friend Tina echoed my thoughts: "How do you know?".
She was tempted by farmhouse built in 1869 and a classy two-bedroom apartment, but settled for a maisonette apartment 350 metres from the ski lift. The two-bed, two-bathroom property represented a better rental opportunity.
At £50,000, it was a snip or as McCausland put it, "A safe bet, she's not going to lose any money". How many business dealings can you say that about?
If buying was simple, decorating and furnishing carried more hazards because - surprise, surprise - building work wasn't finished on time. She arrived on the promise of a completed apartment only to find it had no front door, or any other door for that matter, no heating, the flooring hadn't been laid, the plumbing was half in and the windows missing.
This hardly merited the estate agent's description of "finished" and a heated discussion followed.
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