Afternoon Mark (well, it is afternoon here in Bulgaria)
Yes, I think you are completely right about location being important.
St Vlas is definitely a good bet and your reasons for saying so are totally valid. I personally would prefer it to SB but then I myself prefer things a bit quieter.
I agree too regarding promoting your property for rent, I think lots of people wanting to rent apartments or houses forget that you have to work at marketing to get the business. There seems to be a strange idea that once you have bought your property, then the business will just arrive (and this is most certainly not limited to people buying in Bulgaria, but indeed all over the world). You need to check sources for advertising and promotion, plus find differentiators, reply to emails in the correct way, over-achieve on managing their expectations, etc.....
The Russians, as you say, are out in force - but it has to be said they are looking for really top notch stuff - location and quality of build combined. If you have that then you can do very well with them. Interestingly though, a lot of our readers have successfully sold to Brits and other Europeans.
It is interesting that holiday home construction in Bulgaria is not currently keeping up with demand, so I expect that all those doom and gloom merchants will be eating their hat soon. One of our key things we always say is that you always have to look forward in a property market and the doom n gloom guys ref Bulgaria are basing their opinion on what has happened rather than what is happening now and is to come.
Cheers
