A woman has revealed how she left the UK to buy her dream mansion in Bulgaria.
Donna Hardy, 43, and her family moved this year from Scunthorpe in the UK to a huge house near Veliko Tarnavo in northern Bulgaria.
The mother-of-three claims she paid just €26,000 (£21,000) for the property, which includes a smaller house at the back, a “huge” barn, several outbuildings and around an acre of land.
She described her new home as “very run down” but said she and her family are “very happy with it.”
in a video which has racked up over 1.5 million views, Donna took to TikTok to show off her sprawling new property.
Donna Hardy paid £21,500 for her ‘huge’ new house in Bulgaria after leaving the UK
She said: “We paid 26,000 euros for this house, but not only did we get this house, around the house there is another small mini house, there is a huge barn, we have outbuildings and we also have the garage along with an acre of land.
“At the moment, as you can see, we’re still trying to unpack a lot of things.”
Donna’s daughter Elise even bought the property next door for £21,000, and a smaller one for £7,000.
As of January 2024, the average house price in the UK is £282,200, rising to £518,000 in London.
Comparatively, the average sales price in north-central Bulgaria is 26,574 euros, according to Move 2 Bulgariawhich makes it one of the cheapest areas to live in Europe.
You can even buy houses on eBay, where Donna’s daughter Elise found her home. Donna bought her own house through an agency.
Viewers in the UK were amazed that Donna had managed to buy such a big house for her money.
The mother-of-three claims she paid just €26,000 (£21,000) for the property, which includes a smaller house at the back, a “huge” barn, several outbuildings and around an acre of land.
Donna has shared videos of the sprawling property on her TikTok account.
Describing the property as “dilapidated”, Donna and her family have already begun renovations, with the help of local builders.
They wrote: ‘Wow! That’s cheap! In Bristol, England, £26,000 gets you the front door!!’;
‘Absolute bargain, congratulations on leaving England, I applaud you’;
‘It’s funny, I’m Bulgarian and I bought a house in London for a lot of money… I should have stayed intact. I regret all my life choices’;
‘Living the dream’;
“I got my house in Bulgaria in 2018 and as an Englishman I can honestly tell you it was the right decision and the people are lovely.”
However, another said: ‘Bulgaria is cheap to buy in, yes, but there isn’t much there and it is very cold in winter!’
Describing the property as “dilapidated”, Donna and her family have already begun renovations, with the help of local builders.
Viewers in the UK were amazed that Donna had managed to buy such a big house for her money.
She said: ‘The house we have is a big house, we also have a mini house.
‘We have a good sized barn and a good amount of land. “So we’re very happy with the price we paid.”
They have begun tiling one bedroom, while the living room is nearly finished with a cozy fireplace, sofa, and storage space.
Donna says she hopes the ‘mini house’ at the back will be a cozy place for her 12-year-old daughter when the work is completed.
She said that she and her family currently live there on a type D visa, granted to those who wish to enter the country to settle there for a long period.
It comes as many Britons decide to leave the UK for Australia and move to Australia in search of better salaries, friendlier people and a more relaxed lifestyle.
A new study found that life expectancy in Australia is two years longer than in the UK, published in BMJ Open.
The evidence revealing the benefits of living in Australia may be new, but Britons have long claimed that moving has improved their mental wellbeing.