Mortgages

Family ‘escape’ UK for dream home in Bulgaria and live mortgage free after paying £7k


Laura Phoenix, 33, and her husband Anthony, 32, moved 1,941 miles to Strazhitsa, Bulgaria, in September 2023 with their daughters Cecelia, aged four, and Nova, two

Laura Phoenix with her daughters Cecelia and Nova in a Bulgarian winter(Laura Phoenix/SWNS)

A British family “escaped” the UK for Bulgaria for their “dream” home and are now living mortgage free after buying an abandoned house for just £7k.

Laura Phoenix, 33, and her husband Anthony, 32, moved 1,941 miles to Strazhitsa, Bulgaria, in September 2023 with their daughters Cecelia, four, and Nova, two. The couple wanted to live off-grid to be sustainable after seeing the state of plastic waste on beaches in Thailand.




But Laura and Anthony, a stay at home dad, couldn’t afford a rural home in the UK and decided to look in Bulgaria for their dream place after seeing others do the same on YouTube. The couple found and bought an abandoned three-bedroom property in Strazhitsa for £7,000.

They sold their UK two bedroom home for £85k and moved from Darlington, County Durham to Bulgaria in September 2023 and have been renovating the property ever since. Since moving Laura says her skin condition has vanished and the family feel “free”. Laura, an online English teacher and writer, said: “We bought a home on a whim. But it’s our dream home. We don’t have any mortgage.

Anthony Phoenix with his daughters Cecelia and Nova(Laura Phoenix/SWNS)

“I developed a skin condition and had bad flare ups. When I got here it just vanished. I feel we were pushed out of the UK. I feel like we had no choice. We don’t want to both work hours for 40 hours a week just to exist. In England it is so unattainable.” Anthony said: “Even if you own a property in the UK the cost of living is so much higher. We’ve always decided when we want to do something we jump at the opportunity.”

Laura and Anthony had always had a love for travelling but were devastated when they saw the state of the beaches in Thailand. Laura said: “There was too much plastic everywhere.” They came back to the UK and set up an eco-friendly and refillable shop in 2018 and managed to buy a fixer upper old council house for £55k.

But the pair had a dream to live off-grid together with their kids but after seeing prices around £500k for what they wanted they started to look abroad. Laura said: “We were trying to find land for an affordable price. We were binge watching YouTube and dreaming of somewhere we could be free.”

After seeing other Brits move to Bulgaria, the couple set their sights on doing the same and spent two weeks finding their family home in May 2022 falling in love with the town of Strazhitsa, Bulgaria. They sold their business and Darlington home to buy their Bulgarian dream outright and moved in September 2023.



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