Family mortgage-free after selling UK home and buying \ from 33 elina brotherus Watch Video

⏲ Duration: 3:26
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✓ Published: 14-Mar-2024

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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.<br/><br/>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. <br/><br/>The couple wanted to live off-grid to be sustainable after seeing the state of plastic waste on beaches in Thailand.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>The couple found and bought an abandoned three-bedroom property in Strazhitsa for £7,000.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>Since moving Laura says her skin condition has vanished and the family feel “free”.<br/><br/>Laura, an online English teacher and writer, said: “We bought a home on a whim.<br/><br/>“But it’s our dream home. We don’t have any mortgage.<br/><br/>“I developed a skin condition and had bad flare ups.<br/><br/>“When I got here it just vanished.<br/><br/>“I feel we were pushed out of the UK.<br/><br/>“I feel like we had no choice.<br/><br/>“We don’t want to both work hours for 40 hours a week just to exist.<br/><br/>“In England it is so unattainable.”<br/><br/>Anthony said: “Even if you own a property in the UK the cost of living is so much higher.<br/><br/>“We’ve always decided when we want to do something we jump at the opportunity.”<br/><br/>Laura and Anthony had always had a love for travelling but were devastated when they saw the state of the beaches in Thailand.<br/><br/>Laura said: “There was too much plastic everywhere.”<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>Laura said: “We were trying to find land for an affordable price.<br/><br/>“We were binge watching YouTube and dreaming of somewhere we could be free.”<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>They sold their business and Darlington home to buy their Bulgarian dream outright and moved in September 2023.<br/><br/>Laura said: “The garden had a whole mattress in it.<br/><br/>“Anthony demolished the top floor.<br/><br/>“We removed all the rats and vermin.”<br/><br/>The family are currently living in one side of the house with a temporary kitchen while they wait for the harsh winter to pass to continue renovating.<br/><br/>They have spent less that £2k so far and hope to be have it completed in the next three years.<br/><br/>The couple have a quarter of an acre where they have already started to plant seeds to grow spinach, onion, and garlic.