"We moved to Bulgaria after realised we would never be able to afford a mortgage in the UK"
A British family left the UK for Bulgaria after realising they would never be able to buy a home - and saved £293k by snapping up a farm abroad for just £7k.
Lewis Vye, and his wife, Jordan, both 31, left their two-bed rental house in Bournemouth, Dorset, and moved 1,788 miles to Haskovo Province, Bulgaria, in June 2022 - with their two children, Leo, 11, and Fae, two.
Jordan got the idea off a friend of a friend, who told her she had bought a house in the country for just £3k.
After mulling over the idea and constantly checking Rightmove for properties, the pair bought a two-acre plot of land which included a three-bedroom house, a barn and outbuildings for £7k - cheaper than the £300k mortgage they were facing in the UK.
But then covid hit and the family were unable to visit the property until May 2021.
Jordan and Lewis then informed their family of the move, sold most of their belongings and packed up their caravan - arriving in Bulgaria in June 2022.
The couple say their quality of life has improved as they have more time to spend with their children and with each other.
Jordan, a freelance social media manager, originally from Bournemouth, Dorset, said: "We were really struggling with the whole mortgage thing.
"We had our son at 19 and moved into a flat that we couldn't afford, it all started from there.
"It set our path for never being able to get a mortgage - it was a really big thing of owning our own home.
"Even with two wages, it wasn't something that seemed achievable for us in the UK.
"It hasn't been easy but there is such a great community here in Bulgaria.
"It reminds me of what my grandma would use to say when she lived in Bradford.
"It was a community, it was a village, everyone knew everybody, everyone helped.
"We had so many people when we arrived offering to help us."
Jordan was in Southampton, Hampshire, when she bumped into a friend of a friend who revealed she bought a house in Bulgaria.
Jordan said: "I was talking to a friend of a friend, and she told me she bought a house in Bulgaria for £3k.
"I asked her if I could have a look, I couldn't believe it.
"I went home and had a look for myself, I remember showing Lewis and I joked saying 'should we start again?'.
"We then looked, and we couldn't believe what we could get for that price.
"We had always liked the idea of doing something up.
"It was also the countryside element, we had always wanted to live in the countryside.
"In Bournemouth, if you want a house in the countryside, it was never going to happen for us."
Lewis and Jordan purchased the house in Bulgaria for £7k using their savings.
But after they bought the plot, they were unable to visit the house due to covid restrictions.
After they were finally able to view the property, they broke the news to their family - who didn't want them to leave.
Jordan said: "They feel like we sprung the news on them, but we have had it planned for a while.
Lewis Vye, and his wife, Jordan, both 31, left their two-bed rental house in Bournemouth, Dorset, and moved 1,788 miles to Haskovo Province, Bulgaria, in June 2022 - with their two children, Leo, 11, and Fae, two.
Jordan got the idea off a friend of a friend, who told her she had bought a house in the country for just £3k.
After mulling over the idea and constantly checking Rightmove for properties, the pair bought a two-acre plot of land which included a three-bedroom house, a barn and outbuildings for £7k - cheaper than the £300k mortgage they were facing in the UK.
But then covid hit and the family were unable to visit the property until May 2021.
Jordan and Lewis then informed their family of the move, sold most of their belongings and packed up their caravan - arriving in Bulgaria in June 2022.
The couple say their quality of life has improved as they have more time to spend with their children and with each other.
Jordan, a freelance social media manager, originally from Bournemouth, Dorset, said: "We were really struggling with the whole mortgage thing.
"We had our son at 19 and moved into a flat that we couldn't afford, it all started from there.
"It set our path for never being able to get a mortgage - it was a really big thing of owning our own home.
"Even with two wages, it wasn't something that seemed achievable for us in the UK.
"It hasn't been easy but there is such a great community here in Bulgaria.
"It reminds me of what my grandma would use to say when she lived in Bradford.
"It was a community, it was a village, everyone knew everybody, everyone helped.
"We had so many people when we arrived offering to help us."
Jordan was in Southampton, Hampshire, when she bumped into a friend of a friend who revealed she bought a house in Bulgaria.
Jordan said: "I was talking to a friend of a friend, and she told me she bought a house in Bulgaria for £3k.
"I asked her if I could have a look, I couldn't believe it.
"I went home and had a look for myself, I remember showing Lewis and I joked saying 'should we start again?'.
"We then looked, and we couldn't believe what we could get for that price.
"We had always liked the idea of doing something up.
"It was also the countryside element, we had always wanted to live in the countryside.
"In Bournemouth, if you want a house in the countryside, it was never going to happen for us."
Lewis and Jordan purchased the house in Bulgaria for £7k using their savings.
But after they bought the plot, they were unable to visit the house due to covid restrictions.
After they were finally able to view the property, they broke the news to their family - who didn't want them to leave.
Jordan said: "They feel like we sprung the news on them, but we have had it planned for a while.
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FunTranscript
00:00 You have to be crazy enough to think that it's possible.
00:03 That's how you f***ing do something worthwhile.
00:07 That's how you beat the f***ing odds.
00:10 You have to believe it's possible.
00:13 Hi, I'm Jordan.
00:14 I'm Lewis.
00:17 Hi, I'm Leo.
00:19 And this is Faye.
00:24 Join the FYE family as we up sticks and reroute from the hustle and bustle of the UK to a more simplistic life in Bulgaria.
00:31 Watch as we learn, grow, fail, succeed and everything in between.
00:40 From Bournemouth to Bulgaria.
00:44 So we're actually going to move into the house and not into that annex because actually
00:54 it's a lot harder to move into the annex because of the work that needs to be done to the rafters on the wood,
01:00 on the building, the support beams and stuff. It's in a lot worse condition than the house is.
01:06 So actually it's a cheaper job to fix the house roof because there's not really any replacing to do.
01:12 It's just taking the tiles off and putting some felt down and putting the tiles back on really
01:20 and kind of insulating it and making it nice.
01:23 We're going to start making the stairs a little bit nicer to walk up.
01:26 Current stairs look like this. They're a bit of a mess.
01:29 And they did look even worse than this.
01:31 So we're going to clear these up and get rid of the majority of the rubble and the crap and the broken cement
01:37 and hopefully get them to a place where we can walk up them.
01:40 Had a dig, had a sweep and we got some good results.
01:44 Well, we can walk up them and that's the main thing.
01:47 That's what they're looking like now. So I'd say pretty big difference.
01:52 I mean, the top layer has come off, the render kind of layer,
01:58 and we're kind of left with the foundations of concrete underneath.
02:02 You knew it!
02:04 A little record player. You're buzzing about that, aren't you?
02:09 I really am. And what is in that briefcase back there? I just don't know.
02:12 Oh, we haven't opened that yet, have we?
02:14 No.
02:15 Open it.
02:16 Is there stuff in there?
02:18 Yeah.
02:19 Crowbar it out.
02:20 Oh, my God. Are they unlocked already or not?
02:23 Oh!
02:24 You need to ruin it.
02:25 I didn't. Oh, that one.
02:27 Oh!
02:28 Oh.
02:29 Oh, what's those? Baby clothes!
02:31 [GASPS]
02:33 No.
02:34 No.
02:35 That would have been knitted by someone.
02:39 [LAUGHS]
02:41 That's adorable.
02:43 Oh, Faye's going to look lovely in that.
02:45 Oh, my God.
02:46 I think there's something mentally wrong with it.
02:48 There's something mentally wrong with you.
02:50 [LAUGHS]
02:51 Yes, but you've already adopted it.
02:53 All he does is meow.
02:54 Cheese.
02:55 Oh, no.
02:57 No.
02:59 And you've just adopted a baby boy.
03:03 Yeah, but this one's not our child.
03:05 She's still here.
03:06 [LAUGHS]
03:09 And then you've got these lovely wooden doors that we're going to restore.
03:15 They're very, very nice.
03:17 Very solid.
03:18 We found the keys for them, so that's good.
03:21 And then, so room number one here, probably going to have to replace this.
03:28 But as for the lintel that supports the wall, it's in pretty good condition.
03:33 Look at these.
03:34 Look at this lovely handle here.
03:36 That handle, it's just-- they're awesome.
03:39 They all work.
03:42 And they've got this cool little sliding bar all the way down.
03:46 Really well thought out.
03:48 So we walk through these double doors.
03:50 We come into this big open space here, which is quite nice.
03:55 That's the old electric box up there, the old fuse box, switchboard, whatever you want to call it.
04:01 That's going to be replaced with new.
04:03 All of this ceiling's going to come down.
04:05 And then we go left, and we've got this room here.
04:08 Beautiful wardrobe, which came with the house, solid wood.
04:10 Absolutely amazing.
04:12 You just don't get wardrobes like that in the UK.
04:14 You just don't get them.
04:15 How cool is that?
04:16 You sit here, you've got your grapes.
04:18 Grapes there.
04:20 Look at that view.
04:21 Sat there.
04:22 Just sat here looking at that view.
04:23 Wonderful.
04:24 Unbelievable.
04:25 And this room will be lovely.
04:27 We get it all cleaned up, and it'll be a beautiful little room.
04:30 We've got this room here.
04:31 The plan is to make this a bathroom area.
04:34 So we'll come in, and we'll have somewhere where we can stay warm, wash, and whatnot.
04:40 I'm going to rip this ceiling now, because it is battered.
04:43 There's cracks all the way across it.
04:45 So you can see the ceiling.
04:52 How pretty is that?
04:54 Unreal.
04:55 So nice.
04:56 And that's the floor.
04:59 So now we've got to shovel it all out the window so that we can deal with it at a later date.
05:04 Need to get rid of all of this.
05:06 Yeah.
05:21 There's not too much to see.
05:23 But it's done.
05:25 It's done.
05:27 [LAUGHS]
05:29 24th of September today.
05:35 So we're approaching October.
05:37 They say that the days here stay pretty good until November.
05:40 It's just the mornings and the evenings get pretty cold, which seems to be the case.
05:44 So yeah, final socket.
05:46 And it won't be too long until we've got power.
05:51 So for the first time, we're going to turn this on.
05:54 I'm sorry if it doesn't work.
05:55 We believe in you, Dada.
05:56 That's number one on it.
05:57 Flip that off.
05:58 Let's go for the night, shall we?
06:00 That's on.
06:01 Go and try a light.
06:02 Go.
06:03 No.
06:04 Has Dada fixed it?
06:06 Yeah!
06:10 [LAUGHS]
06:11 Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
06:14 Light, light, light.
06:16 [SINGING]
06:22 I love it.
06:24 So far, here's the frames.
06:27 Whenever I do stuff like this, I probably would have called my grandad and asked him how to do it.
06:34 So my grandad passed away this year, and I think when I do this--
06:38 [LAUGHS]
06:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]