Workmen

My mother-in-law is putting new windows into the balcony. She needs to put some brick work done and then get ready for the windows. The workmen should have been there last week but they could not come...because it was raining. :-)

Anyway, all this week it has rained , so she has not seen them.
I got a call about half and hour ago saying that they had arrived.
I shouted to my wife that the workmen were there and we got ready to go and give her some help.
5 minutes later the phone rang...
"That'll be the workmen away again" I joked.
But I was in fact right...they came, they saw ... and they left to come back tomorrow!
:-)

Don't you just love Albania! :-)

Some people e-mail to ask how long it would take to get e.g. a kitchen fitted to property they have bought in Albania....
How long is a piece of string?

Electrical Hazards

This is the view at the bottom of my stairs. As you can see, the builder, did not do as he promised and did not fix the electrical cables for the apartments. As a result we have to climb over, and sometimes stand on the cables, just to get the bicycle out. What is worse is that when the pump breaks it leaks water, so that the whole floor and cables are wet.

However, the bright side is that as we have no electric meter, we just have to pay a monthly fixed tariff, which i am sure is a lot less than we actually use!

Still, care is often needed in Albania - just for the simple things!

Buying property in Albania

I have been asked about buying property in Albania, so I must post this link to an article from Albania Business Guide 2006-2007. For anyone seriously thinking of purchasing property in Albania they really should read this!

I saw Rick Stein's cooking program in the summer and he was in Corfu. He looked across to Albania and made a comment about how little development there was on the shore of Albania. He said that this would all change in the next 10 years and then we would be all buying property in Albania!
If he is right, then maybe NOW would be the right (and cheapest) time to buy!

Property in Albania

This is a photograph of the "5 heronjtë" statue.
Directly behind it, you may be able to see work in progress on a new building.
I must admit I got quite excited when i saw this, as it is part of the land outside Radio Shkodra. The reason i was excited, was because I thought that there was a chance of them building a little auditorium...somewhere to hold children's concerts, school plays, and even better, somewhere for local bands to play. But, no, I was thinking with my "Scottish" head again and not my "Albanian" head. It is of course, going to be office buildings and new apartments. (see below)

Now, I am all in favour of Albania getting some new buildings and better sized apartments and with better quality...but it appears EVERYONE is building apartments and NOTHING else! I heard that a poll amongst the youth in Albania once recorded their major complaint as being "lack of facilities" for their age group. So why more apartments?

I guess there is more money to be made in apartments rather than a concert hall.

Certainly, I feel with the lack of facilities, young people will continue to look further away...either to Tirana or abroad to meet their "needs". This remains a worry for me.

Buying property in Albania

Recently the centre pages of the Sunday Times in the UK, carried a property page advertising new apartments in Albania.

At the same time, I heard Rick Stein in a cookery programme on the BBC claiming that within 10 years " we will all be buying property in Albania".

It is true, house prices are rising daily. In some cases they have increased 3 times in price within a year!

I would just like to offer some advice as one who has bought land, and an apartment in Albania.

1) Be very careful as to who the owner of the land is. Many houses and apartments have been built without permission. You may end up buying land/property from someone that has paperwork, but does not own the land!

2) Take great care even when the owner is known. Sometimes the whole family(i.e. everyone over the age of 16 years) needs to sign the papers, or else they are not valid.

3) Even if you are buying a new apartment be very careful.
Are all the documents correct?
We bought a new apartment but the owner reduced the floor space making numerous changes to the original plans.
We paid for the apartment and ended up in a dispute over water asnd electricity. The owner had not made a contract with the electricity firm and it left us 2 months without electricity!

4) Someone needs to overlook the Albanian workmen. Usually they get quality work on the outside, and pay cheap labour to do all the work on the inside. This needs to be checked daily!

5) Never pay until you have ALL the documents. I sold an apartment here, went to the bank, arranged with the manager that we return and get the money transferred to my account. I then completed all documentation at the notary office. When we finished at the notary office the buyer told me that the money in the bank was not his, it was his employers and that he could not pay me!

6) Get a good lawyer! (Albanian one)