Couple 'escape' the UK and buy 'dream' home for £7,000 in European country known for its natural beauty - but there's a catch READ MORE: I moved my family to Mauritius for a better life - now we have a big house and my son won't grow up in day care By Jessica Green For Mailonline Published: 07:09 EDT, 1 November 2024 | Updated: 07:17 EDT, 1 November 2024 e-mail 4 View comments 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 £7,000 - but it was a huge job to fix it up. Laura Phoenix, 33, and her husband Anthony, 32, moved 1,941 miles from Darlington, County Durham, 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 father, 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 after selling their two-bedroom house in the UK for £85,000. Laura Phoenix, 33, and her husband Anthony, 32, moved 1,941 miles from Darlington, County Durham, to Strazhitsa, Bulgaria, in September 2023 with their daughters – Cecelia, four, and Nova, two.
Pictured, Laura Phoenix with her daughters Cecelia and Nova during a Bulgarian .
