Polish company to invest 90milion leva in mall construction in Bulgaria's Varna

Polish company Globe Trade Centre (GTC) will provide funding for nearly 95 per cent of the construction of Gallery Varna mall.
Investment will total 89 million leva.
This is the fourth mall project to be launched in the coastal city of Varna since the beginning of 2007.
The project is still awaiting construction permit. Construction works will be finalised by the end of 2009.
Annual rental income is expected to reach 9.5 million leva.
This is the first GTC project in Bulgaria. The company already has several trade centres in Romania. It plans to construct two more trade centres in other big Bulgarian cities.
GTC announced that in 2006, it acquired a 4500 sq m plot in Sofia, worth 1.55 million euro.

Information Source: Sofia Echo

Industrial property market in Bulgaria underdeveloped - report

Industrial property market in Bulgaria is poorly developed as property supply meets 60 per cent of demand.
Most warehouses, production facilities and logistics centres offered on the market are old and in bad condition while prices fail complying with market criteria, Pari daily reported.
Monthly warehouse rent in Sofia vary between 3.5 euro and 4.5 euro per sq m and sales prices between 450 euro and 500 euro per sq m.
The report said that a good opportunity for long-term renting is municipal property due to low prices. Such properties require sufficient amount of initial investment in repair works and reconstruction as the buildings are usually old and in bad condition.

Information Source: Sofia Echo

Bulgaria with “Phenomenal” Position in Property Market Popularity Ranking

Bulgaria continues to be a magnet for UK property buyers, as a new report by the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP) has revealed.

Describing the position of Bulgaria as "phenomenal" the AIPP table that ranks the popularity of foreign property markets had the Eastern European country at third with 7.7 per cent of the market.
This placed it just behind perennial favourites like Spain and France, which remained as the two top markets.
And Quest Bulgaria's latest issue shows that four in five of overseas property investors are from the UK, as reported by Real Estate TV, which revealed that the market is particularly popular with Britons but not elsewhere in Europe.
The surge in demand has led to warnings that investors expecting profits from buying and selling property should cool their expectations, as the Bulgarian real estate market faces oversupply, dampening future price rises.
Spain, where properties have become more affordable due to a recent crash in the market, and America, where a weak dollar is still making real estate a relatively cheap investment, are set to become more popular in the short term.

Information Source: News.bg

Price of residential construction projects in Bulgaria to increase

The price of residential construction projects will increase on the average by 2 to 3 euro per sq m this autumn.

Design and planning of office property will cost 20 to 30 per cent more than work on residential projects, chamber of architects representative Dimitar Mladenov said.

Mladenov took part in a discussion on the problems of the architecture and construction sectors.

New ways to calculate the cost of planning and design services will be introduced in September. Changes are needed to guarantee price uniformity and quality of the product.

In the autumn, the chamber will also publish a list of all companies operating in the sector. Bulgarian design and architecture companies will be able in this way to accept projects from abroad.

Information Source: Sofia Echo

Bulgaria maintauns leading position in property market attractiveness ranking

Bulgaria's capital of Sofia ranks third in property market attractiveness according to recent research of Global Property Guide (GPG).

The ranking included 12 European capitals and placed Bratislava and Istanbul at the first two positions.

GPG compared several factors including prices per sq m, annual rental income, taxes, transaction costs, GDP and legislation in the country.

EU membership requirements activated a number of reforms in Bulgaria, research said. The annual gross rental income in Sofia is 10.6 per cent on average.

Average residential prices are still low amounting to 1042 euro per sq m and the taxes on rental income are within the European levels.

Transaction costs remain too high with average levels between 24.8 per cent and 26.6 per cent.

Slovakia turns out to be the most attractive place for property investment due to its GDP growth of 8.7 per cent in 2006, high rental income and low transaction costs.

Legislation changes in Turkey in the end of 2005 made it easier to purchase real estate in the country. Rental income ranging between six and 7.6 per cent and steady economic growth placed Turkey second among most attractive places for property investment.

The ranking goes further to include Romania, Hungary, Moldova and Ukraine.

In comparison, Baltic countries registered rental income decrease. Apartment prices in those countries are already reaching the levels in Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm.

Information Source: Sofia Echo

Bulgaria confirming its position as importand property market segment

Bulgaria's participation in the 58th congress of the International Real Estate Federation FIABCI showed that the country gains popularity as a serious segment of the international real estate market.
The forum took place from May 28 to June 2 in Spain’s Barcelona, Focus news agency reported.
Representatives of the largest companies in the sphere of real estate, financing and banking institutions took part in the event.
The main subject was finance and information technologies on the international real estate market.
Among Bulgarian participants featured real estate consultancy company Home for You. Company's manager Konstantin Bobchev introduced forum participants to opportunities for Bulgarian real estate market development and possibilities for real estate projects funding.

Information Source: Sofia Echo

Resorts in Bulgaria to see residential property construlcion boom

Most of the apartments to be constructed in Bulgaria will be located near the country’s biggest resorts.
Residential property projects totaling 1.77 million sq m in area received construction permits in the first three months of 2007.
National Statistical Institute (NSI) data showed that 75 per cent of these apartments will be located in the regions of Bourgas, Varna and Dobrich at the seaside and near the mountain resorts of Bansko, Razlog, Pamporovo and Borovets.
Nearly 20 per cent of all apartments to be constructed will be located in the Bourgas region.
Between January and April 2007, Dobrich municipality issued nearly 41 per cent more construction permits that during the entire 2006.
Apartments to be constructed in the Varna region doubled as compared to figures for the same period in 2006.

InformaSource: Sofia Echo

Prices of new apartments in Bulgaria's Bourgas Decrease, hike registered in Sofia

Average prices of new apartments in some regions of Bulgaria’s coastal town of Bourgas went down in May.
Apartment prices in the centre of Bourgas decreased by four per cent to 1050 euro per sq m and by six per cent in the regions near the centre compared to April figures.
Prices in the regions near Bourgas remained unchanged. Prices in Sarafovo varied between 700 and 750 euro per sq m, in Sozopol , 1100 euro per sq m , Primorsko registered price of 850 euro per sq m.
Varna registered no changes in its apartment prices. Apartments in the centre of Varna vary in price from 1000 to 1300 euro per sq m.
New panel and brick construction in Sofia became more expensive. Average prices went up by 1.63 per cent compared to April costs. Some residential district in Sofia showed no change in prices.
Beli Brezi, Mladost 1A and Geo Milev feature among residential districts that registered the highest price increase in May.
The average apartment price in the centre of Sofia increased by 1.94 per cent reaching 1050 euro per sq m.

Source : Sofia Echo

OFFICE PROPERTY RENTS IN TOP 50 HIGHEST WORLDWIDE

The office rents in Sofia rank as the 49th highest worldwide, research of consultancy company CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) shows.

Annual office rent expenditure in Sofia reached $517.3 per sq m, or $43.1 per sq m per month.

London keeps its first place in the chart. Office rents in some of its most expensive parts reach $2596.5 on annual basis. Tokyo takes the next positions in the chart.

The chart’s top 10 remain almost unchanged. Delhi is a newcomer among the 10 most expensive office property destinations, ranking seventh.

Moscow, Paris, Dublin and Dubai also feature in the top 10.

Athens and Warsaw are the other two East European cities apart from Sofia to rank among the most expensive 50 office destinations. Athens ranks 36th and Warsaw occupies the 48th position.

About Bulgarian properties in summer season

Over the past few years, property supply has exceeded demand in Bulgaria’s leading resorts.

The vacation property market is reaching its saturation point and a number of resorts already suffer from over-construction and the lack of proper infrastructure, participants in the first Balkan real estate conference BalRec said.

In order to attract new clients, resorts should start offering unique projects and better infrastructure condition.

Vacation property developments in Bulgaria are more prominent than those located in neighbouring counties, conference participants said.

Colliers International data for 2006 shows that the number of vacation properties in Bulgaria’s coastal area increased 82% to reach 35 000 units. The biggest increase was registered in the regions of Kavarna and Balchik.

Romania and Serbia are currently trying to establish themselves as attractive tourism destinations in order to also develop the vacation property market.

At the same time, the quality of vacation property projects in Bulgaria varies greatly. Buyers now have higher demands, which also presupposed higher construction quality.

Vacation property prices in Bulgaria vary from 800 to 1600 euro per sq m. Colliers predicts similar levels or a slight increase in the future.

Investors in Bulgaria’s coastal regions are failing to find buyers for their newly-built hotels.

Nearly 30 new hotels were offered for sale over the past year, 24 Chassa daily reported. Only 250 hotels were on sale in southern coastal regions. The hotels are being sold in all stages of construction.

The average price is 856 euro a sq m.

Most of the hotels for sale were in the resorts of Sveti Vlas (St Vlas), Slunchev Bryag (Sunny Beach) and Chernomorets.

Experts said that there was a lack of buyers in these resorts, because the most tourists there were foreigners, who preferred buying apartments in complexes, instead of staying in hotels.

The biggest demand for hotels was in Slunchev Bryag, Nessebar and Primorsko was said in press.

To the north, the highest supply of hotels is in Zlatni Pyasutsi (Golden Sands) resort. Average prices were 1000 euro a sq m.

Demand was biggest in Zlatni Pyasutsi, Sveti Konstantin and Slunchev Den (Sunny Day).

Information Source: Sofia Echo