November 14,2019
Vitosha Boulevard in the Top 50 of the Most Expensive Streets in Europe

Vitosha Boulevard, known as "Vitoshka" among the capital's residents, has climbed the ranking of the most expensive streets in Europe, according to a list of a US real estate company.

With a monthly rent of 56 euros per square meter, Sofia's shopping street reached 46th place in the survey, moving one place higher than last year's ranking.

The survey covers 448 commercial destinations in 68 countries around the world, BNR reported.

For the last year, the rental prices of the shops on Vitosha Blvd have increased by 12%, which confirms the presence of the boulevard in the Top 50 of the most expensive shopping areas in the world. Other Balkan capitals in the survey are Belgrade with Knez Mihailova Street on 36th position with 90 euros / sq. m monthly rent and Zagreb with Ilica Street - on the 40th position with a rent of 75 EUR / sq. m. The Romanian capital Bucharest stays on the 49th place with Calea Victoriei and a monthly rent of EUR 50 / sq. m. m.

In Europe, the most expensive retail location remains Bond Street in London with a monthly rent of 1352 euro / sq. M. m. It is followed by the Avenue des Champs Elysees in Paris with € 1,166 / sq. m. m and Via Monte Napoleone in Milan with 1142 euro / sq. m. m.

Among the Eastern European capitals, the highest retail prices are maintained by Prague at EUR 235 / sq. M. m monthly rent and 18th position in the ranking.

The most expensive shopping street in the world is Causeway Bay in Hong Kong with a monthly rent of 2164 euro / sq. The second position is for New York with 5th Avenue and a price equivalent to 1,775 euros / square meter. m.

According to the report's authors, the results of the new edition of the ranking are encouraging and show a steady demand for world-class retail locations across the world.

November 13,2019
The Real Estate Market in Sofia Is Stable

In 2019 the real estate market in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia is stable and housing prices have seen insignificant changes, the analysts of the leading real estate company Bulgarian Properties note, BNR reported.

The average prices in Sofia in the third quarter of 2019 is EUR 1088 per square meter. Last year the average price of the properties in Sofia was at EUR 1090 per square meter. In 2019 the median sale price of the properties in Sofia was EUR 89,307, whereas last year the average price was EUR 86,260. 1.23 average salaries in Sofia are enough to buy 1 square meter of property in Bulgaria’s capital, the analysts further note.

October 7,2019
Vacant Properties Increased by 24%

Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Netanya and Haifa are the most prominent cities with the highest percentage of empty homes. The share of vacant properties in the whole country has increased by 24% from 2012. As of mid-2019, 170,300 units are not occupied of more than 9 months. This is 6.5% of Israel's housing stock, according to the National Statistical Institute of the country. For 2018, the share of vacant homes has increased by 8% compared to 2017. For comparison, in 2012, the number of non-habitable apartments was 137 200. Compared to 2019, the growth is 24%.

There are many causes for a similar trend to be observed. One of them is that part of the dwellings are in poor condition, need a repair and aren’t located in prestigious areas. Part of the properties are inherited and its successors and new conscripts cannot agree on the home's fate. There are also luxurious properties, which belong to foreigners, who use them only for a short period of time through the recent years. Others have not succeeded to sell them.

The prevailing part of the properties in question are located in large cities. 11% of all similar properties in the country, or 18,600 objects are located in Tel Aviv, 9% (15 100) and 7% (12 400) In Jerusalem.

October 2,2019
About 30% of the New Homes Are Purchased with Credit

About 30% of new homes are purchased with credit. This is according to data from the The National Association of Building Contractors. According to Desislava Petrova from one of the companies, members of the association, 70% of the transactions in the segment are two-room, most of them being acquired for investment. According to her, the three-bedroom apartment is dominated by the number of properties bought for its own use.

"The buyers of the rental apartments are people from small towns in the country or Bulgarians living abroad. Most of them decided to invest their money in real estate in the country, with the majority of Bulgarians currently residing in the UK. Smaller homes are most often bought from young families over the age of 25, and the larger ones by people between the ages of 35-40, " she explained.

A large percentage of the people who are looking to buy a property are heading for new construction, which is why almost 100% of the projects are sold before obtaining a permit for use.

“The demand in Sofia remains largely in the southern regions again. Currently, there is new construction on the market, but no over-supply. Last year, about 15,000 building permits were issued, but the projects which were actually started are 8,000, " she explained. "Buyers are increasingly paying attention to service spaces. Nearly 80% of clients require storage space and an extra room for washer and dryer when looking for a new home. This need is directly related to the everyday comfort, especially for families with children, ” Desislava Petrova adds. According to her, clients are more and more interested in the common spaces of the building - they want to take a look at some of the already built buildings of the investor so that they know what they can expect for their future new home.

October 2,2019
Properties’ Prices in Sofia Has Increased by 5% in the Last Year

Properties’ prices in Sofia has increased by 5% in the last year. However, the increased interest in buying new homes remains underpinned by the high purchasing power, rising average wages and low unemployment, BNR reported.

Among the main buyers are Bulgarians living abroad who invest in real estate for the purpose of renting them out.

However, the National Association of Construction Developers commented on a number of industry issues, including the administrative burden and imperfections in the Spatial Planning Act. Builders and realtors deny the predicted crisis in the property market and justify a number of factors that favour deals at the moment. Every third apartment is purchased with credit.

August 14,2019
Colliers: Reverse of the Trend - Local Companies Are once again Dominating the Real Estate Investment Market

In the first half of 2019 there has been a reversal in the trends in the investment property market in Bulgaria. For the first time in two years, Bulgarian investors have taken the lead and contributed to the majority of transactions - 59%. Colliers' end-2018 projections for shrinking investment volumes came true. The total value of investment transactions by the middle of the year was just over EUR 167 million. One of the reasons for this is the lack of a new ready-made product.

Income-generating transactions are preferred (53%) over speculative ones (47%). Investors' radars are mainly construction plots (nearly 42% of all transactions) and office space (32%), followed by hotels (19%) and other types of space (8%). Return levels remain the same as in 2018 - for offices (8%), for retail space - 7.25% and 9.5% for industrial ones.

According to Colliers, at the end of 2019, the investment volume will continue to be lower than in the last two years, but will exceed the values ​​registered annually in 2009-2016.

The segments with the highest investment potential are office and retail space, which shows sustainable development, high project occupancy and stable rental levels. Increased demand for purchase of plots will continue - a signal that the market is in a phase suitable for the development of new projects that can subsequently become an investment product.

August 19,2019
Increase of Residential Buildings Completed in Bulgaria

New residential buildings completed in Bulgaria in the second quarter of 2019 increased by 10.5% on the year to 632, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on Thursday, reports SeeNews.

The total useful space of newly built dwellings decreased 2.5% year-on-year to 201,700 sq m in the period between April and June, NSI said in a statement.

The highest number of completed residential buildings in the review period was in Varna - 101. Plovdiv and Burgas followed with 63 and 56 new residential buildings, respectively.

Houses constituted 75.9%% of all new residential buildings in the second quarter of the year.

July 19,2019
Real Estate Deals in Sofia have been at a Record High Level for the Past 10 Years

The property market in Sofia, which is the largest in the country at the end of last year and early this year, has stalled. In the first quarter of 2019, the number of deals was only 10 more than the same period of the previous year, and 2018 alone ended with 0.09% growth versus 2017.

The expectations of some market participants were that it would slow down further, going through a phase of partial decline. Alas, the recently published data from the Registry Agency on the number of transactions concluded contradicts these projections.

The number of sales and purchases in the period April-June 2019 amounted to 7,670 compared to 7,119 a year ago, which equals 7.74% annual growth. Compared to the previous quarter, growth was close to 36% compared to 26% in the same period in 2018.

It is clear from the data that the second quarter of 2019 was the best since the financial crisis from 2008. The half-year aggregate data also shows that by the time of 2019 it has the largest number of transactions for the past decade.

"We owe the growth in the total volume of deals, mainly on two factors: on the one hand, it is the stabilization of the market - prices have stopped their fluctuations, making the market more predictable at the moment, giving courage to both countries to enter into deals at this point, "said Gergana Tenekedjieva, executive director of one of the largest agencies in the Address Market, for Money.bg.

"The other decisive factor is in the volume of newly developed construction Two years ago there was a significant increase in the issued building permits Today, these properties became a fact, most of them received Act 16, which allowed the transactions with them to be officially registered and to conclude new ones , while the secondary market is active, the incomes are stable, ie there are no factors to stop the active market in Sofia, "she added.

June 12,2019
Prices of Agricultural Land in Bulgaria Rose with 12% in 2018

The average price of the fields increased by 12.6 per cent in 2018 compared to the previous year, while a decare of agricultural land reached 941 levs before 2018, a growth of 7.9 per cent. The rental income has increased by 4.3 percent to 48 leva per hectare, according to data from the National Statistics Institute announced on Wednesday. Permanent grassland, however, declined by 16.8%.

In 2018 the highest is the price of the agricultural land in the North-East region - 1345 BGN per hectare. The increase in the price per hectare of agricultural land compared to the previous year was recorded in the North Central Region by 39.5% and in the South Central Region by 22.7%. Land prices in the Southeast region remain at almost the same level as in 2017 - a slight increase of 0.8% was noted. In 2018 there is a decrease in the price of one decare of agricultural land in the Southwest region - by 53.4%, in the Northwest - by 4.5%, and in the North-East region by 4.0%.

The average rental price per one acres of leased / farmed land reached BGN 48 per decare last year, 4.3% more than in 2017. Compared to the previous year, the increase in the rent for the fields is 6.4%. The cost of using permanent grassland remains unchanged.

The highest was the price per one acre rented / leased agricultural land in the Northeast region - 69 leva. An increase in the rental price over the previous year is observed in all statistical regions except the South Central Region.

May 29,2019
New 64,000 sq.m of Office Space in Sofia

64,000 square meters of new offices were put into operation in Sofia in the first quarter of the current year. Thus, the percentage of vacant areas is slightly higher - from 9.5% to 9.8%. Major clients continue to be IT and BPO companies.

A high percentage of office buildings that have been put into operation have managed to find their tenants before they open their doors. Because of this, the correction in the share of free space is low.

For the first quarter of 2019, the office space under construction in the capital is 427,000 square meters. With the completion of new projects, the supply of Class A and B offices during the period reached 1,882 million square meters. It is expected that over 200 000 square meters will be put into operation through the entire 2019 and the first months of 2020.

"This is a significant volume, but considering that about 45% of these offices are negotiated with tenants still under construction, we do not expect their commissioning to bring about significant market changes this year. In the medium term, our forecast is for more tangible growth in vacant space and possibly a slight pressure on rental levels, "says Stanimira Pashova, Office Manager at Cushman & Wakefield Forton.

The offered rental rates are kept unchanged compared to the previous quarter - 15 EUR / sq.m for the highest class of offices in the center of Sofia and 13-14 EUR / sq.m for prime areas on the big boulevards.

May 21,2019
About 40% of Households in Bulgaria Live in Overcrowded Housing

Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Valentin Yovev, who opened "Residential Forum 2019" in the capital announced that according to statistics, there are an average of 550 homes per 1000 people in Bulgaria, and that houses were more than households.

Over 97 percent of the property is private. However, the number of uninhabitable dwellings is growing, - over 31% of all homes in the country. About 40% of households live in overcrowded housing.

“That is why it is necessary to formulate a new policy to ensure affordable housing for all sections of the population and to develop measures to create a new social housing fund that will also contribute to tacklе the demographic and regional poverty" Yovev said.

May 10,2019
British Are Once Again Interested In Buying Bulgarian Properties

Bulgaria returns to the top 10 of the overseas property buying sites in 2019 in the UK aplaceinthesun.com rating platform, quoted by the newspaper "Bulgarian News". Bulgaria ranked ninth place in the chart preceded by Turkey, Florida, Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Portugal, France and Spain. Barbados, also a new country on the list, ranked the tenth place.

"It may be the European Union’s poorest country but Bulgaria is rich in property opportunities. Up to 10,000 UK citizens call this Balkan nation home. Many bought during the early noughties boom years when properties could be snapped up for bargain-basement prices. Developers along the country’s 230-mile Black Sea coast and high up in its emerging ski resorts went wild, snapping up seemingly every spare acre of land to build myriad apartment blocks." That's how the article "Time for a New Look at Bulgarian Properties in 2019?" published in aplaceinthesun.com begins. At the moment there are 2434 properties available in Bulgaria.

“A small percentage of British buyers are still looking to buy properties at bargain prices or purchase houses with the intention of moving to Bulgaria permanently,” says Ben Collins of Collins Estates, which specialises in the resale market along the Black Sea coast.

April 24,2019
100% Increase of Property Prices in Sofia in the Last 15 Years

Property prices in Sofia have increased with 100% for the past 15 years, according to the statistics of the National Association of Building Contractors. Extremely cumbersome procedures and inadequate over-control of institutions have made a significant contribution to this increase, says Chairman of the Association Georgi Shopov. And while a private investor may take up to three years to issue a construction permit, only five days are planned for the design of an entire city square, but now under public procurement.

The Territorial Development Act has been changed 88 times for the last 10 years, says Georgi Shopov, Chairman of the Association of Building Contractors.

With each change, the procedures for preparing a private building are becoming more and more complex, and the whole process of issuing a building permit can be up to 3 years. The result of this situation is higher prices for the properties that people buy, not only in Sofia.

"These 30 years in the administration, pressed by the political model, where the protest is a loss of voters, and not the economic growth and the welfare of the population, have been made, and we have allowed an increasingly complicated and difficult regulatory framework not working in the interest of of society. We will see an example, I will not give names - there is currently a case with a building in Sofia. Do you think it is normal for a developed society with a legal base of 150 years in this area not to say for week whether the building permit is valid or not, "Shopov said.

While it takes three years for different government authorities to verify the intention of a private entrepreneur to invest money in a construction, when public funds are spent, the deadlines for such procedures are unrealistically short. This was made clear by the words of the deputy chairman of the Chamber of Architects in Bulgaria arch. Petkana Bakalova: "Strengthening a school in Pancharevo to be a public school promotion order means that it has constructive problems and is dangerous. For 4 days, it is impossible neither to calculate stats, nor to make inquiries nor to provide quality design solutions. Other such cases - Slivnitsa, a square of 5000 sq.m 5 days. These are some of the most striking cases that want to show that these public contracts have two options - either the designer is pre-selected, the project has been drafted and the procurement is being conducted to get it, or the municipalities sometimes put out design deadlines after transmission of the documentation in the so- time to remove the remarks, "Bakalova said.

April 23,2019
Housing Prices in Sofia Froze, Growth of New Construction Purchases

Housing prices in Sofia have frozen. According to information from Bulgarian Properties during the first three months, the average price in the capital is € 1,080 sq. M, compared to € 1,085 sq. M in the last quarter of 2018.

"This is a slight retreat against the 2018 values, but should be interpreted as a retention of levels, as it is mainly due to a change in the characteristics of the purchased properties, the large share of new construction and the redirection of interest to areas with lower prices, "the agency said.

For the first quarter the average final purchase price of the dwellings in Sofia is € 90,960 at around € 91,550 on average for 2018

Price rises peaked at the end of 2017 and early 2018, and in the spring of last year we saw that buyers stepped back and took a wait-and-see position. This led to a dampening of price rises and the year ended with growth below expectations - only 4% on an annual basis, pointing out.

The agency predicts that 2019 will bring long-awaited market equilibrium through a balance between supply and demand while maintaining stable property prices.

Bulgarian Properties also reported an increase in sales. Some days ago, the Registry Agency recorded 5,641 real estate sales for the three months since the end of the year at 5,631 for the same period in 2018, which is only 10 transactions per year.

Bulgarian Properties, which specializes in sales of new-build properties, claim that the real volume is far greater - and is growing significantly.

The data of the Registry Agency does not include the purchased new-built dwellings, which will be entered as sales upon their completion. According to Bulgarian Properties, "in previous periods, new construction accounted for 60-70% of the deals, and now it reaches 90%."

New building permits issued in Sofia increased by 26% in 2018 on an annual basis. It is the increased supply of new construction that brought balance to the market and softened prices as it managed to meet the increased demand they felt from there.

Half of the purchased apartments are two-bedroom apartments and 42% are two-bedroom apartments. Unlike in previous quarters, in early 2019 we have seen a significant increase in the share of purchased three-room apartments at the expense of a reduction in the two-storey property, which previously reached 65% of the total volume of transactions.

"We attribute this to the activity of families who are looking for a new home for their own use, stimulated by the available supply, as well as by the possibilities of buying with credit even in new-build buildings", say Bulgarian Properties.

The average area of ​​the purchased dwellings is 89 sq.m. - a growth of about 10 sq.m. compared to the last months of 2018, precisely because of the increased share of three-room apartments.

"Within the framework of our expectations, the growth in property prices in Sofia has subsided and we are entering a period of retention at stable levels with slight fluctuations - a plateau in which we will stay in the next 1-2 years", commented Polina Stoykova, executive director of Bulgarian Properties .

March 25,2019
Property Prices in Sofia Fall at the End of the Year

In Sofia, even in the most distant neighborhoods, prices of 600 euros per square meter of living area are a mirage. This was told to Darik radio by Shtelian Kalchev, co-founder of a real estate agency with more than 10 years of experience in commenting on the scandal with the prices of the apartments of ruling party figures.

"One property has its market value. This is not on the basis of any economic trends, "he explained. In his words, one can not talk about a market deal.

Arteks is one of the most serious companies on the market. They keep on quality. But also at high price, "he said.

"I am sure that the deal things have been done legally sound," Kalchev said.

However, can a buy-in discount reach four times lower than the market price, he replies that it obviously can. "But I say again, this can not be an indicator for the market."

Shtelian Kalchev noted that, alongside the power property scandal, people have heard and seen what the deal is about. "Many people do not believe there are deals in Sofia at prices of 2000-2500 euros per square meter."

The real estate market in the capital is cooling, but a real drop in prices may be at the end of the year, said Darik broker Shtilian Kalchev and added: "A property bubble is a phenomenon that also occurs in many other sectors, and in real terms this is a sharp inflationary influx due to a sharp downturn."

Kalchev explained that cooling the market is a natural phase of the property market cycle. "We are currently in a wait period. Buyers are waiting for better deals, and builders are catching up with more and more new items. Sellers are willing to negotiate. "

Price correction will surely be there, he said. A mass fall in prices can not be said, but there will be a correction. It is expected to be at the end of this year or more realistic next year.

March 6,2019
Housing Loans in Bulgaria with Strongest Growth from the Beginning of the Year Since 2009

Housing and consumer loans on the Bulgarian market recorded the strongest start of the year since 2009. They reported the most serious growth in January 2019 compared to the last decade, according to the data of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB), reports money.bg

For the first month of the year housing loans rose by 11.1%. By comparison, in January 2018 their growth was within 8.2 per cent. At the end of the first month of the year, new home loans amounted to a total of BGN 10.565 billion at a level of BGN 9.506 billion a year earlier. The growth of this category of loans did not exceed 10% , and last was above this limit in January 2009. At that time, it reached 35.1% on an annual basis, according to the BNB calculations. Only a year later the growth rate was only 8.6 percent, and between January 2014 and January 2016, housing credit shrank. It goes back to positive territory in 2017 when it rises by 1.8 per cent.

Earlier this year, even stronger growth was reported for consumer credit. BNB data show that at the end of January 2019 the increase in this category was 17.6% on an annual basis to a total of BGN 9.142 billion. At the end of December 2018 consumer loans increased by 17.7% at a level of 5.8% a year earlier. For the same period in the last decade, consumer lending has five years of negative territory. The largest decline was recorded in January 2016 when it was at the level of minus 3 per cent. On the other hand, in January 2009 it grew by 21.1% and a year later by 6.6%. In 2011 consumer loans started to contract. They stagnate in positive territory again in January 2017, rising by 2.8 per cent on an annual basis.

As far as household deposits are concerned, in January they grew 8.5 percent, with growth of 7.7 percent at the end of December. The total amount exceeds BGN 51.647 billion.

February 25,2019
Large Investor has Admitted There are Bureaucratic and Market Problems with Home Sales in Sofia

Estonian real estate group Arco Vara had a bad year. In 2018, the company reported a net loss of € 544,000, with a profit of € 785,000 in the previous year. In the 12 months of last year, revenue from real estate sales declined by 81 percent to € 2.8 million. At the same time, the company recorded an increase in revenue from the property maintenance business by 65 percent to € 857,000. The company's assets have grown 37 percent to € 33.5 million. The reason for the bad result and the accumulation of assets is due to the company's failure to turn its projects into marketable, reports money.bg

"We are not happy with the loss that was caused mainly by the failure to sell Iztok Parkside in Sofia." The project remained unresolved within the expected period (the fourth quarter of 2018) because we remain caught in the Bulgarian bureaucracy network, "Chief Executive Officer Taramo Silver said in a statement together with financial results.

"We have to get permission to use and sell the apartments by the end of the second quarter of 2019," he said. In 2019, the company expects to sell the second phase of the Kodulahe project in Estonia. "By adding 100% of the apartments in the building of Madrid Boulevard (in Sofia), we expect to achieve sales revenues of over € 20 million and a net profit of over € 2 million in 2019," the executive director also said. He also said that "despite the obvious financial anorexia," the group still managed to achieve operating profit (€ 101,000 in 2018 against € 1.56 million in 2017) and the main losses come from interest expense, " mainly from the bank loan linked to the building on Madrid Blvd.

"Our land and cash holdings of over € 2 million remain strong and are sufficient to complete the current projects and start new ones in 2019 if market conditions and bureaucracy allow it," the Chief Executive also said. As an alternative scenario, Arco Vara can cache its assets and stand on the land with the right to build.

As Money.bg has already written, the Estonian company has sold the brokerage agency in Sofia to the management team, but still has access to the transaction database. "Based on this data, the real estate market in both Tallinn and Sofia moves from one dominated by vendors to dominated by buyers." The agency itself in Bulgaria brings a net loss of € 18,000 in the last three months of the year and a net profit of € 1,000 for the whole of 2018. In the previous year, the net profit was € 50,000.