| COASTAL PROPERTIES BMV | IS IT WISE TO INVEST IN BULGARIAN PROPERTIES NOW? |  | Take the test: - I have a small budget to invest in real estate
- Our plans are to take sea (ski) vacations once a year
- Below market value properties are hard to find
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| | LAST SEA VIEWS SALE | STYLISH RESIDENCE, BEST VALUE IN KOSHARITSA, NESEBAR |  | Below Market Value: Fully finished in old Nesebar style, the complex is overlooking the Sunny Beach bay, only 3km from the best beaches. - A studio, one and two bed available at a special price
- Only €450 per m2
- Free parking
- Free garden yard (studio only)
- Free A/C installation
- Move-in now; year-round occupancy
More about the Kosharitsa apartments sale... |
| | VARNA | VOTED BEST BULGARIAN CITY TO LIVE IN
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| Major tourist and business destination, Varna is becoming the second Bulgarian city. Old world charm and easy affordable living have attracted both locals and expats.Come and visit our - Exclusive locations, 50m to 400m from the sea front
- Sale prices from €49,950
- Year-round rental income
- Low-cost flights from major EU cities
More about our Varna properties for sale... |
| INVESTOR'S SPECIAL 
| NEW RELEASE - YALIKAVAK STUDIOS PHASE 2 Turkey: Located at 20km outside of Bodrum, this Aegean coastal village has become the hotspot of the Turkish jet set. - Exclusive 10% net rental income property
- Only €44,000 total commitement
- Delivery end of 2009
- Free three-day stay to visit the site and the region
"Getting 10% p.a. over 5 years is a rare opportunity in today's market." Read more... |
| VARSHETS SPA RESORT 
| Bulgaria: Find out why Varshets was called 'Baden-Baden of the Balkans" since 1910. Be among the first to own a property and watch the revival of Varshets as a national and internationa spa destination. - Centrally located on the famous tree-lined Sycamore Boulevard.
- Prices start at only €49,950
- Only 1 1/2 hour driving from Sofia
- Four seasons occupancy, 6% rental income
"Varshets’ potential is huge. In the 1980ies over 250 000 people were vacationing there every year. Compared to Velingrad and Sandanski, Varshets is still in the initial stages of its modernization. There are practically no offers to sell new builds." Read more... |
| KRANEVO PANORAMIC VIEW RESIDENCE |  | "Situated between the acclaimed beach resorts of Albena and Golden Sands, and only a short drive away from Varna (25km), Kranevo offers an attractive combination of summer living, easy commute to the city and lucrative investment." - One-bed apartments from €56,400
- Affordable beach and golf resort
- Leading EU developer backed by a bank guarantee
- Rental management provided
Read more... |
KAVARNA, BEACH AND GOLF CONDOS 
| Kavarna, Bulgaria is the next hotspot for beach bums, nature lovers and golfers. Real estate prices are expected to double when the three name brand golf courses are completed. Our selected beachfront properties offer an outstanding opportunity for investors. - One-bed apartments from £28,700
- Breath taking sea view from most apartments
- Kavarna beach- 300m
- Gary Player Golf Courses- 10 min. driving
- Varna International Airport- 45min. driving
Read more... |
SVETI VLAS SUNNY BEACH CONDOS  | Learn why the village of St Vlas near Sunny Beach has become the new pearl for property hunters on the Bulgarian Southern Black Sea coast. - Open sea views from most units
- Burgas Airport, 30min
- Short walk to Sunny Beach
- Excellent rental income
"With so many things to see and do in this culturally rich region, we are offering something more than a "beach and booze" experience." Read more... |
SOFIA PROPERTY INVESTMENT | With EU membership already a fact, the Bulgaria capital property market is still undervalued (if you know where to buy). Let us advise you on some of the most exciting investment opportunities Sofia has to offer. - Sofia population doubled in 10 yrs
- Only 3% unemployment rate
- Growing expat community
- Corporate tax reduced to 10%
- Buy property with only 35% down
Read more... |
BULGARIA INVESTMENT PROPERTY NEWS
Overseas property markets leave investors in need of a holidayBritons went on an international buying spree in the noughties. Graham Norwood and Patrick Collinson dig out the biggest winners and losers
The Guardian, Saturday 12 December 2009
Dubai World's $60bn (£37bn) of debt is not the only bad property news coming out of the sun-kissed emirate. Homes bought by investors in the region in 2007 have halved in value, and specialists predict a 20%-30% slide next year as economic woes deepen.
Some think now is the time to snap up "bargains" in the locations where prices have fallen most, including Dubai, Florida and the Spanish costas.
Last week a Dublin-based vulture fund, Deluxe Properties, said it will spend £10m in coming weeks on homes "offered between 30% and 50% below the original price" in Dubai, while website Rightmove says there has been a surge in searches for its property listings in Dubai this month.
But Robin Wilson, head of the overseas arm at Rightmove, urges extreme caution. "Although people with property in Dubai could be happy with a 45% increase in searches, it's probably for all the wrong reasons as people go 'rubber necking' through listings, cruising for the crashed property prices that made the headlines. When the bubble bursts there are bargains to be had, but buyers need to be careful they are seduced by genuine value rather than outright size of the discount. As a pure investment, you'd have to be very brave indeed, particularly over any time period not measured in lots of years, to expect a meaningful return."
Dubai's problems are a reminder, if one were needed, that purchasing holiday homes or overseas buy-to-let flats is not a surefire road to wealth. How different it was a decade ago.
Back then a Dubai seaview flat cost about £40,000 and there were very few on sale in the UK. An apartment on Spain's Costa del Sol was £75,000. Even as recently as 2005, a home along Bulgaria's Black Sea coastline was £23,000. Little wonder that Britons piled in, funding purchases by remortgaging their main homes or getting one of the 600 international mortgage products (even one for Russia) that were available by the middle of the decade.
Research by estate agency Savills found that by 2006 there were 425,000 UK-owned homes overseas – and that was only the ones declared to HM Revenue & Customs. Even so, the figure was 55% up on 2003 and included homes in far-flung hotspots such as the UAE, the Caribbean and Thailand, as well as regulars such as Spain and France.
The single largest spur to buying overseas was the proliferation of budget airlines. More than 50 were operating from the UK by 2005, with Savills estimating that a holiday home sited near a budget operator's airport attracted a 39% premium.
But EUjet, Volare and Air Polonia were the first such carriers to collapse in the middle of the decade, leaving homeowners stranded. Even hitherto "safe" areas such as Clermont-Ferrand and Saint-Etienne in France, and Menorca in the Balearics, are now hard to reach in winter. The problem is getting worse: Ryanair has just slashed flights from Stansted by 30% while BA has axed services from Gatwick to seven holiday home areas.
The mid-decade also saw the short-lived jet-to-let phenomenon, when overseas city homes were marketed to Britons hoping to cash in on long-term corporate rentals.
British estate agents suddenly started selling in locations you suspect they could not even find on a globe. Budapest, Sofia and Gdansk were to be multinational hubs in central Europe, Las Vegas would see unlimited gambling expansion, and even farms in Argentina were promoted as good punts for ambitious amateur British investors.
When the credit crunch hit in 2007 many holiday and investment markets went into freefall.
Those areas worst hit had large over-supplies of new homes, or relied on buyers getting cheap mortgages, or both. Today, those flats on the Costa del Sol and in Bulgaria are back to their original values or less, and the number of mortgage products for UK buyers looking overseas is below 50.
According to Knight Frank, prices in Bulgaria are down 28% on a year ago. Other eastern European destinations such as Estonia (36%) have fallen further. Some traditional locations have bucked the trend. Prices at most French and Italian resorts have dipped only slightly and Savills has a villa at exclusive Quinta do Largo on Portugal's Algarve that sold for £380,000 in 2001 which is now on sale for £1.1m.
Prices in France have, during the decade, outstripped Britain's at times fevered property market. Oddly enough, investors 10 years ago would have done remarkably well if only they'd just popped over the Channel to Belgium, where prices have more than doubled since 2000. In recent years, Israel has become the hottest property market in the world.
But how many buyers were snapping up properties in 2000? The reality is that most jumped on the bandwagon in the middle of the decade, since when prices in many areas have collapsed. Florida villa prices have plummeted as much as 60% in four years, while Dubai saw a 40% slump in just one year, according to Knight Frank's world price index. Ireland, once the world's most explosive property market, has ended the decade a long way down the table.
Recovery is likely to be patchy, according to index author Liam Bailey. He says: "Further falls are always a possibility while credit flows remain constrained and the global economy struggles to recover from recession."
One by-product of all this is that overseas holiday homes are likely to go back to basics in 2010. For the moment, they are not regarded as strong investments; in fact, all they're good for is having a holiday.
The pain in Spain
Nowhere rivals Spain for its boom and bust this decade. According to Knight Frank, Spain remains top of the table for price increases over the decade – up 122%. But that masks a dramatic rollercoaster ride in values, especially in the past two years.
Foreign buyers surged until 2005, triggering a building frenzy with 760,000 new homes in 2006 to cope with demand at home and from overseas investors. Then the rot set in. This year's expected total of 150,000 new homes will be the lowest for half a century, but business analysts DBK say there remains a huge oversupply of flats.
Buyers have almost disappeared. In the first quarter of 2000, foreigners bought Spanish homes worth €777m (£702m); by mid-2004 that soared to €1.9bn in just three months; today it's back to 2000 levels and still plunging.
Spain's holiday home market is now dysfunctional. Repossessions are common; some homes sell at half their 2006 asking prices; one developer has raffled 31 flats near Barcelona; Surrey businessman Kevin Sheehan sent 32,000 emails to find a buyer for his Valencia home; budget airlines have cut flights to the likes of Palma, Barcelona and Alicante.
Yet, as the Knight Frank index shows, values have rocketed if you compare asking prices with those in 2000. There is only one problem: few homes are selling, whatever the price.
Bulgaria: Key investors eye Sofia09. November 2009; Source: Dnevnik
Five large-scale investors are interesting in developing projects in Sofia in 2010, the capital’s chief architect Petar Dikov told the BalREc real estate conference that opened in the city yesterday.
Dikov was mum about names but revealed that authorities are considering an application for a permit to build a multi-task housing and retail complex.
Participants at the forum predicted the local real estate market is facing a bumpy road in 2010 but the year will set the direction in which it will develop. Most said the outlook was bright, though.
Experts divided on whether real estate prices have hit the rock bottom or are in for a steeper fall. Dikov advised investors to lower profits from an estimated 150% at present to 10-15%.
Bulgaria's Austerity Wins Voter ApprovalThe Wall Street Journal 9/9/2009
By JOE PARKINSON
Bulgaria's new government has slashed spending and seen its approval ratings rise, making a political star out of Simeon Djankov, a former World Bank economist who runs the finance ministry.
The government, led by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, swept parliamentary elections early in July on a promise to ease the recession and bear down on levels of corruption that prompted the European Union to freeze $1.56 billion in aid funding.
That lack of funds aggravated the economic pain for the EU's newest and poorest member, where real-estate and steel-industry booms propelled by a wave of foreign capital have been replaced by shuttered factories, sending budget deficits higher. Read full article...
Bulgaria Sees Foreign Investment Fall by 30%novinite.com | March 18, 2009 Foreign investments in Bulgaria have slumped by 30% since the beginning of the year as companies delay or give up plans for investments amidst the global financial turmoil.
Investments in Bulgaria towered to EUR 8.4 billion in 2007, only to drop to EUR 6.2 billion the next year, data of the central bank shows.
The figures were presented on Wednesday by the Director of the InvestBulgaria Agency, Stoyan Stalev, who spoke at a forum, dedicated to the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy in the current times of crisis.
Stalev painted a gloomy picture about the levels of investments by the end of the year, but refused to make forecasts about the summer, which is expected to be the most critical period for Bulgaria's economy.
Harder access to financing, shrinking bank reserves and savings and increased interest rates on credits make companies change their investment plans, commented Kristofor Pavlov from UniCredit Bulkank.
Commercial Property Investment Sofia office vacancy rate could reach 10% by year-end - report
12 Dec 2008 - Nick Iliev
The average monthly rent for class A offices in the suburbs of Sofia was around 15.5 euro a sq m, but with the vast supply of new offices from to constant construction, prices have fallen by 15 per cent in several districts.
After a calm first half of the year, about 65 000 sq m of class A and B office space hit the market in Sofia in the third quarter of 2008, which could drive the office vacancy rate in the Bulgarian capital, financial news website investor.bg reported on December 12, quoting a survey by consultancy firm MBL.
The overall amount of office space in Sofia now stands at 874 100 sq m, of which 81 per cent is outside the immediate city centre. More about commercial property investment in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria to build first green buildings within 3 yearsPropertyEU. Date published: 3 October 2007 The first 'green' buildings in Bulgaria will be constructed within the next three years, forecasts Atanas Garov, managing director of Colliers International Bulgaria.
Speaking at an international conference on sustainable development hosted by Colliers in Bulgaria, Garov said, 'the development of a carbon-neutral project is already in progress in a resort on the Black Sea Coast.' Garov added that 'green building development leads to direct benefits for developers and occupiers alike. If conceived and implemented professionally, the financial return on investment for such buildings could be recovered more than ten-fold.'
The Minister of European Affairs of Bulgaria Gergana Grancharova pointed out that the introduction of European construction standards by 2011 would dictate the pace of change.
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