Bulgarian real estates

A new shopping center will open doors in Bulgaria’s Sofia by the end of this year and early 2010. Pearl Park Mall is located at the ring road of Sofia in the area near the boulevard “Cherni vrah”. The idea and the project belong to the company “Pearl 13″ and the financing is provided by “UniCredit leasing”. This will be the fourth mall in the capital, following the steps of “City Center Sofia”, “Mall of Sofia” and “Sky city”. This will be the first such center in the area of the ring road, a place for many ambitious projects.

Pearl Park Mall is almost completed, with finishing touches added at the moment. The owners are also negotiating with potential store partners. The mall sprawls over 9000 square meters divided into seven floors. According to plan, the mall should feature numerous shops, hypermarket, pharmacy, dry cleaning, photographer’s studio, beauty salon and spa center, fitness, playground for children, coffee shop, fast foods, panorama restaurant, bar, sweet shop, cinema, bookstore, gallery, offices, etc. The parking lot will have space for 300 cars.

The main advantage of the mall is it’s location near expensive neighborhoods with rich families that lack larger shops and entertainment nearby, explained from “Perla 13″.

The rent for apartments with one or two rooms in Varna dropped by nearly 30% for the last twelve months. The data comes from the statistics of the real estate website imoti.net. The biggest drop of price – 42% – was reported for the rents of one-room apartments. The two-room apartments are 40% cheaper compared to last year. The minimum price offers have also lowered – with 14% for one-room apartments and 27% for two-room apartments.

The number of offers has dropped along with the prices. According to the website, a handful of one-room apartments in Varna seek tenants for prices ranging between 300 and 350 leva. The offers for two-room apartments are ten, ranging between 330 leva and 300 EUR. An apartment with no furniture in the district “Mladost” is the cheapest. A furnished apartment near the bus station is the most expensive one.

The offers for apartments in Burgas are also less, with only one offer for a one-room apartment up on imoti.net, and a handful for two-room apartments. The price of the latter varies between 250 lv. and 250 euro. The highest offer is for a furnished estate in the district “Vazrajdane”, and the lowest – for an empty apartment in the district “Bratia Miladinovi”.

A dozen one-room apartments are rental offers in Plovdiv. The most expensive offer is 400 leva for a furnished apartment of 45 square m. in the district “Vastanicheski”. The cheapest offer is 100 euro for a furnished apartment in the district “Komatevo”. The offers for two-room apartments in Plovdiv are numerous and range between 280 and 600 leva.

The prices of one-room apartments in Ruse are less varied, ranging between 200 and 250 leva. The cheapest offer is for an apartment in “Zdravets-Iztok”, and the most expensive one – an apartment in “Zdravets-Sever”. Two-room apartments in the riverside city are offered in the range 150 leva – 250 euro. The cheapest two-room apartment is in the district “Drujba-2″, and the most expensive one – in the district “Vazrajdane”.

Furnished housing is in demand

Apartments have a greater chance of finding tenants if they are already furnished. People already looking for cheap rent rarely have extra money to spare for furniture and appliances.

Landlords with apartments near public transport stops can ask for higher rent, according to brokers. Apartments near large chain stores are also preferred. Naturally, families with little children prefer housing that is near a kindergarten or school.

Because of the specific construction of blocks of flats, the apartments at the corners of the building are less liked because they are colder in the winter and hotter during the summer. The same goes for floors – apartments on the first and last floors are rented only as a last resort. During the crisis, the tenants also have a better chance to bargain for the rent price.

The offered rent prices for small shops in Burgas are 36% lower compared to August of last year, according to the real estate website imoti.net. The offers are greatly varied now, ranging between 150 and 1000 euro. The cheapest offer is for a newly constructed shop on the ground floor of a new apartment house in the district “Meden rudnik”. The most expensive offer is for a 40 sq. m. area with a parking lot, located in a luxurious building in the prestigious district “Lazur”.

The biggest drop of rent prices for small shops within the last year – 52% – was reported in Bulgaria’s Ruse. The offers in the riverside city now vary between 180 leva and 1400 euro. For the least amount of money, one can rent a 20 sq.m. shop in the center of the city. Over 15,5 times it’s price – for 1400 euro – you can rent a 40 sq. m. shop located near the hotel “Danube”.

According to brokers, the reason for the drop of prices is the significantly lower demand for renting a shop in the province. Because of the outburst of construction over the last few years, the number of offers stays high. At the same time, some cities in Bulgaria report an increase of the average rent prices, but this is due to the emptied shops in the prestigious parts of the cities, which now hit the market. Cities where such trends occur include Varna, Veliko Tarnovo and Stara Zagora.

At the same time Pleven, where last year offers were more costly than their counterparts in the center of Sofia, reports a price drop of 30%. The lowest rent – 100 leva – is for a 30 sq.m. shop on the second floor of a shopping mall. The highest offer is 31 times this price, even though the size is the same – another shop in a mall costs 1350 euro.

The reported drop of prices for small shops in Plovdiv for the last 12 months is 17%. The offers vary between 75 and 1500 euro. The cheapest shop is just 16 sq.m. and is located in the district “Vastanicheski”. The most expensive offer is for an industrial goods shop in the center of Plovdiv.

According to statistics, Blagoevgrad is the only bigger regional center with rent offers for shops up to 50 sq. m. below the level of 10 euro per square meter. The cheapest offer – 128 euro – is for a 20 sq.m. shop in a new apartment house in the district “Alen mak”. The most expensive offer is 500 euro for a 38 sq. m. shop in the center, near the bus station.

Pleven has the most offers

Pleven holds the biggest number of rent offers of shops up to 50 sq. m., according to the website imoti.net. Sixty such estates are offered in the city, with only four of them in the center. Plovdiv takes the second place with 50 offers. More than half of them – 30 – are located in the center of the second biggest Bulgarian city.

The offers in Varna are very few, with only four offers for shops up to 50 sq. m., all of which are located in the center of the seaside capital of the country. The other big city by the Black Sea coast – Burgas – has a dozen offers, of which four are in the center of the city.

According to statistics, the offers in Ruse are much more – fifty small shops still seek their tenants. A large part of them – 37 to be precise – are located in the center of the city. Cities like Blagoevgrad and Stara Zagora have between 6 and 7 shops up for rent.

The Law for management of storey property was adopted first by the administration of Bulgaria’s Burgas. It’s application begins today.

In respect to that a small book, printed in 2 000 copies, will be distributed among all house managers of buildings with many apartments. The books contain explanations about the basics of the new law. Citizens that want to familiarize themselves with the contents of the book can receive a copy in the office of the ombudsman Tanio Atanasov or in the territorial departments of the municipality of Burgas.

The mayor Dimitar Nikolov stated that the application of the Law for management of storey property will define the regulations and give carte-blanche to the municipality of Burgas to begin improvements of the civil buildings of the city. Much of the current issues of the municipality administration are related to problems within larger civil buildings and co-operative living.

Most of the citizens of Burgas live in large civil buildings, like blocks of flats. The municipality has nearly 1300 such buildings registered.

Most of these buildings in Bulgaria’s Burgas are old and worn, some even potentially dangerous. Despite that, many people refuse to assist in their restoration, even though complete renovation can only take place with everyone’s help. On top of that, some real estate owners take actions that harm the real estate of their neighbors. The mayor and the ombudsman were resolute that in this case, the responsibility should be solely the violator’s – not shared between neighbors.

The law will allow the municipality of Burgas to get involved with urgent repairs. Afterwards, the invested money will be collected from the real estate owners.

The mayor of Burgas also announced his intention to suggest to the local parliament an increase of the taxation for garbage for the careless real estate owners that throw away their refuse in prohibited places – through the window or in the lawn in front of the block of flats, for example.

The market for office terrains in Bulgaria is expected to stir soon, because of the possibility to rent a high quality office at a good location for a favourable price, notes the periodical Property Wire citing Anton Slavchev – manager of offices and business parks in Colliers International.

The prices of business areas in Bulgaria’s Sofia dropped drastically with 10-15 euro per square meter, which stimulates the potential leaseholders to seek better offers at lower prices.

The drop of prices is not only due to the decrease of customer interest during the crisis, but also due to the surplus of offers, a result of the hyperactive construction of buildings that flooded the market with offices. The companies that are closing down and offering their offices are another factor.

According to Slavchev, the prices in Bulgaria are still determined by investors. They take into account two factors: the level of completion of the projects and the process of filling the office buildings to their real capacity. The analyzer explained that investors are beginning to realize that their empty buildings bring them no profit and are now trying to be more flexible to cover up the losses.

Meanwhile, the national statistics agency and the researches of several other agencies noted a drastic drop of construction of buildings in Bulgaria.

Iberdrola Inbobiliaria, the real estate construction company of the Spanish energy giant Iberdrola received an approval for the construction of it’s project “Coral Beach Elite”, located on the territory of the municipality of Tsarevo in Bulgaria.

The approval includes the construction of a vacation resort sprawling over 236 645 square meters, with a luxurious hotel, apartment houses with 2500 apartments, trade zones, sport grounds, beach club and common grounds.

The village will have 800 meters sea outlet to the Coral Beach. The landscape plan features low buildings synchronized with nature in order to preserve the best visual equilibrium possible. Natural materials will be dominant in the construction of the village.

The road alleys will be 16 meters wide and will include special lanes for cyclists.

The project for “Coral Beach Elite” was developed by the architecture studio of arch. Stefan Dobrev, assisted by the Department for urbanization of the Harvard University.

Iberdrola Inmobiliaria will aspire to turn “Coral Beach Elite” into an exemplary vacation village in Bulgaria. The company will strive to cooperate with local businesses and unions during the development of the project. Thanks to their partnership with the municipality of Tsarevo, the complex will have all the necessary conditions to be a resort of highest quality covered.

Iberdrola Inmobiliaria is the branch company for real estates of the Spanish giant Iberdrola – one of the four largest energy companies in the world. Iberdrola Inmobiliaria offers a wide variety of products – houses, vacation complexes, offices, industrial areas, trade centers, etc.

The company manages a total of 245 000 square meters of real estates in international projects located in Portugal, Mexico and Bulgaria.

“For the first time in two years, the Municipality council of Sofia (SOS) received a full report of the municipal association “Sofiiski imoti” (Sofia real estates) certified by an auditor,” stated the chairman of SOS Andrey Ivanov.

“Sofiiski imoti” ended the previous year with accounted profits of 403 000 leva. After taxation, the profits are 310 000 leva, added the chairman of the business commission of SOS Danail Kirilov.

The association has an income of 4 221 000 leva. The main share of the income is from services – 2 039 000 leva, followed by the income from rent – 1 213 000 leva, and the sale of long-lasting material assets – 638 000 leva.

The column “material assets” does not concern the sale of real estates, clarified Kirilov.

According to him, the Municipality council will receive 80% of the dividends, after the allocation of 10% for the “Reserve” funds.

“Sofiiski imoti” entered an engagement to pay the full amount of the dividends for 2007. Only 20% of the money have been paid so far.

The scandalous association became popular after the disclosure of criminal deals that caused losses of over 2 billion leva to the municipality. Many ex-employees, including the two ex-chief executives Toshko Dobrev and Petar Savov are currently facing accusations.

The lawsuit has been delayed many times due to various reasons. No one has been sentenced yet.

An analysis of Raiffeisen Estates EOOD, based on the official research of the National statistics institute (NSI) among real estate companies in Bulgaria concludes that the number of real deals on the real estate market registered a cut of 42% for the entire country and 58% cumulatively for Sofia for the first six months of 2009, compared to the same period of last year.

Buyers in all sectors are waiting, and the investors that favour risks and rely on long-term benefits for their fortunes are the only ones active on the market.

Buyers that have enough finances and for whom the purchase of a real estate is a necessity are somewhat active, but very far from the levels of the first half of 2008.

Because of the low activity of buyers, the number of deals is comparable to the levels of 2005, states the analysis. The buyers of real estates expect even lower prices in the future.

With the exception of the planned expansion of the large chain stores, there hasn’t been a singe investment purchase or sale of a terrain for a large project since the beginning of 2009, note Raiffeisen Estates.

The time for choice and negotiation until the conveyancing completion of the deal has tripled from an average of 20 days to 60 days. There also hasn’t been a deal without a significant lowering of the price.

An analysis of Raiffeisen Estates EOOD, based on the official research of the National statistics institute (NSI) among real estate companies concludes that the number of real deals on the estate market registered a cut of 42% for the entire country and 58% cumulatively for Sofia for the first six months of 2009, compared to the same period of last year.

Buyers in all sectors are waiting, and the investors that favour risks and rely on long-term benefits for their fortunes are the only ones active on the market.

Buyers that have enough finances and for whom the purchase of an estate is a necessity are somewhat active, but very far from the levels of the first half of 2008.

Because of the low activity of buyers, the number of deals is comparable to the levels of 2005, states the analysis. The buyers of real estates expect even lower prices in the future.

With the exception of the planned expansion of the large chain stores, there hasn’t been a singe investment purchase or sale of a terrain for a large project since the beginning of 2009, note Raiffeisen Estates.

The time for choice and negotiation until the conveyancing completion of the deal has tripled from an average of 20 days to 60 days. There also hasn’t been a deal without a significant lowering of the price.