Spanish Investors Coming To Bulgaria

Stroitelstvo Gradat Weekly, 18th June 2007

The Spanish real estate companies continue to pile on the Bulgarian market, motivated by its resemblance with the Iberian market some years ago and the possibilities for future growth. Another contractor – Grupo Metro 2000, plans to invest 70 million euro in Bulgaria, joined the Riofisa, Grupo Urbas and Ferry Group already operating here.

The company plans to invest some 20 million euro in land purchases until the end of 2008 and a further 50 million in the construction of office and residential buildings, as announced one of the company directors – Julian Dias-Santos, in an interview made for the SeeNews agency.

Pinned between the slowing growth of the prices of residences and the huge offering in their own country, a substantial number of Spanish companies seek growth in foreign countries. They used to invest traditionally in Latin America and Africa, but lately they have been gradually increasing their investments in Central and Eastern Europe.

“The Bulgarian market closely resembles the Spanish one 20 years ago” – confided Mr. Dias-Santos in the interview.

The building process and the real estate properties, closely intertwined with the tourism industry, have for long years been the one of the most important sectors and an engine driving the Spanish economy forward. But the large number of residences on offer, as well as the slowing rise of the prices in the course of the last two years, which is expecting to continue, have forced the companies to redistribute their activities and to consolidate.

Since 1997 the prices of the residences have risen with the incredible 170%. Meanwhile the Spanish build an average of 620 000 residences each year, which is four times more than Great Britain does, with some 20 million inhabitants less.

Meanwhile, after years of poor investment, or no investment at all, the Bulgarian residential fund as a whole needs renovation. The demand is further stimulated by the credits allocated by the banks, as well as by the population migrating to the larger cities.

“Bulgaria needs new residential buildings, because young people, as well as the immigrants returning to the country are looking for new residences….we believe that this is a market segment which is going to be very interesting now, and in the future” commented Tomas Latorre, director of Grupo Metro 2000.

His company, operating mostly in Catalonia, in the north-eastern part of the Iberian peninsula will follow the Spanish project in the distribution of the projects – 80% of them traditionally being residential projects, and 20% - for office and business purposes. Julian Dias-Santos added: “Our general idea is to start with residential buildings and after we cover this market segment, to move to industrial projects as second phase of our investments”

“We also plan to build offices in the top locations in Sofia. We may develop industrial and business buildings” he explained. The company has already spent 10 million euro to buy 100 000 sq.m. land in the capital and plans to acquire an additional 100 000. “It is possible that we move to invest the same, a lesser or larger sum between the years 2008 and 2013, depending on the development of the Bulgarian real estate market” he also said.

The properties in Bulgarian in the recent year and a half have been the major source of direct foreign investments. According the Bulgarian National Bank until the final quarter of 2007 these investments reached 1.27 billion euro, accounting for 30% of all direct foreign investments. For the same period the statistics show that the income from the sales of real properties to foreign investors amounted to 1.25 billion euro, mainly from purchases of plots of land and residences. The rising prices of the land, the residences and the investment properties open multiple possibilities to the entrepreneurs.

The Spanish Grupo Detea has been acquiring real properties in the country in the recent years, intending to develop commercial and logistical centers. The Ferry Group has also been on the Bulgarian market for considerable time, preparing the construction of a golf-course, apartments, houses and hotels with an approximate of 400 000 sq.m. extended built-up area between the village of Katina and the city of Novi Iskar. Recently another Spanish contractor – Riofisa, has obtained a First Class Investor Certificate for their project to create a 85 000 sq.m. rent space, office-and-hotel tower behind the central railway station.

“We have started our expansion in Bulgaria. We believe that this is a country with great potential, and this is why we have bet on it” said the vice-president of the company Carlos Pilar. He has calculated that at this point the investment would amount to 250 million euro. His company intends to proceed with the construction of residences in the area, at a later stage.

“We intend to create similar projects in other places in Bulgaria … our goal is to cover the large cities – Sofia, Varna, Burgas and Plovdiv” said Pilar. As of the moment Riofisa has officially announced plans for another 285 000 euro of investments in complexes with mixed purpose in Sofia and Plovdiv. They will include commercial centers, offices, hotels and residences.

Riofisa considers Bulgaria to be a main international market too. The company has only recently started her expansion with projects also in the neighboring Romania, where the company builds commercial centers with a local businessman.

The company is soon to be taken over by another Spanish real estate company – Inmobiliaria Colonial. This is a part of the consolidation process in the country, where the very Colonial was taken over by a larger company.

Another grand project behind the central railway station in Sofia is being developed by another Iberian company. Urbas Guadahermosa S.A. announced the acquisition of 120 decares for a project with 420 000 sq.m. built-up area.

The realization of the said projects would result in a sharp increase in the Spanish investment in Bulgaria in the next years, since until the year 2005 the investments amounted to less than 10 million euro per year. Back then they were 43.2 million euro and in the next year investments tripled to 129.3 million. For the first quarter of this year only Spanish companies have invested 42 million euro, almost the equaling the entire 2005 investments, which placed Spain in seventh place in direct investments in Bulgaria. But it would not be surprising if the real estate projects change this place, just as the purchases made by British and Irish moved their countries up to first and fifth place in the list biggest investor countries.


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