The Bulgarian Residences Are At The Thid Place Of Rise In Europe

Bulgaria was at the third place of rise of residences in Europe in 2006 although the growth of their prices was vastly delayed comparing to the preceding 24 months. Poland and Denmark are before our country according to their place of prices of properties and Estonia is after Bulgaria according to the same criterion, shows a research of the most competent British organization of experts in the field of real estates – the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors /RICS/.

According to the review of the European residential markets, annually made by the organization, the prices of properties in Bulgaria have increased by approximately 20% in comparison to 22% in Denmark and 33% in Poland.

However, this growth is different from the increase of less than 15% in the average annual prices in 2006, reported by the National Statistical Institute. This growth was the fastest in the last three months of the year when the values of the average apartments in the big Bulgarian towns increased by 17% on the annual basis up to BGN 904 per square meter. According to one of the leading Bulgarian agencies, the prices have increased by approximately 15% during the year, before the admission of Bulgaria to the European Union. The large growth in the recent months of the year was explained by the Bulgarian experts with the security connected with the membership in the EU, which stimulates larger demand.

Lithuania and Romania have also marked a two-digit rate of the price growth, measured in percents by the countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The prices in the Czech Republic and Croatia were at a standstill or have marked a little change, according to the reports of the data of the organization.

“There were expectations that last year would be the one when the markets of residences in Europe would cool down under the pressure of interests, the more and more difficult accessibility of the properties and the increased offering on many markets”, says the author of the research, Michael Bol, quoted by the British newspaper – “The Guardian”. However, the continent has passed through “another strong year” with respect to few countries, including Great Britain, which have marked a significant increase in the speed of price growth. Portugal was the only country, which has experienced a slight drop in the prices last year, while Germany continued having its low growth close to the zero, reported by the data of the Institute of the British experts.

According to experts most probably the only more rapidly developing markets in Europe were those of mortgage credits. The increase in the interest of the European Central Bank, on which the prices of loans in Euro depend, did not appear to be a serious influence of the fast growth of the housing credit in eight of all 12 countries within the zone of the EU.

According to data of the Bulgarian National Bank, the housing loans in Bulgaria increased by more than 70% up to BGN 3.19 milliard until the end of November last year in comparison to the previous year.

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