We Are Ready for the Recovery Challenges

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Polina Stoykova – Chief Operations Manager of BULGARIAN PROPERTIES – commented before Stroitelstvo Imoti weekly the sobering of the property market, the new market conditions and the challenges after the beginning of the global crunch.

The property market was one of the first that were hit by the crisis at the end of 2008 and in the last year and a half the real estate agencies have been working in these conditions. Part of these agencies closed down, others changed fundamentally their style of work and managed to withstand the pressure.

If before the crisis even mediocre efforts led to sales and good financial results the present conditions require tripled efforts for achieving a positive result. Mediocre work leads to companies leaving the market. Those who want to survive must make great efforts. If a while ago it took 5 viewing trips to sign a deal now it takes 20-30 viewing trips. That is why real estate agents have to work much harder, to speak with more clients on a daily basis in order to have the same results which they achieved much easier before the crisis. This made a lot of property agents quit their jobs as part of them were not ready to make such sacrifice.

Now it is much more important the agencies to have a good property selection in their portfolio because it is not the quantity that counts, but the quality. For example, our company is much more selective in terms of quality offers than before. This also helps sellers sell their properties faster and buyers to find really good properties.

With the advance of the crisis and the increased risk we had to renegotiate and terminate contracts with development companies which did not have the financial resources to finish their projects in time. When prices started falling there was a time when builders preferred to sell their product directly to the clients. However, lately we are witnessing the opposite trend – developers understand that selling by themselves they have higher expenses for staff, advertising, etc. and they are not as effective as when they pay to a real estate agency to make the sale. For a few months now we have had very interesting offers from developers at bargain prices.

For agencies like ours working on national level it was crucial to look into the local markets in detail and develop activity strategies both on national and local level. For example, as early as in the beginning of the crisis we had to rethink our work in the ski and seaside resorts which were the first to register the reduction in the number of deals. After that came the rural areas and only in the beginning of 2009 – Sofia and Varna.

Since the beginning of the crisis the buyers’ profiles, their requirements and preferences also changed fundamentally. This additionally impeded the agencies’ work and the developing of marketing strategies. Now the buyers’ profiles and their preferences are much clearer.

I think we got used to working in crisis conditions and we are gradually finding the right way of realizing more deals and the market is giving us the first positive signals. May be the worst is already behind us, we have optimized our work, we plan better and we have a clear idea of what we are going to do in the future.

We used the crisis year to introduce innovations, to improve our manner of work and our internal company organization and I can say that we are ready to face the challenges related to the recovery from the crisis.

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