BULGARIAN PROPERTIES founders - Nicola Stoyanov and Mihail Chobanov in an interview for Forbes Bulgaria

Nicola Stoyanov and Mihail Chobanov, the founders of BULGARIAN PROPERTIES, have discovered a simple formula for success in crisis - business diversification.

Nicola Stoyanov and Mihail Chobanov met in 1997 in the UK. In 1999 Nicola Stoyanov returned to Bulgaria and set up his first business in the sphere of tourism, including arranging all details for foreign tourists travelling to Bulgaria. He noticed that the British are interested in buying properties in Bulgaria.

He decided to invite Mihail Chobanov, graduated of law, as a partner in a business of selling property to foreigners. So both partners founded BULGARIAN PROPERTIES in 2003, relying that their experience in communication with the British would help them develop a intermediary business.

The idea has become very successful. At that time, British interest in cheap properties in Bulgaria wake up, and it allows both partners quickly to create a network of offices around the country. And as Chobanov calls "our little empire." They began to open offices abroad, participate in exhibitions in searching of clients. Over the great economic boom - between 2004 and 2007 - Brits were buying property in Bulgaria in several segments - holiday homes, regulated plots and rural houses. “The rural houses niche has proved to be successful, although initially there were some doubts about it," said Stoyanov.

During the property boom - between 2004 and 2007 – the British have been competing to invest in cheap Bulgarian properties. But in recent years this has been changed. In the years before the crisis, the British accounted for about 90% of the clients of BULGARIAN PROPERTIES. According to calculations of the company’s founders the number of the British clients has shrunk to about 5%. So they turned to the Russian market, from which the most buyers are coming, although it is not the only source of income and during the last two years they are dealing with clients from 64 countries.

The partners set up in 2004 a development company, which is investing in holiday homes and then selling them. They invested in a gated complex in Kosharitsa village near Sunny Beach on the Black Sea coast. The business has begun immediately. By the end of 2005, they sold 250 apartments in the complex. In January 2006 the partners sold another 85 off-plan apartments in Bansko. A year later, they registered LUXIMOTI - a real estate agency selling and renting luxurious properties in Bulgaria and abroad. “The brand has become favorite among wealthy Bulgarians and today it continues to achieve success, despite the unfavourable conditions on the luxury real estate market,” said Nicola Stoyanov.

Over the past two years after some decline two partners began again to invest in construction. In 2011 they invested in several boutique Mediterranean style villas near Sunny Beach.

"Now the market wants these things - more special, elite," Stoyanov added. In 2012 they completed construction of a residence in the most elite district of capital - Lozenets, which they call "our most luxurious building until now." In current year they envisage several projects, one of which is 6 low-rise buildings near the sea, which construction has been already started. And they are optimistic about them, although in severe 2009 and 2010 they have taken heavy losses, and indeed the whole building and development business has suffered a lot.

"There is nothing to put on airs. We had a great luck. We occurred in the right place, at the right time with the right skills, - Nicola Stoyanov said. - Other, of course, was a lot of work.”

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