The Bulgarian Property Market Is Still a Buyers’ Market

Polina Stoykova for Radio Dobrudzha

On 15th June 2011 BULGARIAN PROPERTIES’ Chief Operations Manager Polina Stoykova was interviewed by Radio Dobrudzha as she commented on the Bulgarian real estate market and the trends. Here are some of the main points of the interview:

• The property market started to stabilize in the second half of 2010 and since then there hasn’t been great change in real estate prices, there haven’t been any big fluctuations both in prices and in demand. It can be said that we are in a period of stabilization of prices and the number of deals.

• According to the official data and statistics in the last quarter there is a decrease in property prices of 2% around the country compared to the previous quarter, which in fact is an unnoticeable decrease. BULGARIAN PROPERTIES report a decrease in some holiday homes – mainly in the winter resorts, as properties in summer resorts retain their prices. As a whole property prices are neither increasing nor falling. BULGARIAN PROPERTIES expect buyers to become more active so that more deals would be concluded which on its part would lead to a change in property prices.

• There is already so much information around about the mechanism of property deals, about real estate prices in the different regions and about the property market trends and that helps for the ever-increasing transparency on the market. Property buyers and sellers can find almost all the information on the internet – through analyses and by following the asking prices as the conclusion is that the trend is the Bulgarian property market to become more and more transparent.

• At present Bulgarian property buyers are most active on the apartment market in the big cities around the country. The market in Sofia is the most dynamic one which is only logical as the demand in the capital is the biggest. Buyers look for properties to live in and not for investment purposes. The apartments they look for are fully finished and furnished as they prefer to save the additional expenses on refurbishing. Foreign buyers mainly look for properties in Bulgaria’s seaside resorts.

• At present the main driver of the property market is the price. If the price is good the deal is concluded faster. But in order for a property to become more attractive to the buyers there are some easy tricks that will improve its look – like painting it in a lighter color, cleaning it, making it brighter – these are things every seller can do. The seller must decide if a property should be refurnished or finished whether they should give money and finish it or whether it would be better to sell it cheaper at the state it is in.

• The property market in northeastern Bulgaria is similar to that in the other big regions around the country – there aren’t many deals, buyers are still waiting. An exception is the city of Varna and the resorts along the coast where the market is more active and more deals are concluded. Only the market of agricultural land is more dynamic, which is typical of the northeastern region. However, buyers everywhere are cautious and aren’t very active.

• In the holiday home sector buyers are looking for more inexpensive finished apartments in functioning developments – there are such offers on the market and there are deals in this segment. What is interesting is that deals with seaside holiday homes are concluded all year round, not only during the high summer season.

• The most active months for Bulgarian property buyers are at the beginning of the year, in the period March – May and at the end of the year when deals that had started during the year are finished. Foreign buyers are most active in winter when they buy in Bulgarian ski resorts and in summer when they buy in seaside resorts. However, this data is relative as since the beginning of the crisis we are witnessing some unexpected deviations during the year and that is why it is difficult to talk about consistency.

• After the beginning of the crisis it is only the serious real estate agencies that remain on the market – agencies which invest in improving the quality of services. There are quite a few positive changes on the Bulgarian property market – one of them being that many of the agencies changed their marketing approach. For example, BULGARIAN PROPERTIES constantly give advice, publish forecasts and market analyses. The changes are positive both for the buyers and the agencies.

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Copyright: 2011 Bulgarian Properties Ltd. All rights reserved. For further information or advice please contact us on tel.: +359 2 9 11 50 or e-mail: info@bulgarianproperties.com. The use of this article by third parties is allowed only with proper quotations of the source www.BulgarianProperties.com and the Author of the article. The data in this material has been collected by the Author and Bulgarian Properties Ltd. and is presented for information purposes only. We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the data. However, Bulgarian Properties Ltd. cannot be held responsible for loss or damage as a result of decisions made based on the information presented in this article.
© Bulgarian Properties Ltd. 2011.


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