BULGARIAN PROPERTIES took part in a discussion with leading real estate agencies

The Executive Director of BULGARIAN PROPERTIES Mihail Chobanov and the company’s Chief Operations Manager Polina Stoykova took part in a discussion organized by Imam Imot magazine on December 14th in Sofia, which was attended by representatives of the biggest real estate agencies in the country. The topics discussed were related to the market trends, real estate prices, the effect of the crisis on the different segments, the role of the state and the banks and the expectations for 2010.

The experts in the branch agreed about a few main conclusions related to the Bulgarian real estate market for the passing year:

• The market underwent corrections, regulated itself and the unprofessional builders, mediators and speculative buyers dropped out;
• Real estate prices dropped by about 30-35% on an annual basis;
• Properties of lower quality are sold at lower prices compared to properties with similar parameters but of higher quality of the construction, design and execution;
• The buyers are the leading party during the negotiations and sellers are more flexible and ready to negotiate the price;
• Banks follow a restrictive lending policy and have serious requirements to credit holders.

Mihail Chobanov stressed that in the last 6 months there is a stable volume of new deals every month and offer prices continue to fall. Every month is different regarding the dynamics and the active buyers are different, i.e. the market is still quite unpredictable and we should probably expect a few more rough months. As for the market’s recovery with regard to a higher number of deals it could be expected to begin in the second half of 2010.

Regarding residential complexes in the big cities around the country – the migration from the smaller settlements to the big cities continues and this means there will be demand for properties in the big cities in the future as well. The supply of such properties, as big as it may be, doesn’t look so big on the background of the people’s housing needs. We can add that a large part of the Bulgarians still live in old homes and one day they will change them with newer properties of higher quality.

Prices of holiday homes dropped fastest and respectively the interest in them started to return earlier – now there are very attractive prices and a lot of Bulgarians already own a holiday home in Bulgaria.

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