Bulgarian housing prices are stabilizing

The housing market in Bulgaria continues the process of stabilization. In the third quarter of 2013, the house prices in Bulgaria increased by 0.93% quarter-on-quarter, according to the survey of house price statistics conducted by the Global Property Guide.

Bulgarian home market saw very minimal house price fall of -0.21% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2013, while the property prices decreased by -6.84 % year-on-year in the third quarter of 2012.

Bulgaria saw a rise in the overall ranking of the Global Property Guide - from 36th place in the second quarter to 30th position in the third quarter.

The strongest growth in house prices globally was reported in Dubai – 21.37% year-on-year and 6.48% quarter-on-quarter. From Q3 2008 to Q3 2011, Dubai saw one of the world's worst housing crashes with house prices plunging by 53%, mainly due to the adverse impact of the global financial and economic meltdown. Then in Q2 2012, Dubai's housing market started to recover, thanks to the emirate's robust economic growth, bolstered by several other factors, including the availability of finance, the city's status as a safe haven, an exchange rate pegged to the U.S. dollar, and improved consumer and investor confidence.

The second best performer in the global survey is Taiwan, where house prices soared by 14.98% during the year to Q3 2013 and in a quarterly basis, house prices increased by a meagre 0.09% during the latest quarter. The third position ranked the capital of Estonia - Tallinn with an increase of purchase price of 12.46% year-on-year in Q3 2013 and 3.78% quarter-on-quarter in Q3 2013.

The top ten fastest recovering house markets in the world is complemented by the Philippines, Germany, The United States, Hong Kong, Japan, Shanghai in China and Sao Paulo in Brazil.

Spain is now the world's weakest housing market during the year to Q3 2013, with house prices plunging by 9.46%, from annual house price falls of 12.4% in Q2 2013, 12.82% in Q1 2013, 13.82% in Q4 2012 and 14.54% in Q3 2012. However, this is already an improvement from the double-digit annual price falls seen from Q3 2011 to Q2 2013. In a quarterly basis, house prices fell by 1.65% in Q3 2013.

Greece comes second on the list of the world's worst performers. House prices dropped 8.85% during the year to Q3 2013, an improvement from the 13.58% year-on-year drop seen in Q3 2012. Greek house prices actually increased 0.81% quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2013.

Using inflation-adjusted figures, the Global Property Guide's survey reveals that house prices rose in 28 of 41 housing markets which have so far published housing statistics. The more upbeat nominal figures, which are more familiar to the public, showed house prices rising in 32 countries, and falling in only 9 countries.

Experts concluded that the world housing markets recorded their strongest performance since the boom years of 2006/7. House prices are rising in many more countries than not, and the momentum trend is strongly upwards.

  Read more news