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SKI RESORT PROPERTY IN BULGARIA
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Ski resort property in Bulgaria (information supplied by our consultant Mr. BulgariaSki from www.BulgariaSki.com):
May be you know that Bulgaria is developing first class ski resorts in its beautiful mountains of Rila, Pirin and Rhodopi. The regular foreign visitors of Bulgaria know the 3 most popular ski resorts here: Borovets, Pamporovo and Bansko. Certainly the most visited ski resort is still Borovets. This purposely made resort has been a favourite skiing destination for mostly British skiers and snowboarders during the last 20 years. Borovets has been well advertised abroad during the years and now benefits from its popularity. Crowds of skiers visit the resort every year. Last 2 seasons the snow has been very good and big increase of the visitors is expected during the new coming season. Even not as popular as the French or Swiss ski resorts, Borovets is a famous international ski resort with significant number of slopes of any type, Gondola lift starting from the very centre of the resort, very well developed night life (very important for the Brtis :), nice hotels and excellent catering for British nationals. The resort is much better than many other ski resorts in Western Europe offering great amenities and benefits, such as main Gondola lift starting from the centre of the resort, only 1 hour drive from Sofia International Airport, good prices for the Western standards (although the highest of all other resorts in Bulgaria, inclusive the beach ones), good traditions in the ski tourism, great night life and almost no queues at the Gondola! Because Borovets is not a town where local people live (it was purposely built ski resort) there is almost no property for sale inside the resort. Most of the available land has been already occupied by local powerful companies running their hotels and resort infrastructure, and the rest of the land is protected by the law and building permits are extremely difficult (almost impossible) to get. For those interesting in buying inside the resort our partners from Bulgarian Properties can offer only few chalets which come with no land, but few British buyers already purchased chalets and are running them successfully. However there is not much offering of these and once a new chalet is built it is purchased immediately at relatively high price of around 73,000 US $ (40,000 GBP). Buying with Bulgarian Properties you will get 1 year of free advertising in www.BulgariaSki.com There is another smaller skiing area called Malyovitsa (own pistes and lifts), just half hour driving from Borovets. There are few villages around where it's worthy buying real estate property. Probably it would be a good idea to invest in residential property (houses + land) in the neighbour villages at distance of 8-20 km from Borovets. We have many such real estate properties for sale, but these will attract mostly low budget skiers who do not want to pay the expensive accommodations inside the resorts. These skiers will have to arrange their own transportation by own or hired vehicles to Borovets to get on the lifts. On the other side these properties are at quite reasonable prices and the buyers will never loose from such an investment. More information on Borovets is available here The second most popular purposely built resort is Pamprovo, in Rodopi Mountains. Pamporovo is not benefiting from a Gondola lift, as there is no such built there. The skiing areas are approx. 2 km from the centre of the resort and using a ski bus is needed to reach the lifts taking up in the mountains to the ski slopes. Many people prefer Pamporovo, as this resort is not so urbanised like Borovets and the nature is very beautiful. Also, generally the slopes in Pamporovo are easier to ski, with lots of pine forests and beautiful sights. Unfortunately no property is found for sale inside Pamporovo. Read more info on Pamporovo here Good idea is to invest in the neighbour smaller ski resort called Chepelare. This place is a normal Bulgarian town with residential areas, but also with 2 main ski slopes (one is the longest ski piste on the Balkan peninsula) and chair lifts. Don't expect to get the high rental income as if you had property in Pamporovo, but Chepelare is certainly developing as a ski resort and in the near future it will become a busier place and all investors will benefit from their presentation here. We must also mention the neighbouring holiday village Stoykite (just 5-6 km from Pamporovo) where many local wealthy people own holiday property. Bulgarian Properties have real estate to offer there and my advice is to go for it! Municipality plans exist to connect Chepelare and Stoykite with lifts to the main lift system of Pamporovo and these will become a fact the more we are going towards 2007 and our joining to the European Union. Other good idea is to invest in rural properties in the nearby located villages around Pamporovo and Smolyan (15 km from Pamporovo). These rural locations will develop as destinations for rural and eco tourism because of the beautiful nature here and will certainly benefit from their proximity to Pamporovo. The Plovdiv aiprort (some 80 km from Pamporovo) is accepting only charter flights at the moment, but this will surely change when Ryan Air comes in Bulgaria. Now most of the regular visitors have to land at Sofia Airport (230 km from Pamporovo). Buying with Bulgarian Properties you will get 1 year of free advertising in www.BulgariaSki.com Vitosha is the most underrated skiing area of Bulgaria. This mountain is just 10 km from Sofia. It was developed as a skiing area during the year of Communism here. Many ski slopes, chairs lifts, toe bars and own Gondola lift starting from the Sofia city outskirts are available here. Beautiful skiing areas are just few km from the centre of the biggest city and capital of Bulgaria. Unfortunately, because of many reasons Vitosha was not developed as a first class ski resort yet. Very few old-style and very basic hotels are located near the slopes up in the mountain and no resort infrastructure near the Gondola. Certainly the residential area of the Vitosha mountain skirts is the most prestigious one in Sofia, with house prices easily reaching 6 digit figures. Land is available for sale near the Gondola lift at prices of around 50-60 Euros per sq. m. The prices are high not because of the nearby skiing areas, but because of the wealthy people who want to live here. Once again, my personal opinion is that Vitosha is very much misjudged as a ski resort, as I have skied it many times and a really like it! I will do my best to promote it with all I can and with the help of Bulgarian Properties we will try to attract big foreign and local investors who will do the right thing to develop this ski resort, which by the way has the highest ski slopes in Bulgaria! Read more info on Vitosha at www.BulgariaSki.com/Vitosha. Buying with Bulgarian Properties you will get 1 year of free advertising in www.BulgariaSki.com At the end I will say few words about Bansko - the fastest developing ski resort of Bulgaria, located in Pirin mountains, some 170 km (2.5 hours drive) from Sofia and the Sofia International Airport. Bansko has the best snow cover of all Bulgarian ski resorts during the last years (last season upto 2.5 meters thick snow!). Initially a small mountain town with rich history, Bansko gradually turned into a ski resort and lot of local family accommodations appeared. Year by year bigger investors came and built few very high class hotels. Many mehana restaurants (national style) were founded, shops, ski schools and rentals, etc. During last years Bansko was attracting many local people and foreign skiers and snowboarders on budget, with main resort advantage being the much lower prices comparing to Borovets and Pamporovo. One of the biggest disadvantages of the place was the big distance of the ski slopes and lifts from the town - 12 km of very narrow, bad road going up in the mountain and reaching the Shiligarnika skiing area (main skiing area) with all its lifts and pistes. This was the main reason which was stopping the foreign and solvent skiers to visit Bansko before. Things changed couple of years ago when a very powerful Bulgarian company got a 30 year concession to run and maintain the slopes of Bansko. Since then millions of Euros were invested in the new skiing infrastructure of Bansko. Thousands of trees were removed and new slopes were made. Brand new and modern Gondola lift was built, starting from Bansko itself. The Gondola is now working and saving time and efforts for all skiers and snowboarders reaching to the slopes high in the mountain for just half hour. New luxury hotels were built and few other are under construction at the moment. The main touroperator selling Bulgaria ski holidays in England is promoting mostly Bansko this year. On the other hand there are hundreds of small family hotels and private pensions offering cheap accommodation in Bansko. The resort will soon benefit from the biggest number of skiers from all other ski resorts Bulgaria. The moment when Bansko will become the biggest ski resort in Bulgaria is very near. Without any doubt this is happening and property buyers who want to use these speculative opportunities will soon be rewarded. Bansko has good property market, with residential properties and land for sale. Prices have gone up with more than 30 % comparing to last year, and still going up. Bulgarian Properties have a British customer who purchased in April 2003 a plot of land at the price of 30 Euros per sq. meter, in October 2003 (only 6 months later) this customer got offers from other buyers who want to buy his land at the price of 55 to 60 Euros per sq. m. The property price increase in Bansko has already started and I would advice anyone having cash to invest in this place. Many Brits are now running successfully own hotels and rental apartments in Bansko. I must point out few disadvantages that still remain in this resort (hopefully they will improve next years): 1) The resort is about 3 hours drive from the Sofia International Airport - tourists hate traveling too long at the bus or taxi; 2) The night life for Brits and other Western Europeans is not developed 3) The local people who are employed in the tourist infrastructure are not speaking a lot of English and other foreign languages (simply there is no tradition here in catering for foreigners) 4) There are many bad and unmade roads inside the town. 5) All people buying rental property in Bansko will meet an extremely strong competition by the hundreds of local private accommodations (working at very low price levels), private hotels and of course the 4 and 5 star high class hotels offering very good standard. A very wise marketing and advertising strategy is needed to get the best from your rental property! Don't forget that all customers purchasing with www.BulgarianProperties.com will get my personal help by free advertising for 1 year at www.BulgariaSki.com , the most popular and relevant source of information for ski and snowboard holidays in Bulgaria. Worth mentioning are the villages near Bansko (5-15 km) and especially Dobrinishte, which is only 6 km from Bansko and has own ski piste and lift. This place may turn into a ski resort over the next years. At the end I would advice all buyers of Bulgarian Properties that are looking to investing in real estate with rental potential in and around ski areas and resorts in Bulgaria that the skiers are different kind of tourists comparing to the tourists going for example to beach holidays. Everybody goes to the beach for holiday, but the people who are skiing love this sport and the feeling when skiing and they are very happy to spend lot of money to go on a ski holiday every year! Good luck with your property investments in Bulgaria and hope to hear from you soon for my personal advice or help with advertising your rental property at nic@bulgariaski.com |
