Bulgaria Q3 nation-wide surge in building permits

Building permits were issued in all Bulgarian regions in the third quarter of 2006, indicating that investors are finally making their way to previously unfancied areas like North-western Bulgaria, Razgrad and Silistra, shows data of the national statistical authority.

Most of the permits were granted to residential and industrial developers.
Sofia has been pushed out of the top 3 of cities with the most number of new building permits and has fallen to no.5 in terms of built-up area of approved developments.
The biggest number of building permits were handed out in the Plovdiv region (498), followed by Burgas (476) and Varna (469). Pazardjik is just outside the top 5 with 176 permits.

Blagoevgrad leads the rankings in terms of biggest combined built-up area of new construction with 476,000 sq m, followed by Burgas with 434,000 sq m and Varna with 364,000 sq m.

A total of 2,661 permits were granted in the third quarter nation-wide versus 2,682 a year ago. The built-up area of newly approved developments is slightly up year-on-year, going from 1.5 mln sq m in Q3 '05 to 1.7 mln sq m in Q3 '06.

According to the National Real Property Association (NRPA), some 5 mln sq m of housing estates will be placed on the market in 2007 which breaks down to 20,000 new homes with an average size of 100 sq m. Some 17,000-18,000 new homes are transacted annually in Bulgaria, said NRPA chairman Orlin Vladikov, adding that the developers will struggle to find takers for close to 5,000 new homes. Around 4,000 new homes with a combined area of 340,000 sq m listed for sale in 2005 are still on the market.

A total of 1,700 building permits were issued in Q3 for industrial, warehouse and entertainment developments with a combined floorage of 950,000 sq m. The biggest number of permits were issued in Plovdiv - 177 for developments with a combined area of 94,000 sq m, followed by Varna (106 permits), Sofia (102) and Blagoevgrad (90).

The developers of office buildings received 125 permits in Q3. They plan to develop office buildings with a combined area of 71,000 sq m. The biggest number of permits were issued in Sofia (24), followed by Plovdiv (14) and Blagoevgrad and Shumen with 10 each.

  read more articles