Holiday Properties in Bulgaria in 2016

The effect of the recovery of the residential markets in the regional cities is already overflowing in other segments such as the vacation property market in Bulgaria.

"The recovery of the holiday property market is mainly expressed in an increase in the number of sales, an increase of the share of Bulgarian buyers, who already represent 50% of all buyers in the ski resorts, and attracting a mixture of buyers from various countries from all over the world", commented Polina Stoykova MRICS, Managing Director & Head of Research of BULGARIAN PROPERTIES.

"Now is a good time to buy a bargain property in the Bulgarian resorts and buyers understand this quite well. Many of them when seeing the favorable prices are tempted to buy vacation properties. We observed this during the summer in the beach resorts, in SPA resorts such as Velingrad, and we have now begun to witness a similar trend in the ski resorts. The buyers really can't resist the attractive prices of the vacation homes in Bulgaria", added Stoykova.

Another important trend is that holiday homes are beginning to attract wider range of buyers from around the world. Defining the prevailing nationality of foreign buyers is getting more and more difficult since they are quite diverse and vary from month to month. An important conclusion, though, is that the interest towards holiday properties in Bulgaria exists and it is here to stay.

The Brits remain the largest group of foreign buyers in the Bulgarian ski resorts. It is noteworthy that this year the interest of buyers from neighboring countries and countries of the former Soviet Union such as Romania, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, along with buyers from other European countries, and also from the United States and Canada, has increased. Perhaps these trends are directly related to the diverse nationalities of foreign tourists in the resorts in general, as an interest in buying a vacation property is preceded by a tourist visit in the resort.

Ski resorts

This year the property market in the Bulgarian ski resorts was very strong with a growth of about 40% of sales on an annual basis.

Interest and purchases of properties in winter resorts is yet to be strengthened with the start of the season and in general our expectations are for a peak winter season for the last 10 years in terms of sales volume and attractiveness of the properties in ski resorts.

Bansko

The average price of sold apartments in Bansko in Q3, according to data of BULGARIAN PROPERTIES, was 320 euro/sq.m., whereas the average total purchase price was 20,000 euro.

From spring to autumn we registered a slight decline in budgets and purchase prices – from around 25,000 euro last year to around 22,000 euro this year, which was due to the availability of properties at very attractive prices and a larger share of purchased studio apartments.

For the period from October till present we have witnessed the average price of purchased apartments in Bansko increase to 32,000 euro and an average price of 443 euro/sq.m. with prevailing interest to 1-bed and 2-bed apartments.

Borovets is still the most expensive ski resort - the average price for the third quarter based on actual transactions was 570 euro/sq.m., and the average purchase price was 36,800 euro. Demand for 1-bedroom apartments in the resort prevails, and supply is limited compared to other resorts.

Pamporovo

In 2016, in contrast to the above 2 resorts, we saw a decline in the interest and the number of sales in Pamporovo - the third biggest ski resort in Bulgaria. There was an increased activity in 2015 which declined in 2016. One explanation is the limited supply of properties in the most popular complexes among Bulgarians that are only few – The Monastery, The Grand Monastery, The Wall, The Castle, The Grand Camelia.

In Pamporovo there are still properties at bargain prices between 10,000 and 20,000 euro and the price per sq.m. has no competition with levels starting from 200 euro/sq.m. for furnished apartments, so now is an excellent time to buy!

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