LM Legal Services Blog

According to the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute the number of the completed new buildings in Bulgaria (in the country the buildings must receive the so-called “Permission to Use – Act 16” to be considered completed) in the last quarter of 2011 has increased by 34.5% in comparison with the previous quarter, totaling 928. The number of the new apartments however has decreased by 8,1 %. Across the country the highest number of buildings and apartments has been completed in Varna (188 buildings and 815 apartments); Burgas with 127 buildings and 826 apartments is in the second place.
At the same time the average living area of the newly built apartments has increased by 11,4% in the last quarter of 2011 in comparison with the previous quarter. The highest increase was in Gabrovo, followed by Montana.

The amendments to the Bulgarian Law of the Forests were passed by the Bulgarian Parliament. According to them ski slopes can be constructed on state owned land without the need to take out this land from the forest fund. Some of the amendments concerned the production and sale of timber.
The easement (the right to build) on plots of land situated in forests shall be granted for the construction of ski slopes, electricity poles and poles for gondola lifts and ski drags or “other poles for transport without an impact with the ground”. The easement (right to build) shall be considered granted to all plots of land situated in forests as from the date of the execution of the detailed organization plan for the construction of state owned national sites, the republic’s road network, including the reconstruction of the affected technical infrastructure.
According to the amendments, the certificates for export and import of raw timber will be abolished.

According to the report of the Center for Economic Development the annual inflation in Bulgaria for 2011 was 2.8%. The predictions for 2012 are that the inflation will be between 2,5% and 3%. The unemployment for 2011 was on the average of 10,2% and for 2012 the expectations are that it will reach 10,5%. It is expected that in the fourth quarter of 2012 the Bulgarian GDP will reach its volume from the times before the recession.

The expectations of analysts are that the property prices in Bulgaria will continue to drop on average by 5%. The top prices fetch luxury properties in Varna on the Black Sea, where they sell on average for 1500 levs (760 Euros) per square metre, while the properties in the capital Sofia are in the second place with prices of 1468.10 levs ( 700 Euros) per square metre.
In 2012 the market of holiday properties will keep relying on the Russian buyers, as their interest towards properties in Bulgaria has not been affected by the recession like in the case of the Irish and the British buyers. The prices of some of the holiday apartments and houses have dropped by 50% since 2008 and this makes them even more attractive for the Russian buyers. The expectations that Chinese and Middle East investors will start buying properties in Bulgaria failed to materialize.

After his first visit to Brussels, the Bulgarian President Rossen Plevneliev said that there has not been a positive response to the demand made by the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov the EU to increase its financial share in infrastructure projects in Bulgaria. Currently Bulgaria pays 20% and the EU 80%. During his meeting with the German Chancellor Merkel in Berlin recently the Bulgarian Prime Minister asked that the share of the Bulgarian state decreases to 5%. Only member states with serious economic problems have received such kind of support from the EU. The Bulgarian government considers this approach unjust, as it stimulates undisciplined member states and punishes the others.