LM Legal Services Blog

The turnover of the largest Bulgarian construction companies in 2007 was 2.7 billion levs according to the Builders’ Chamber in Bulgaria (KSB) which announced the annual statistics on the eve of the day of the builders, St Dimitre’s Day. More than 2400 Bulgarian construction companies have provided information for these statistics.

The largest construction company in Bulgaria is Glavbolgarstroy AD with a turnover reaching 228.9 million levs. Roads Holding is in the second place with 151.7 million levs. It seems unlikely a company building roads to take the first place, as there are no infrastructure projects for the time being.

The growth of the construction industry according to its chamber demonstrated a growth of 16% per annum but this year there will be a slow down. This recession has been expressed in the halting of investment projects and of planning permissions. If the European funding has not been stopped, the construction industry would have maintained its growth.

The sales of properties have decreased twice in the first three months of 2009 in comparison with the same period in 2007. The main reason is the shrinking of the market. The investments in the property market are much less than in previous years.

In order to attract clients the construction companies now tend to building longer – up to 3 years. At the same time they  accept smaller instalments during the construction and a bigger final instalment when the project is ready. It is difficult to make predictions at the moment but for the time being there are no significant changes in the cities.