LM Legal Services Blog

Unlike earlier expectations the market of luxury property in Bulgaria has also experienced price decreases. Rich buyers bargain and refuse to pay the high prices for top properties in the Bulgaria. As result prices of luxury properties have dropped by 1 million levs on average according to market analysts. The most striking example is a luxury apartment close to the National Theatre in Sofia which appeared on the market last year with asking price of 2 million Euros. The total area of the apartment was 253 sq m and this was the top price for the country – of 7905 EUR per sq m. The apartment is located in a listed building constructed in 1912. A year later the seller has dropped the asking price to 1,5 million EUR or 5929 EUR per sq m.

At the same time the price of a house close to Perla Hotel in Dragalevsty has dropped by half a million Euros to 2,5 million EUR. The total area of the three-flour house is 900 sq m and it has 7 bedrooms and six bathrooms as well as inside pool, jacuzzi and sauna.

Another striking example of a price decrease of a luxury property is in the affluent suburb of Plovdiv – the village of Markovo. A year ago this property, with total are of 2417 sq m used to sell for 2,5 million EUR. In the last few months its price has dropped to 2 million Euros.

The number of mortgages lent in the first two months of the year in Bulgaria is twenty times lower in comparison with the same time last year. In January and February last year the banks lent mortgages to the value of 355 million levs, in the same months of this year the same figure was 18 million levs. The positive effect of the limiting of the landing is that for the first time in two weeks there is a tendency for decreasing the interest rate, although not by all banks. This decrease is of 0.54% for the mortgages in levs and 0.36% for the mortgages in euros. The average mortgage interest at the moment is 9.95%.

However, leading bankers think that in a recession the sensible policy is not to drop the interest rate. They have warned the developers to forget about the Brits and the Irish who used to buy all the properties at the Black Sea resorts and to focus on the Bulgarian customers, in order to survive the recession. It is expected that the Bulgarian property market will suffer mostly in September and October of this year.

According to developers the state must support the construction industry and the property market by pressing the water and electricity suppliers to offer better services.

The number of new shopping centres in Europe which will open in 2009 be about 40% lower than the forecasts made a year ago. In 2010 it is expected that this number will be even lower and the total area of the new shopping centres will not exceed 7 million sq m. These will be the lowest figures in the last five years.
Due to the recession in Europe alone the construction of newly planned shopping centres totaling 7 million square metres will be put on hold.

In 2008 in Europe 310 retail centres with a total area of 9 million sq m have been completed. Most of them were in Russia where the growth was 23% and the total area of the newly completed retail centres was 1,65 million sq m. Turkey was in the second place, closely followed by the U.K., Spain and Romania. In terms of percentage, the highest increase was in Bulgaria – 76% and in Romania – 63%.

It is expected that the current recession will have the most powerful effect in Turkey, Russia and the Ukraine. A year ago 58% of the project took place in these countries, but now only 22% of the new shopping centres are completed in these countries.

The cold weather and the financial crisis have made their impact on the construction industry. According to the  Bulgarian National Statistic Institute (NSI) in November 2008 the volume of construction has decreased by 14.9% in comparison to October 2008.

The most serious decrease is in the construction of buildings – 15.7% – while the construction of infrastructure has decreased by 13.2%. The decrease is typical for this industry in this part of the year according to the analysts, as this industry depends heavily on the weather conditions. The entrepreneurs, however, explain it with the recession which has hit them since the summer of 2008. The investors on their part wait to see the depth of the recession and its duration in time.

This is the reason why many prospective purchases of plots of land and many construction projects have been frozen. The entrepreneurs who rely on bank loans do not want to stop work but this is still better than sinking into yet more debt. According to some professionals the official statics lie and the real decrease of the volume of construction exceeds 15%.

The speed of work on many projects have decreased dramatically due to the lack of new purchases. Because of difficulties in getting bank loans many preliminary contracts for purchases of properties have been terminated.

The annual statistincs of the National Statistic Institute (NSI) still show a slight increase of the volume of construction in comparison to 2007. For November it has been of 1%. However, the expectations for 2009 are for general increase of the volume of 2 to 3% due to infrastructural projects and general decrease in the construction of homes and offices.

The maximal new foreign debt of Bulgaria in 2009 will be increased by 25% or 2.5 billion levs (about 1.2 billion Euros) according to the decision of the parliamentary budget and finance committee. The council of Ministers will not make any changes in the credit framework during the year as the loans and the beneficiaries have been already chosen. The largest loan is of 600 million Euros and it is for the construction of the nuclear power station Belene.