LM Legal Services Blog

More than 70 hotels in the area of Varna, among them 4-star hotels in Golden Sands have been put for sale.  Almost all of the hotels are open and operating, only a few are still being built. The small family hotels are predominating among them. All the sale prices of the hotels are in Euros, 14 of them are above 1 million Euros. The highest price is for an apartment building in Golden Sands and it is 15 million Euros. This development is still under construction and according to the plan it must be a 4 star complex with its own SPA, restaurants, cafes, open air and indoors pools and park. Another 4-star hotel right on the beach in Golden Sands is for sale for 14.2 million Euros, and a 3-star hotel with 232 rooms, SPA and a restaurant with 200 places is offered for 13 million Euros. The cheapest hotel is a 3-storey villa which is being sold for 210 000 Euros.

The highest number of hotels are located in Golden Sands – 17. In St Konstantin and Elena there are 15, in Alen Mak -11 and in Evxinograd  there are 8, while in Journalist – 5. There are some hotels for sale in Sunny Day, Trakata, Manastirski Rid, Borovets and Priboy, as well as in Priseltsy, Byala and Shkorpilovtsy.

The slowing down of the Bulgarian property market is most obvious at the Black Sea resorts, namely the Sunny Beach and the Golden Sands, and in the mountain ski resorts like Bansko and Pamporovo. The price of properties there have reached their peak levels and the number of purchases has been falling. There is no demand for such properties, while the the properties on offer are many. This is the reason why the Bulgarian banks avoid financing such purchases, as well as the construction of properties along the coast. According to leading business and legal advisers, the prospective investors can not  rely on off-plan sales at the moment. Many hotels along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast have been put up for sale and there are no prospective buyers interested in them. This means that most of them will be acquired by the Bulgarian banks which credited their construction. In the long run if the intensive construction does not stop, many hotels along the coast will have to be demolished like in Spain. However, in order to do this, a new legislative framework needs to be introduced by the Bulgarian parliament, and leading solicitors have been investigating the Spanish experience and preparing the necessary amendments to the current Bulgarian laws. Generally, the lawyers and the law companies seem to be more occupied than anybody else involved in the construction business.

Away from the Black Sea and the mountain resorts, the Bulgarian property market keeps moving because traditionally Bulgarians consider buying a property not only an investment but  most of all a form of security.