The Daily Telegraph has published the ranking of The Global Property Guide Europe’s Top Places to Invest in Property. The Bulgarian capital Sofia took 17-th place overtaking Prague (18), Paris (20), Lisbon (22) and London (26). According to The Global Property Guide, the positive feature of Sofia is the pro-landlord rental market. The negative feature is that the rental yields are poor – 4,19% – the transaction costs are high, the rental income tax is moderate and the corruption is strife. The capitals of many other Balkan countries feature better than Sofia. Ljubliana, Slovenia’s capital is in place 14, Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is in place 12, Zagreb, the capital of Croatia is in place 5, Istanbul is in place 4 and Skopje, the capital of Macedonia is in place 2.

The prices of the apartments in affluent areas of Sofia have dropped by 20 %. The most serious price drop is in the area of the Doctor’s Garden – by 33% and now the price is 1500 Euros per metre. This is due to the fact that the properties offered at unrealistic prices have disappeared from the market. The rental prices in this area favoured by foreigners in Bulgaria also have dropped by 18% to 6 euros per square metre, which is the first drop of rental prices registered in the capital. The expectations are that there will be further price drops in the beginning of 2010; after that the market will start to recover.

The situation in the rentals of office space is similar. Prices have dropped to the levels of 2006  – 12 euros per square metre. The empty office spaces in the central parts of the capital were 13.4% in June 2009 while in the outskirts this figure has reached 19.6%.