Almost 28% is the decrease in the number of deals on the property market in Bulgaria annually. This number is different in the different parts of the country but only Sofia and Varna have similar statistics. 72% of those who would like to buy a property in Sofia and Varna are prepared to pay not more than 40 000 Euros. In Plovdiv and Bourgas the buyers are prepared to pay not more than 25 000 Euros.

In 2009, 42% of the buyers paid in cash and 37% of the sellers had financial difficulties, not necessary inability to pay their mortgages or bad credits. In 2009 most of the buyers bought newly built properties and only 12 % of them have bought prefabricated apartments. The most active buyers were between 26 and 35 years of age.

In the last months the highest price of a property purchase in Sofia was 3000 Euros per sq m. This is half of the top prices paid for luxury properties two years ago.  The owners of expensive properties sell them now for two reasons – some experience financial difficulties, others think that with the money from the sale they will make a better investment.  According to the statistics the owners with financial difficulties are only 17% of the sellers and all of them are keen on dropping the price of their property.

Buyers ready to spend about 500 000 Euros are rare and they have a very good choice at the moment. The advertised prices of luxury properties are up to 200 000 Euros for apartments and about 600 000 Euros for houses in the affluent areas of Sofia. The actual purchases are carried out at much lower prices.  Buyers are prepared to pay between 120 000 and 150 000 Euros for a luxury apartment and about 500 000 Euros for a house. At the moment properties offered at prices exceeding 1 million Euros can not be sold as prospective buyers very rarely view them.

Only 12% of the buyers of luxury properties actually buy with the intention to make this property their home. 53% of them think that this is the right time to make a long term profitable investment. The rest have different reasons for buying like increasing the number of children in the family or achieving higher social standing.

According to estate agents the recession on the market of luxury properties came with a delay of about three months, possibly due to the optimism of the people with money. Then it crushed. The property market’s stability of the last months is less likely to cause price increase. This is not good news of owners of luxury properties as they expect to sell within a time limit. The reason for this is that more than 90% of the luxury properties are sold furnished and the furnishing loses its value in time thus affecting the price of the property.

The location of the property continues to be a key factor in the choice of property. The most popular affluent parts of Sofia are still the Doctors’ Garden, Lozenets, the luxury enclaves along Bulgaria Boulevard and the outskirts of Sofia in the south, right in the foot of Vitosha Mountain.

Analysts believe that once the recession is over, the luxury properties will increase in price faster than the other types of property.

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.

Last year 60% of the mortgage applications in Bulgaria have been made for the purchase of a second home, according to Bulgarian bankers. Bulgarians used to buy properties for investment, expecting high returns and constantly increasing property prices.

This year the number of the mortgage applications have decreased ten times. According to bank managers this is due to the different expectations of sellers and buyers. The buyers expect prices to go further down and do not rush to buy, while sellers do not drop the prices of their properties and wait for the market situation to change back to the time of the property boom.

The banks lend much less money than before and cover a much smaller proportion of the price of the properties. At the same time prospective buyers are unwilling to take large mortgages and prefer smaller ones. Most of the buyers now have savings but they still need to borrow some money to buy a property.

Leading bankers think that the lending will not go back to the levels during the property boom of the last two years. They expect that at the end of the recession the ratio of the savings to the size of the mortgage will be 50:50 and in the following new boom it will go to 30:70.

The Bulgarian bank managers expect that in the next 6 months two new types of clients will enter the property market. The first type are people with good incomes and substantial savings. Currently, in Bulgarian banks there are 110 000 savings accounts with amounts exceeding 30 000 levs (15 000 Euros) with 76 000 levs (38 000 Euros) on average per account, according to the official statistic of the Bulgarian National Bank. Obviously, these people wait for the right moment to invest.

The second type are people who are not covered by the official statistics. They either keep their money at home or have incomes from the grey economy. Such kind of customers usually apply for mortgages that cover 20% to 30% of the price of the property.

At the moment the mortgage interests of Bulgarian banks are between 8% and 10%. Nobody expects any change until the end of the year, as bankers wait for the first encouraging signals from the U.S.A and Europe, in order to make a move.