LM Legal Services Blog

According to the Land Registry, the property sales in the Bulgarian capital Sofia have increased for a second consecutive quarter reaching 3324 sales in the first three months of 2012. On the average in Sofia have been completed 37 sales per day – an annual decrease of 8.8%. The property prices in the capital have increased on the whole and now properties in Sofia are more expensive than properties in Varna, Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital, where for years property prices have been the highest in the country. The average price in Sofia is 1 453.30 levs (appr. 750.5 Euros)/square metre, while in Varna it is 1439.00 levs (appr. 740 Euros)/square metre. In third place are property prices in the second largest Bulgarian city on the Black Sea – Burgas – 1158.83 levs (appr.592 Euros)/ square metre.

According to the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute the number of the completed new buildings in Bulgaria (in the country the buildings must receive the so-called “Permission to Use – Act 16” to be considered completed) in the last quarter of 2011 has increased by 34.5% in comparison with the previous quarter, totaling 928. The number of the new apartments however has decreased by 8,1 %. Across the country the highest number of buildings and apartments has been completed in Varna (188 buildings and 815 apartments); Burgas with 127 buildings and 826 apartments is in the second place.
At the same time the average living area of the newly built apartments has increased by 11,4% in the last quarter of 2011 in comparison with the previous quarter. The highest increase was in Gabrovo, followed by Montana.

The expectations of analysts are that the property prices in Bulgaria will continue to drop on average by 5%. The top prices fetch luxury properties in Varna on the Black Sea, where they sell on average for 1500 levs (760 Euros) per square metre, while the properties in the capital Sofia are in the second place with prices of 1468.10 levs ( 700 Euros) per square metre.
In 2012 the market of holiday properties will keep relying on the Russian buyers, as their interest towards properties in Bulgaria has not been affected by the recession like in the case of the Irish and the British buyers. The prices of some of the holiday apartments and houses have dropped by 50% since 2008 and this makes them even more attractive for the Russian buyers. The expectations that Chinese and Middle East investors will start buying properties in Bulgaria failed to materialize.

The forecasts for a slow down on the property market in Bulgaria came true – it is back to the levels of 2004. The number of deals with real estate have dropped by 35% in 2009 and stopped at 200 678. This drop was deeper than the one in 1997 – 1998 when the country experienced hyperinflation and bank crisis.

According to the Land Registry the hysterical purchases of apartments in the big cities has died away and the drop in the number of purchases  in Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv and Pleven has dropped lower than the average for the country. In the capital Sofia this number has dropped below the lever of 2004 when the purchases were 28 837.

The market in the Black Sea resorts and in the agricultural areas of the country is fairing better than in the rest of the country during the recession. In Nessebar on the Black Sea there were 6461 deals in 2009 which is only by 23% lower than in 2008. In Dobrich the drop is even lower. The interest in agricultural land in the area has remained the same.

The number of new buildings in Bulgaria has dropped by 70% on an annual basis. In the last quarter of 2009 the number of the new planning permissions was 1343,  while in the same period of 2008 they were 2452, according to the National Statistics Institute.  This huge drop has come after 5 years of permanent increase of the number of planning permissions.

The recession in the construction industry  has also had its impact on the size of the new apartments – their living area has decreased by 24% only from October to December 2009 in comparison with the previous quarter. Annually the drop has been more drastic – it has exceeded 70%.

The construction of new offices has also suffered. In the last quarter of 2010 only 63 planning permissions have been issued, which is a drop by 25% in comparison with the previous quarter and 37% on an annual basis. Most of the already finished offices are left empty, despite the decrease of the rents.

The price drop of real estates in 2009 is on average by 20% but in some parts of the country it has reached 60%. The real prices at which purchases are made in the Bulgarian capital Sofia are on average 23%  lower in comparison with the period 2007 – 2008, i.e. the average price in 2009 was 980 Euros/ sq.m.

The price drop in the other cities has not been so drastic but property prices there have not reached the levels of those in the capital. In Varna, the second Bulgarian city, the price drop in 2009 was of 14%, while  in Plovdiv and Burgas (the third and the fourth largest cities) – 15%.