subject: Sofia To Lead Recovery Of Bulgarian Real Estate In Second Half Of 2010 [print this page] Reports indicate that Bulgarian real estate will stabilise in the second half of this year, with Sofia leading this recovery, reports Bulgarian real estate experts House Sales Bulgaria (http://www.housesalesbulgaria.com/). Improved lending opportunities combined with a wide choice of some excellent property bargains are thought to be the factors behind the recovery.
While prices may not rise significantly in the later months of the year they are due to stabilise, giving the Bulgarian property market a much-needed health boost. Some analysts are predicting that real estate in Bulgaria will have made a full recovery within 12 to 18 months. Colliers International Bulgaria reports that the countrys capital city Sofia saw property prices drop by 3% in the first three months of 2010 - a trend seen to varying degrees across the country in that time. The average annual price decline was a sizeable 20%.
Demand for Sofia property began to pick up due to falling interest rates along with increased mortgage availability, but a key factor is price flexibility. Both vendors and developers have been reacting to a difficult market by being more realistic with the prices accepted for property in Bulgaria, Sofia in particular. This opens up a raft of Bulgarian properties to the property bargain hunters which a downturn always creates effectively greasing the wheels of the real estate sector towards recovery.
According to Colliers Internationals Tatyana Emilova, demand is particularly high for newly built properties at the cheaper end of the market: Generally buyers have limited budgets and are reluctant to increase them. Our experience shows that the majority of the demand is focused on properties priced below 1,000 per square meter for a fully finished product. Transactions rarely take place before construction is completed or close to completion,. Emilova was bullish about the coming year for Bulgarian real estate: We can expect normalization of the market during the second half of 2010, as bank financing will become more active, and demand will continue picking up. The most active buyers will still be the ones in real need of a new property and with cash.....Provided the overall economic situation in the country is stable, we can expect a full recovery of the market within 12 to 18 months.
