Bulgaria Properties

The rapid development of the Bulgarian resorts is fuelled by fast building and construction. Even though demand has been steadily increasing over the last 4-5 years, supply of new holiday apartments outpaces the demand resulting in sluggish sales and capital growth for the segment of the Bulgarian property market during the first six months of 2007.

Supply of new apartments in both beach and ski resorts has grown with 46% to 76,500 units, dominated by new developments in Sunny Beach and Bansko. Most expensive prices tags have been registered in the Riviera complex in ST. Vlass/Sunny Beach with asking prices of €2,300 – 2,500/sq.m.

Despite recent reports for maturing of the property market, the reality is that the holiday apartments segment of the Bulgarian property market still experiences variations ranging from €550 to €2,800/sq.m.

The biggest gainer in terms of prices and capital gains seems to be Balchik (about 40 miles north of Varna). Prices of holiday apartments in Balchik went up from €1,500/sq.m. in Januray 2007 to €1,700/sq.m. in Q3 2007.

Prices of properties in the sea resorts south of Burgas remain close to €2,000/sq.m. with an average €2,000/sq.m. in Sozopol, €1,500 in Primorsko and €2,000/sq.m. in Carevo.

Significant growth in asking prices have been recorded in Chernomorec (south of Burgas) with prices jumping from €1,400 to €1,800/sq.m. in six months.

Bottom rock prices for the ski resorts start at around €580 – 600/sq.m. found both in Pamporovo and Bansko. The new kid on the block in the ski resort landscape Razlog offers holiday apartments starting at €850/sq.m. Highest prices are registered in Bansko with apartments going for €2,580/sq.m. and Borovets with prices ranging from €1,300 to €2,150/sq.m.

Overall feeling is that oversupply of new developments holds the growth of prices of holiday apartments in most ski and sea resorts in Bulgaria. Keeping in mind that foreigners are the predominant buyers of apartments in the holiday resorts, it is not farfetched to assume that this situation will remain the same in the near future. The only real shift now is the geography of the buyers. Until recently clients from the UK and Ireland were the overwhelming number of foreign buyers, but this is slowly changing now towards Russians, Austrians and Germans.