Property Prices In Bulgaria Maintain Growth Rate 14/03/2008
Property prices in Bulgaria were so low it was impossible to make losing investment in the country's real estate sector, International Herald Tribune reported. At the same time property prices are constantly on the rise. In one year residential property prices went up 36.6 per cent, data of the National Statistical Institute shows. Prices are still much lower than the value of similar property in other Central and East European countries, like Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic. West European property seekers are mainly lured by the opportunity to purchase a cheap vacation house in Bulgaria. A smaller number of foreigners look for property investment opportunities in the country, IHT reported. Foreigners are involved in 23 per cent of the real estate deals... more

Overseas Property 'eyed By Britons' 14/03/2008
Increasing numbers of Britons are eyeing up property investment opportunities abroad as they look to indulge in some cheaper, sunnier, stress-free living. Research conducted by Foreign Currency Direct shows that ten million UK people are looking to buy a property in another country, such as Spain, in the next year and four million of these would like to live in their overseas home permanently. Some 14 per cent of those looking to purchase abroad were first-time buyers, suggesting that high prices in the UK are encouraging them to look elsewhere. In addition, 33 per cent of respondents said crime levels at home would prompt them to move abroad for good and 31 per cent said they would do so to escape the gloomy British weather. "Buying property overseas is still an excellent... more

Five Funds Eye Unfinished Hospitals In Sofia 09/04/2008
Five funds have shown interest in acquiring three unfinished buildings in the immediate neighbourhood of the St. Ekaterina and Alexandrovska hospitals in Sofia, Health Care Minister Radoslav Gaidarski said on April 8, as quoted by Bulgarian news agency BTA. The legal status of the buildings, which were meant to serve as hospitals, had to be changed, allowing public-private partnerships in which investors would finish construction and manage the buildings, Gaidarski argued. The procedure is yet to be started and would take six months to complete, he added. One building, spreading over 36 000 sq m, was intended as a children' hospital, but if completed, only two or three floor would be used to house clinics, with the investor deciding what to do with the rest, according to... more

Bulgaria Hotels Number Doubles Since 2005 18/03/2008
The number of accommodation facilities in Bulgaria has doubled to 3 300 over the past two years, data of the National Statistical Institute for 2007 showed. The hotel bed capacity, however, over the same period grew by only 23.6 per cent to 273 300 countrywide. Each bed was booked for an average of 66 days last year, down from 70 days in 2006 and 73 days in 2005, the data showed. Bookings made by foreign visitors amounted to 12 million overnights in 2007 versus six million made by Bulgarians. Annual revenues per hotel bed stood at 2 500 leva, up from 2 300 in 2006 and 2 100 in 2005. Each tourist made a booking for 3.8 overnights on average, each overnight generating a revenue of 37.8 leva. The hotels in Sofia tallied 735 500 bookings last year. Each of the 12 400 hotel beds in... more

Banks Tighten Purse Strings For Holiday Property Investors 10/03/2008
Having already cut down on loans for coastal holiday developments, Bulgaria's risk-averse banks are now doing the same investors trying to raise funding for ski resort projects, Dnevnik daily reported on March 7. One of the reasons is the sharp decline in the uptake of resort holiday homes over the last 7-8 months, caused to some extend by the pullback of British home buyers. Financial institutions have been shying away from ski resort developments in the past several months, Bulgarian Properties manager Nikola Stoyanov said, as quoted by the paper. Krasimir Dimitrov from property developer Source concurred, saying that the banks were being too cautious. According to Tihomir Toshev from Creditex, an Address Group company, it would be an overstating to say that loan-financing... more