Media Reviews 14/03/2008
The site reports on a worldwide property survey by economists at Global Property Guide on last year's international house prices. The survey's findings confirm a crash in the US housing market, a slowdown in Europe's housing markets and a gathering of momentum in the Asia-Pacific. "Closer inspection of the report showed some surprising winners and losers," notes the site. "Bulgaria saw the world's strongest house price growth at 30.6 per cent (15.4 per cent in real terms) to end-Q3 2007 from a year earlier. Most European countries registered unimpressive year-on-year house price changes in 2007, except Norway and Estonia." The report notes that property prices in Ireland fell last year, the first time in more than 15 years. "The Irish housing market had the biggest and... more

Competition Affecting Growth In Bulgaria 19/03/2008
Bulgaria's share of the foreign property market is falling as a result of growing competition, industry experts have stated. According to the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP), the proportion of investors choosing the Bulgarian market went down last year. However, the organisation said this does not mean that the country is becoming less popular with overseas property buyers. Paul Owen, chief executive of the AIPP, stated that this is an indicator of the growing level of competition which Bulgaria now faces. He commented: "It has had a free reign as the emerging market for a couple of years and nowhere now is the emerging market." Mr Owen added that countries in places such as Asia and South America are now competing to gain a larger share of the... more

Housing In Bulgaria Costs 30 Annual Salaries 12/03/2008
Almost 30 average Bulgarian annual salaries are needed to buy an apartment in Bulgaria. This made Bulgaria one of the most expensive countries in the European Union to buy a house, Dnevnik daily said. Denmark was the cheapest with only 5.3 average annual salaries. Real estate website Properazzi made the calculations for Bulgaria based on an annual income of 1884 euro (almost 3800 leva) and an average apartment price of 54 570 euro, the newspaper said. Britons who complained houses were expensive in the UK and who had been attracted by prices in Bulgaria only needed nine average annual salaries to buy a home in the UK. Properazzi representative Yanik Laklo said that “media reported that Britons could barely afford to buy any real estate, but data showed something... more