Bulgaria Average Apr On Housing Loans At 10 Per Cent 02/09/2008
The Bulgarian central bank reported on July 28 that the APR on new housing loans stood at 9.72 per cent at the end of June, up from 9 per cent in February.The average APR on consumer loans has added 1.21 per cent year-on-year to 11.96 per cent.In June, the rates on new consumer loans ticked up 1.38 percentage points to an average of 10.80 per cent while the rates on outstanding loans fell 0.11 percentage points to 11.03 per cent.The cost of new housing loans increased by 0.41 percentage points to 8.81 per cent, just shy of parity with the rate on outstanding loans which added 0.31 percentage points to 8.94 per cent.The average cost of corporate loans of up to 1 mln euro has risen 1.27 percentage points over the past year to 10.73 per cent, while the rate on credits in excess of 1 mln... more

Property Prices In Bulgarias Plovdiv Up By 47 Per Cent In 2007 10/03/2008
Bulgaria’s third biggest city Plovdiv turned out to be the record-breaker in property price increases in 2007, international real estate bureau Europolis said. Prices in the city went up by 46.5 per cent between January and December 2007, while the average increase in the county was 30 per cent, Dnevnik daily said. The value of two-bedroom apartments in the central part of the city increased the most, by 66 per cent. Shop rents in the same area reached 1000 euro a sq m. Daniela Dimitrova, manager of Europolis’s office in Bulgaria, said that the rate of property price increases in 2008 was expected to be slower than in 2007. Still, it was unclear how the market would respond to the new tax evaluation of properties. Lately, investor interest was withdrawing from the Black Sea... more

Loan Consultant Says Time To Refinance Mortgage Loans Is Now 09/04/2008
Interest rates on mortgage loans rose for the third time since 2005 in March. More than 70 per cent of mortgage borrowers will have to pay higher instalments in April, Tihomir Toshev, executive director of Credit Center, an independent loan consultant, said at a news conference on April 7. In the past three months alone, eight of the 11 banks on Credit Center's watch have raised their interest rates on standard mortgage loans maturing in 25 years and financing up to 90 per cent of the property's value, Toshev said. Clients should consider re-negotiating or re-financing their contracts, the two opportune loan management options in such circumstances, he said. The time was ripe because international financial markets were settling down, the European Central Bank was set to... more