Bulgarian Retailer Fantastico Announces 18 Per Cent Increase In Sales 14/03/2008
Bulgarian grocery retailer Fantastico said sales rose 18 per cent in 2007 and should add 25 this year. The company is preparing the launch of two new outlets in Sofia. The rollouts will bring to 32 the total number of Fantastico supermarkets in operation. The first of the openings will occur within days in the Mladost residential district. The 4 million leva supermarket will have an area of 2 000 sq m. The second launch is scheduled for mid-2008 near the Sofia ring road. It will have an area of 3 000 sq m. The goal of the chain is to continue to expand by launching new stores in Sofia as well as in other cities. "To achieve this, we are looking for suitable locations in a number of big and some smaller population centres," said Fantastico. Kyustendil is the only non-Sofia location... more

Prospects For Property Markets Abroad Ernst And Young 18/03/2008
Every year professionals from Ernst & Young’s real estate group meet to discuss property based trends around the world.  From these meetings Ernst & Young annually produce a report detailing the current trends in real estate markets around the world and in investment approaches too, and they add their own observations making for informative and informed reading. This year’s ‘Real Estate Market Outlook’ report really makes for essential reading if anyone is thinking of buying a home overseas for any purpose – whether they are simply seeking a vacation bolt hole or an investment property.  Basically, everything is looking tough in real estate terms for at least the short term. According to Section 5 of the Ernst & Young ‘2008 Real Estate Market Outlook’ report, we haven’t even begun to... more

Building Green Is Costly But Is The Future Building Green Cee 24/04/2008
With some exceptions, design, construction and operation of energy efficient buildings is a costly undertaking. Yet it will drive market transformation and become the norm in the future. This was the message of the second panel of the Build Green CEE conference in Bucharest. Cost parameters aside, energy sustainable buildings have many underlying tangible and intangible benefits that are slowly winning investors and changing perceptions of the green concept. In a second address to the public, Joana Barata Correia, this time in her capacity as engineer at Europewide shopping mall developer and operator Sonae Sierra, gave examples of her company's "green shopping mall" concept, visible during the design, construction and operation stages and creating value with less impact. As... more