The land - the profitable asset on the Bulgarian real estate market in times of crisis

The agricultural land in Bulgaria is almost the only asset on the Bulgarian real estate market which indicates increase in price in the crisis conditions. This was announced by the president of the Bulgarian association of the owners of agricultural land during the European congress for international property federation and on the 17th conference of the organization CEREAN, which took place in Sofia.

Mr. Petkov, said that the interest in investments in agricultural land at the moment is extremely big, but emphasized that this has to be made with great caution and in a professional way.

He noticed that the prices of the agricultural land in Bulgaria during 2011 are already comparable with the prices before the crises.

According to his words , despite all efforts for land consolidation the average size of the agricultural plots in Bulgaria at the moment is about 5,4 decares, which is extremely small compared with the other European countries. For this reason the price of agricultural land in Bulgaria is much lower than the price of agricultural land in the other European countries. He defined this as a mistake of the transition of the 90s in Bulgaria, when the land was recovered in real borders in very small pieces.

The number of the property deals is also increasing. During the first six months in Bulgaria are closed 124 000 deals for agricultural land.

Mr. Petkov said that all these facts tells us that the agricultural land in Bulgaria gives us many opportunities for development and improvement by building infrastructure, by consolidation and cultivating, all these will increase the price of the agricultural land in Bulgaria significantly.

In comparison with 2010 the average prices of the agricultural land in Bulgaria are increased by 7 to 10%, while in some places, to which the interest is bigger the price increase is bigger.

Also interesting is the fact that there is a resale market for agricultural land. From a total number of 124 000 deals, concluded during the first 6 months of this year, 1500 or 2000 deals are resales. These are consolidated plots which are sold at significantly higher prices.