Bulgarian Real Estate Fund, the local real estate investment trust REIT, has prepaid two loans from Eurobank EFG Bulgaria, worth a combined 20.16 million leva, to avoid interest payment, the head of the funds project manager Kaloyan Ninov said.The loans financed the purchases of 78 000 sq m of land plots in Sofias Mladost district and a building in the Borovets resort complex in the town of the same name.
The Bulgarian real estate market has enjoyed years of gradual growth, with prices constantly being on the upturn providing a healthy climate for the sector. These were the days of predictability and affluence. Not anymore, being on the outskirts of the hurricane of financial trubulence slowly approaching the country from the West, prices have taken on a sharp decline, as offers on the leading property websites in the country show.
The global financial crunch has had its effect in the tourist resort town of Pamporovo, Bulgaria. The flats available in the numerous apartment estates recently built in the town have declined sharply in value, according to Yavlena GEOS, a real estate agency based in Smolyan, quoted by website stroitelstvo.bg.The first decline in value was observed in the hotelapartment complexes, especially in the cases where there is a larger loan taken out for their construction.
Due to the net decrease of earnings and the increase of interest rates, the average Bulgarian family was able to afford a house 9.4 per cent cheaper in August 2008 than exactly 12 months earlier, according to statistics worked out by website investor.bg. This is provided the borrower takes the loan in Bulgarian leva rather than euro, in which case the decrease is lower 4.7 per cent, the website said.
A new holiday village, conveniently located close to the golf course that is being built near the Black Sea town of Balchik, will rise on about 27 000 sq m land plot, weekly Stroitelstvo Gradut reported. Investor of the project is BritanniaBalchik Inc., a partnership with British shareholders, while the design is done by architects Svetoslav Stanislavov and Delyan Zhechev from the Varnabased Disarch studio.
The municipality of Sozopol, a Bulgarian Black Sea resort town, has implemented a construction plan, which aims to attract the rich and famous. Affluent tourists will be teased with the creation of a small airport for private aircraft, with a runway spanning 1.8km between the Ravna Gora and Izvor villages, Bulgarian construction news website stroitelstvo.bg reported. Sozopol chief architect Roumen Alexandrov and the mayor of the town Panayot Reizi have unveiled the plans which also include a 30ha recreational park near Gradina Camping.
German company Degi has acquired the Mall of Sofia shopping centre, said the antitrust authority, which should rule on the deal. Sources told Dnevnik daily that Degi Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Immobilienfonds was also a bidder for the capitals City Center Sofia but lost to US company Heitman, which offered 101 million euro.Degis marketing director and press spokesman Dietmar Mueller declined to comment until the deal was wrapped up.
Bulgaria will continue to be a safe haven for Russian property investors despite the global financial crunch, a panel of Bulgarian officials have said during SofiaMoscow video conference that is part of a series on the prospects of RussianBulgarian cooperation in the field of tourism, organised by Russian news agency RIA Novosti organized at the Hilton hotel in Sofia.
Spanish investor Hercesa Internacional plans to inject 500 million euro in Bulgaria, 210 million of which will be directed toward the building of an entire neighbourhood with fine infrastructure and even a railway station to connect its residents to various parts of Sofia, owner Juan Jose SercadilloCalvo said at a news conference on October 8 2008, held at the National Institute of Archaeology and Museum. In addition to the good quality of construction and design, Hercesa Internacional says it would offer its potential clients an accessible payment plan to make its product accessible to more people.
UniCredit Bulbank and UniCredit Bank Austria, both members of UniCredit Group, will finance Bulgaria Mall, the next shopping centre in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Bulgarias largest bank by assets said in a statement.The two financial institutions and Bulgaria Mall investors LSProperty and Salamanca Capital sealed an agreement to this effect on October 3 after several months of negotiations.