Property developers mull setting up association

Some of Bulgaria's largest real estate companies specialising in property development were in talks to set up an association, Laguna Group manager Martin Yanev said on February 26, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

Investor interest in recent years has been directed at building apartment compounds, which were sold to foreigners, who then rented them out. But lately the market, still largely underdeveloped, has been flooded by companies lacking in both professionalism and experience, which had a negative impact on the market.

No real estate bubble in Bulgaria

Even though yields have decreased in recent years, Bulgaria's property sector was still a sound investment, fetching satisfactory returns at low risk, the chief executive of Bulgaria's biggest bank, UniCredit Bulbank, Levon Hampartzoumian told news conference.

It was also unlikely to suffer the repercussions of global credit crunch, because business climate and economy models in the country followed a different pattern. After the initial bloom of real estate, price growth was expected to slow down to 15-20 per cent year annually, compared to 34 per cent rise last year, which showed a maturing market. There was no risk of the real estate sector suffering a sudden collapse and any talk of a real estate bubble were just insinuations, Hampartzoumian said.

Europe's largest property fund declares interest in Bulgaria

Dutch TKP Pensioen Real Estate Fonds (TREF), which claims to be the biggest property fund in Europe with investments of more than one billion euro, has declared its interest to invest in Bulgaria, investor.bg quoted the head of real estate investment at TKP Investments, Robert-Jan Tel, as saying.

TREF has started researching investment opportunities offered by Bulgarian funds, but also in other South East European countries. The fund already has put money in real estate investment trusts (REITs) in Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic, such as the US based AEW and a fund specialised in office properties, managed by Orco Properties.

Bulgaria Tourism and Real Estate Primary Investors' Targets

According to the preliminary report of the IBA, the foreign direct investments in January-November 2007 reached about EUR 5,05 billion which is a 20% increase from the same period in 2006. This figure is 17,7% of the country's GDP.

The IBA stated that the improvements of the business climate in the country were related primarily to the reduction of the earnings tax, which is now down to 10%, and of the social security tax.

Bulgarian Real Estate Fund

Bulgarian Real Estate Fund Sells Part of Office/Shopping Centre for 20.9 Mln Euro Feb 05, 2008, 14:02 CET | Story | SeeNews SOFIA (Bulgaria), February 5 (SeeNews) - Privately held Bulgarian Real Estate Fund (BREF) on Tuesday said it will sell part of an office and shopping centre project in Sofia to Navigator Business Centre for 20.9 million euro ($30.7 million).

Bulgaria was the world's strongest property market in 2007

Bulgaria's decision to slash taxes to a flat 10% starting from this year makes the country a very tax efficient place to relocate or invest in, according to Obelisk, while budget airlines' plans to increase the frequency of their flights would make traveling to and inside the country easier.