Latest Property and Economy news from Bulgaria. News for Visitors and Investors

28.09.2007 Greek construction company will build offices and mall in Bulgaria

Greek construction company Terna said it had been chosen for the construction of a shopping and office mall in Sofia, Forbes.com announced.
The project called Hermes Park Sofia was announced to be worth 122.8 million euro and was expected to be completed by the end of 2009.
The mall would be constructed on a area of about 54 000 sq m, owned by Carrefour Bulgaria and would contains a multifunctional shopping and entertainment centre with an office complex, Forbes reported.
The office complex would comprises of five buildings of various sizes.
Terna announced there would be a three level underground parking and open air parking spaces for visitors

27.09.2007 Properties in Bulgaria costs 30 anual salaries

Almost 30 average Bulgarian yearly salaries are needed to buy an apartment in Bulgaria.
This made Bulgaria one of the most expensive countries in the European Union to buy a house, Dnevnik daily announced. Denmark was the cheapest with only 5.3 average annual salaries.
Real estate website Properazzi made the calculations for Bulgaria based on an annual income of 1884 euro and an average apartment price of 54 570 euro, the newspaper announced.
Britons who complained houses were expensive in the UK and who had been in surprise by prices in Bulgaria only needed nine average annual salaries to buy a home in the UK.

26.09.2007 Scotish company purchases mall in Bulgaria's coastel Varna

Scottish company Miller Developments purchased Mall Varna for 120 million euro, consultancy company Forton International announced.
The sales negotiations lasted more than a year and involved consultants from Forton and Cushman&Wakefield, investor.bg announced.
The construction of the mall itself was undertaked a bit earlier by the investor Interservice Uzunovi.
Gross built-up area of Mall Varna was 70 000 sq m. About half of the mall’s area, 32 000 sq m would be offered for rent. The mall should be opened half a year.
Pavlina Nikova, Forton manager for the project, told that there were already tenants for 26 000 sq m of the area to be rented.
The mall would have a cinema, supermarket, bowling, bookstore and 10 restaurants, she announced.
Miller Group is the biggest private property construction holding in the UK, investor.bg reported.

25.09.2007 Israelis to buy land in Bulgaria for 37 000 000 EURO

Israeli construction and investment company BSR Europe has reached an agreement for the purchase of approximately 80 000 sqm of land in Bulgaria for 37 million euro, the company said.
BSR Europe has partnered for the deal with a European investment fund for real estate. The company decline to name the fund or the exact location of the land, saying these details would be announced separately, investor.bg reported.
On the land a complex with housing, offices and retail areas with a total floor space of 230 000 sq m would be constructed, the company announced.
Israeli publication Globes said BSR Europe would own 42.5 % of the project, which according to in advance calculations would be worth 200 million euro.
BSR Europe had additionally reached an agreement for the purchase of 350 000 sq m of land in Romanian Brashov at a value of 5.1 million euro. Housing complexes with a floor space of 50 000 sq m could be build on the land. Total value of this plan is estimated at 40 million euro.
BSR Europe is the fourth Israeli company to buy land in Brashov in the past few months, Globes announced.
The company ade a speciality of housing complexes, offices and retail centres and has invested in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hongaria, Latvia, Georgia and Spain.
The company intended to increase its portfolio from 1.3 to 2 billion euro over the next few years.
In Bulgaria the company has finished an eight floor office building along boulevard Totleben with 4 300 sq m floor space.
In Lagera neighbourhood it has been building a housing complex named Lagerfield, which contains 630 apartments distributed over 12 buildings. The project would be ready in 2010.

24.09.2007 Bulgaria constructs wastewater elaboration plants in Montana and Kozloduy

Construction of two wastewater treatment plants in Montana and in Kozloduy started on September 24 2007.
The installation in Kozloduy was build with funds made available by the Environment and Water Affairs Ministry (EWAM), while the fund for the plant in Montana were provided by the ISPA programme of the European Commission, investor.bg announced.
The agreement for the construction had been signed in June 2007 and the deadline for delivery of the plants was July 2009, investor.bg announced.
The installation would collect and treat wastewater in keeping with national and European requirements.
The plan would provide 140 temporary work places for the two years of the construction and some 30 permanent work places after the plants would be taken into production.

22.09.2007 Enheartening investments in Bulgaria

he state will start enheartening new investments in the processing industry, electricity production from renewable energy sources, the IT sector and survey and development.
The Cabinet determined this on September 5, approving regulations to implement the Investment Encouragement Act (IEA). The move is linked to previous IEA amendments and appendixes, which came into effect on August 30 2007.
The act sets out areas of the economy in which investments will be enheartened. In the industrial sector, there will be encouragement of capital investments in the reprocessing industry and the production of electricity from renovationable energy sources – water, wind, geothermal energy and sun.
In the service sector, investments in high-tech endeavours in computer technology will be fostered, as well as activities connected to investigate and development, education and humanitarian health care.

21.09.2007 400 million EURO investment in mixed complex close to Bulgarian's capital

Gardens Group company ntend to invest in a large-scale plan of mixed type near Sofia's village of Lozen.
The investment would total 400 million euro, investor. bg announced. The name of the complex would be Garden City and it would include 600 000 sq m.
The complex would embrase nearly 200 apartments, 240 houses, trade centres, office buildings, a sports centre, a school and a kindergarden.
The project is anticipated to be completed by 2012.
More than 100 000 sq. m. of the area would be covered with green areas. The sales price of Garden City is awaited to reach 500 to 600 million euro.
Gardens Group started construction of its Bistritsa Gardens residential complex on September 20. The new complex at walking distance from the centre of the village of Bistritsa. It would embrace 52 one-family houses with total build-up area of 16 000 sq m.

20.09.2007 Firms from 48 countries to take part in technical fair in Bulgaria's Plovdiv

The 2007 International Technical Fair in Plovdiv to take place from September 24 to 29, and will be visited by 3659 exhibitors from 48 countries.
There would be 1340 Bulgarian participants, Dnevnik daily announced. The number of foreign participants has increased 6% compared to 2007.
The increase of the number of participants compared to 2006 is three %.
The fair would have to open halls 22 and 23 for the first time in 15 years due to the large number of participators this year.
Head of Plovdiv Fair Ivan Sokolov said that the reconstruction of the presentation areas and the fair complex cost 6 million leva.
Partner of the international fair is the region in Europe embrasing the provinces of Saarland and Rheinland-Pfalz, Lotharingia, Luxembourg and Belgian province of Wallonia. Partner country of the exhibition is Germany.
The fair would focus on the works for European fund utilisation.

19.09.2007 Bulgaria's capital offers better investment prospects than coast

Sofia could offer much more opportunities for investing in property than the cost according to an expert.
Those hoping to generate money from investing in Bulgaria should ignore the coast as it was less rofitable and focus on Bulgaria's capital, Simon Tweddle, chief analyst at Property Secrets said, as quoted by propertyshowrooms.com.
Cost resorts depended on seasonal factors including tourist visits and the weather, Tweddle said. Many coastal regions had an urplus of property currently available on the market.
''If you invest in the city you've got more than two million people who can potentially rent your property from you", Tweddle said.
Bulgaria is empting to business investors largely due to its stable political, economic and social climate. It has some of the lowest operational costs and tax rates in Europe, propertysecrets.net announcsd.
''Demand for property in the cities wa driven by three factors: the emerging middle classes who provide the demand for modern apartments, plus increasing affluence coupled with the supply of capital in the form of mortgage lending. All three trends were visible in Sofia'', the site announced.

18.09.2007 Austrian investors to built 250 mln. leva mall in Bulgaria's capital

Shopping City West Ltd, a daughter company of Austrian companies Real Finanz, Real Consult and Real Finanz East, and
Bulgarian Silvana Forest, will invest 250 mln. EURO in the building of a mall in the western part of Sofia.
The complex would be called Eurogate and would get a first class investment certificate, investor.bg announced.
The project would embrace the construction of offices and shopping areas, Invest Bulgaria Agency said.
The mall would include an area of 1.3 million sq m and be situated near the E80 highway connecting Sofia and Belgrade.
Trade and office centres would encircle the complex, the centre of which would be embraced by parks with trees,
fountains and small buildings.
The complex would have its own underpass station, investors said.
The first part of the investment, planed for 2007, totals 82 mln. leva. In the next two years the companies would invest 82 million leva per year.

Real Estate News