site.btaGrowing Number of Bulgarians Buy Properties in Winter Resorts

Growing Number of Bulgarians Buy Properties in Winter Resorts

Sofia, April 30 (BTA) - The first quarter of the year witnessed
brisk sales of properties in Bulgarian winter resorts, a real
estate company reports in an analysis of holiday and rural
properties. The quarter proved most successful for the Pamporovo
 ski resort in Southern Bulgaria where the Q1 transactions in
properties were twice as many as the like period in 2014.
Ninety-five per cent of the buyers were Bulgarians, unlike the
2014 winter when Russian and Britons were the predominant
buyers.

Sales of properties in the Borovets ski resort kept their 2014
level.

In Bansko the most buys went to Britons, whose interest in
properties in the area tangibly picked up in the past two
months. At the moment 38 per cent of the buyers of properties in
 Bansko are Britons, 18 per cent, Russians, 10 per cent,
Bulgarians. There are also buyers from Ukraine, Greece, France
and other countries.

The average price of flats sold in Bansko in the first quarter
of the year was 360 euro/sq m, the same as for the entire 2014.
The average buying price of one flat was slightly higher than
last year, 24,000 euro, against 20,100 euro in 2014.

Seaside holiday properties experienced a lull in business,
attributed to the the withdrawal of Russian tourists. Sell
prices edged down, with the strongest drop reported in January
and February. The current prices are 10 per cent lower than last
 year. The average sell price in the first quarter of the year
was 675 euro/sq m, against 758 euro/sq m in 2014.

Sales of rural homes remained slow, unchanged from the end of
2014. The areas with the biggest number of transactions were
Stara Zagora, South Central Bulgaria, and Veliko Turnovo, North
Central Bulgaria. The average country-wide price of rural houses
 was 18,000 euros, unchanged from 2014.