News

  The building-investment programme of Razlog municipality for the year 2007 is with nearly BGN 2 million more expensive than last year’s one. The team of the mayor – Engineer Lyuben Tatarski offers nearly BGN 14 million to the Town Council. The greatest sum – nearly BGN 10 million is envisaged for the “Long-lasting material assets” sector – said Engineer Vasil Astinov, building deputy mayor. That sum will be invested in the construction and renovation of a basic technical infrastructure – water-main and sewerage in Razlog and all villages of the Municipality that are object of growing investment interest.

  Special building machines and medical equipment are to be bought, as well as cars for social homes service, parking equipment to be and others.

  More than BGN 3 million is invested in fundamental repair works of social buildings, schools, parking zones, as well as for the construction of sidewalks and new streets. Nearly BGN 800 thousand is the amount only in the town and the villages. The total length of the street network in the Municipality is nearly 30 kilometers and more that 60% of it is being renovated during the last 2 or 3 years. Nearly BGN 500 thousand are envisaged for the development of designs for different sites – roads, water mains, collectors, cadastral maps, detailed organizational plans.

  Forty Belgian families will settle in Varna. They have purchased apartments-to-be-built in a residential complex that will be constructed in proximity of the covered swimming pool above “Chaika” quarter.

  The newest investment in Varna building will be completed in a 24 months’ term – said Velichko Todorov yesterday. He is a representative of the Bulgarian-Belgian company “Varbel”. The construction works started last week and on that occasion, the Ambassador of Belgium arrived in Bulgaria, as well as a business delegation from the kingdom and the majority proprietor of the company

  Preliminary contracts of main tour operators in Pamporovo winter resort for the season 2007-2008 showed that the number of tourists increase by 20 to 30 per cent as compared to figures for season 2006-2007. Almost all tourism agencies applied for more places next season, hotel-owners organisation Pamporovo 21 Century said as quoted by Bulgarian news agency BTA.

  The funds that have been put to use for infrastructure sites in Kardjali during the last year amount to BGN 12.461 million. A growth with 32% in comparison to the initially planned funds has been accounted for the first time. Nearly BGN 9 million has been additionally ensured for the budget. That data were announced during the first session of the local Town Council for this year. All advisers shared the opinion that the budget for the year 2006 had been well planned and implemented.

  According to the Mayor of Kardjali Municipaity – Engineer Hasan Azis, the year 2006 has been the year of investments. More than BGN 20 million has been invested in urgent repairs and significant infrastructure sites. “The settlement of some important issues for the town and the Municipality has started; some other issues have already been settled. Those issues have been part of the public’s agenda for years: the construction of a new contemporary market, the reinforcement of the landslide near the village of Enchets, the commissioning into exploitation of the children’s railway, the completing of the construction of Block 2, the building of “George Washington” street, the repairs of the buildings of “Students’ hostels”, the impregnating with asphalt of the road to Perperikon, etc.”- Says the Mayor.

  “Glavbulgarstroy” will buy the shares of “Contract 99” in “Rila Samokov 2004”. Thus the biggest construction company will construct the “Super Borovets” project.

   "Contract 99” is owned by the family of the late banker Emil Kulev. They own 55% of the “Super Borovets” project. Until now “Glavulgarstroy” owned 25% and the municipal has 20%.

  The dimension of the transaction is still unknown. Unofficial data shows that the amount is between 25 and 30 million BGN.

  "Super Borovets is one of the biggest investment projects in the country which will have huge impact on the tourism in the country and Samokov municipal. The locals expect it to bring more opportunities for business and development. Samokov Municipal and Glavbulgarstroy went a long way during the last years for the development of the project and we strongly believe in its future", said Simeon Peshov, president of Glavbulgarstroy.

   Bulgaria was at the third place of rise of residences in Europe in 2006 although the growth of their prices was vastly delayed comparing to the preceding 24 months. Poland and Denmark are before our country according to their place of prices of properties and Estonia is after Bulgaria according to the same criterion, shows a research of the most competent British organization of experts in the field of real estates – the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors /RICS/.

  According to the review of the European residential markets, annually made by the organization, the prices of properties in Bulgaria have increased by approximately 20% in comparison to 22% in Denmark and 33% in Poland.

  However, this growth is different from the increase of less than 15% in the average annual prices in 2006, reported by the National Statistical Institute. This growth was the fastest in the last three months of the year when the values of the average apartments in the big Bulgarian towns increased by 17% on the annual basis up to BGN 904 per square meter. According to one of the leading Bulgarian agencies, the prices have increased by approximately 15% during the year, before the admission of Bulgaria to the European Union. The large growth in the recent months of the year was explained by the Bulgarian experts with the security connected with the membership in the EU, which stimulates larger demand.

   The negotiations between the strategic investors of the “Perelik” sport & tourism centre have now ended, announced the mayor of Smolyan Dora Yankova. According to her, the project contract between the municipality and the future investor of the complex is about to be discussed with the municipal council. When the contract is approved, the counselors will discuss the proposed establishment contract for the infrastructure of the “Perelik” Sport & Tourism Centre.

   Over the period of one week, two British print media published articles saying that Bulgaria’s real estate sector was among the most attractive in Europe.

  On February 7, the Guardian reported that Bulgaria, together with Poland, Estonia and Denmark, was among the European Union countries with a steady increase in property prices in 2006. The Guardian quoted a survey done by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which analysed price growth in 26 European countries.

  On February 5, the magazine A Place in the Sun reported that Bulgaria was the third most-popular country for investments in real estate in Europe. Bulgaria was outranked only by Spain and France. Well-established locations started to lose their market share at the expense of new destinations like Bulgaria, Dubai and Cape Verde. In such untrodden locations, prices for real estate were much lower, especially given the rising prices and interest rates in Great Britain, the magazine said. Turkey, Cyprus, Greece and Portugal were also among the top 10. However, as a result of the oversupply of real estate in some parts of Bulgaria, prices in this country would probably remain relatively low, the magazine said.

   The number of the deals with agricultural lands reached 92 000 in 2006 which is an increase of nearly 100% compared to the preceding year, said at a press-conference the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Svetla Bachvarova. The growth marked by the market is due to a great extent to the activity of the investment funds focussing on the agricultural properties which are behind more than half of all transactions.

  The average market price of the agricultural lands has increased up to BGN 200 per decare that is 20% more compared to 2005.

  There is a big increase in the average price of the agricultural land in the north-western regions, as it has reached BGN 162 per decare (40% compared to 2005). The number of the deals in the region has increased by 60%, as nearly half of the lands sold are situated in the region of Vidin, namely 90 000 decares. In the north-eastern region, which remains the most active market in the country in 2006 as well, there are 30% of the deals executed, at an average price of BGN 220 per decare that is an increase by 26% compared to 2005.

  The town council of Pomorie took a decision to sell real estate properties through a non-attendance auction. The plots comprise of land owned by the municipality located in the area of Luka village and the minimal auction price appointed for them is 550 BGN for one decare. The winner of the auction will be obliged to build a golf complex with buildings for permanent or holiday occupation.

  The appointed investor will also be obliged, at his expense, to organize the infrastructure of the region, to develop a project for a detailed territory plan of the plots subject of the auction and to invest the sum of 10 (ten) million Euros over a three-year period after the issuing of the Building License.

  The plots for sale include the following numbers: 1149, 1150, 12013, 12016, 12015, 12022, 12014, 2026, 2028, 2036, 2033, 2004, 2043, 3088, 2051 (all in the area of Luka village), as well as numbers 18509, 511 and 2051 (all based in the area of Kableshkovo village).
The decision taken was of principle, and on the grounds of this decision, an evaluation of the plots was organized and a work group was formed, which prepared the specific auction conditions.