News

There are several major projects for development in the region of Bansko, which attract the investors` interest and considerably increase the prices of land plots.

“Balkanstroy” will contract a major golf complex in the Kulinoto site nearby Razlog, which has to be completed in the next three years. The investment is estimated to reach 240 million BGN. It plans the construction of 60 km of ski tracks and 20 km cable lifts. At the moment the same company constructs the golf complex “Pirin Golf Holidays Club” in the Betlovoto site. 60 million euro will be invested in the project. It will offer a golf course with 18 holes and vacation apartments and chalets on 120 thousand square meter land. The complex is expected to be completed by 2008.

The construction of a ski zone in Dobrinishte region, according to the projects of “Dobrinishte ski” is planned to be completed in three years. 260 million BGN will be invested in the construction of the ski tracks with total length of 40 km and accommodation for the tourists. According to the property companies the region around Dobrinishte is about to be developed and the prices of the land are considerably lower in comparison to these in Bansko. According to “Fors” the average price of the land in Dobrinishte is around 60€ per square meter

Property investment in Bulgaria has an edge over a number of its European rivals in that with a thriving ski industry, it is able to attract uninterrupted interest throughout the year.

Sofia currently offers some of the best options for investors, with house prices increasing dramatically in line with the capital city's rise to prominence in the European community. It is generally thought that EU accession will form the final piece of the jigsaw and that it will allow Sofia to compete with other European capitals as a commercial centre and tourist haven.

Already offering good prospects because of high purchasing prices, Sofia has also proved popular in the buy-to-let sector with opportunities for extremely competitive rental income.

With rental returns of up to 12 per cent, however, property in Bulgaria's ski resorts has been attracting a huge amount of attention in recent years and this is set to continue as the country's reputation for winter sports is advanced.

 Choose Bulgarian!
Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) account for 99 per cent of the Bulgarian economy and attract 67 per cent of the investment made in this country, Deputy Economy and Energy Minister Luchezar Borissov said on April 7 at the opening of the seventh edition of the “Choose Bulgarian!” exhibition. Borissov cited a pan-European survey showing that Bulgaria ranks sixth in positive expectations of the development of the business environment in 2006. More than 350 SMEs from across the country, mainly from the lighting industry, took part in the exhibition at the National Palace of Culture. This year’s edition, which continues till April 17, has a Regional Development Hall where nine municipalities present their development by structure, economy, tourism, infrastructure, project programmes, prospects and difficulties.

Property investors from the UK are now willing to step out of the comfort zones of France and Spain and are prepared to seek out better returns on property further afield.
This is the view of Richard Evans, writing for the Telegraph, and he picks out Bulgaria and Turkey as examples of the kind of countries that are now drawing property investment projects.
There are still relatively few cheap flights to Bulgaria and this is clearly a reason behind many investors continuing to prefer property investment in France and Spain. It is noticeable, however, that as an increasing number of European companies begin to offer such a service, activity in the property market has started to rise in Bulgaria.

With cheap flights expected from UK airports before long, demand for property in the country is set to receive a further boost in the coming years, although many investors have already been prepared to pay the extra transportation costs on the basis that they are saving a huge amount on inexpensive property.

Tishman International is to invest 200 million euro in a new commercial park near the Sofia International Airport. The project will be co-financed by Tishman as well as the Bulgarian office of Greece’s Emporiki Bank. The commercial park will have a 10 ha footprint and built-up area of 256 000 sq m, including 100 000 sq m of office space, 20 000 sq m of warehouse floor area and 40 000 sq m of hotel premises.

A subway station, providing a transport link with the central and western boroughs of the capital, should open near the commercial park within three years. A total of 90 000 sq m of office space will be placed on the market during the initial stage of the project. About 20 000 sq m of logistics and industrial floor area will be built by the autumn of 2007. A total of 30 000 sq m of Class A low to mid-rise office buildings will be ready in the first half of 2008.

IT'S time to get your thermals on as this year's ski season gets under way - follow this essential guide to the best slopes.

Bansko, Bulgaria
THE hysteria surrounding the predictions of thousands of headscarfed Bulgarians flooding our shores in the next few months has masked one rather important fact - Bulgaria is on the slow climb to prosperity itself, thank you very much. Even though it may not always have been a luxurious destination, or easy to reach, the British have been visiting the country for many years, lured by inexpensive family holidays.

That's all changing, though, particularly when it comes to skiing. Skiers have been used to lengthy transfers to reach the slopes in the past, but there are plans to build an airport within the next five years close to Bansko, at the base of the Pirin mountains. Apart from its idyllic setting, this could prove to be one of its greatest selling points.

The current airports are at Sofia or Plovdiv, both 100 miles from the village. With at least two hours' driving from each, a dedicated airport would give Bansko a distinct advantage.

Visits to Bulgaria by foreign tourists rose by 5.1% year-on-year from January-September 2006, according to the latest data of the National Statistical Institute. The data showed that the increase was due to a great extent to visits by Romanian tourists, which increased by 2.2 times year-on-year over the period, representing three quarters of the overall increase.

David Schuh has been snowboarding since 1985, back when he and other fans were considered renegades on the slopes. Today, all that has changed.

"You can definitely go see the attorneys who are snowboarding now. It's more socially acceptable, not as bohemian," said Schuh, a publishing executive in Southern California.

Since the late 1980s, the number of skiers in the United States has dropped by half while the number of snowboarders has increased by a factor of five - so the two groups are almost the same size today, according to the 2006 annual report of SnowSports Industries America. While snowboarding still is most popular among teenager boys, the financial profile of the average snowboarder has changed since the early days of the sport. In 1990, only around a third of snowboarders earned more than $50,000 a year. In 2005 that number jumped to almost two-thirds, while almost a third of all snowboarders earned more than $100,000, according to the report.

So it is not surprising that more and more snowboarders are becoming part of the winter sports set, buying homes at upscale resorts that have terrain designed specially for boarders and, of course, a certain lifestyle.

"Because snowboarding has been around for so long now, a lot of our buyers are quite affluent, so we get a fair mix of snowboarders and skiers," said Simon Robinson, a real estate developer in Niseko, Japan, on the west coast of the island of Hokkaido.

An extravagant new ski and golf centre, designed to bring in tourists from around Europe, is to be built in Bulgaria it has been announced.

To be built in the Kulinoto area near Bansko resort, the centre will be aimed at year-round tourism, reports the Dnevnik Daily.

The ski area alone will boast 20 installations, with 20 kilometres of lift routes and ski tracks measuring 60 kilometres long.

And the golf area will include a hotel, clubhouse, commercial complexes and a golf playground.

Balkanstroy, the local construction company, will build a ski and golf complex near Razlog, South-western Bulgaria, said the InvestBulgaria Agency which is due to issue a First Class Investor certificate to the project.
The 240 mln lev complex, located in the Kulinoto area, should be ready in 3 years.
Balkanstroy will built 20 km of ski lifts and 60 km of runs with a daily capacity of 6,500 skiers. The complex will have a total of 3,000 beds.