Bulgaria Property Prices Have 'Hit Bottom’

In 2011, a bid price for one square metre in the capital Sofia was close to €920, while in 2010 it was €1,100.

According to Polina Stoikova, operations director of a property sales company, the Bulgarian market was characterised in 2011 by demand for properties in the low price range. She said that this meant apartments in major cities in the €50,000 price range. In 2010, demand concentrated on high-end properties.

The most serious decline has been registered in Bansko, at 25 per cent. Brokers described the property market in Bansko as "at a complete standstill."

"At the moment, sales have fallen significantly – it’s almost tragic," Bulgaria's bTV quoted hotel manager Dimitar Iliev as saying.

"Especially in the past few months, you could feel the drop, almost 30 per cent from last year and the year before. To tell you the truth, the British are almost gone," Iliev said.

In late 2011, the price of property in Bourgas on the Black Sea decreased to an average €860 euro per square metre, and in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second city, to close to €770.

Vanya Voina, a sales manager, said that prices at the moment had "almost hit bottom".  She said that for this reason, advertising had been stepped up.

According to bTV, brokers refrained from specific forecasts for 2012, but said that initial estimates were that property prices would remain around current levels, possibly with a slight decline.

Brokers expected that the number of transactions would remain at the "crisis" levels that had been seen since 2010.