Is it safe to say that the property market in Bulgaria is dead and offering no profit to real estate investors? Or are there pockets of the country still worth a punt? An overview of Bulgaria’s current property fortunes for investors and those who hold property in Bulgaria
www.shelteroffshore.com, Thu, January 21, 2010
What’s Actually Happening in Bulgaria’s Dead Property Market?Have you been wondering whatever happened to the property market in Bulgaria? It was the most hyped market back in the day with properties being marketed for sale on the coast, in the mountains, in the capital city and even rurally for those who wanted to escape the rat race and live the dream in an affordable country abroad.
Properties in the nation were highly affordable – they were pushed up in value as Bulgaria joined the EU and then pushed even higher by mass marketing hype that was not built on any sustainable or realistic fundamentals.
At the same time as people began to question the ever rising value of homes in Bulgaria, so too did people begin questioning the likes of build quality, supply and demand ratios in holiday resorts where the property sold was to investors, and even the attraction of Bulgaria as a place to live, work, retire or visit…
As the world’s economic markets began to melt and real estate became one of the biggest bubbles to pop at home and abroad, so Bulgaria’s property market was further undermined and it pretty much seemed to ‘die’ overnight.
So what’s actually happening in Bulgaria’s so-called ‘dead property market’ because there are still people living in the nation, there are still flights in and out of the country and there are still those who have ‘investment assets’ in Bulgaria. Is it really dead/dying – or is there still some life left in the nation’s real estate economy after all?
Bulgaria is not the only place that landlords have to tread carefully. I continually receive incredibly tempting offers on ‘distressed sale’ property in the USA, such as Detroit, Cleveland and in particular Shaker Heights – a middle class area of Cleveland. Two bedroomed executive apartments of over 1000 square feet in a very attractive looking period condo for $45000.00!
Being cautious, I made my own inquiries from various real estate agents local to Shaker Heights. I saw one apartment on one agent’s site that made the $45000 look positively overpriced – it was advertised for $11000.00!
However, it seemed I had actually found a completely honest estate agent. He advised me that the main reason many of these apartments were so cheap was that the Home Ownership Association of the block (the people to whom owners pay their service charges) had gone bust and that new owners would likely be faced with huge capital expenditure for works that needed doing. His final telling comment was ‘There’s no free lunch in Shaker’. Trust an American to sum things up in a no-nonsense way!
Comment by Malcolm Stretten — 16/5/2010 #