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The Bulgarian Government’s fast access visa system for non-EU nationals who own property in Bulgaria is reaping results with Russians emerging as the largest group, Deputy Foreign Minister Milen Keremedchiev told The Sofia Echo on May 11.
Keremedchiev said that it was Russians, followed by Serbians, who had best exploited the procedure to provide them with a three-year long multiple entry visa.
The logic behind the visa system, which has been in effect for more than a year, provides for granting an entry visa to non-EU nationals who own property in Bulgaria.
If non-EU nationals own property in Bulgaria they can apply for a multiple entry visa for up to three years, also valid for their spouses and children under 21. Applicants must also have had a Bulgarian visa - minimum one year-long, issued before that. Besides the three-year long multiple entry visa, foreigners would be entitled to stay in Bulgaria for 90 days.
"This has had an effect, especially when it comes to interest shown by Russians," Keremedchiev said. "All they need do is present their title deeds to one of the Bulgarian embassies’ consulate services and apply for the visa."
Since non-EU nationals cannot own land in Bulgaria they could apply for this procedure by presenting a document stating that they owned the company that had bought the property. "Many people do so when it comes to owning a single house but as regards owning an apartment in a residential building, there is no problem for non-EU nationals to have the deed in their name," Keremedchiev said.
The procedure came about when many Russian tour operators and real estate companies said that Bulgaria’s protracted visa system policy was deterring Russians from visiting.
The decision was also based on dwindling interest from British and Irish buyers, perturbed by continuing rising prices and the beginnings of the global economic crisis. Russians, on the other hand, still found prices viable. This, allied to close cultural ties and a shared past, made Bulgaria an attractive destination, hence the request for a streamlined visa system.
According to some complaints, property-owning Russians in Bulgaria were also treated the same as Russian tourists. As a result, Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry introduced a separate procedure for non-EU nationals that entitled them to access to their property. How this will change when Bulgaria joins the EU Schengen Agreement area is yet to be seen.

Source: The Sofia Echo

The real estate market has already reached the bottom and in the last several weeks there are signs for its recovery, said the chairman of the national association “Real estate” Luchezar Iskrov, cited by BNR.
Yesterday the delegates of the general assembly of the organization re-elected Iskrov as leader of the association.
According to Iskrov the existence of the crisis in Bulgaria is mostly in the rumours and not so much in the real sector.
There is money in Bulgaria. However, the real estate market in the country is much weaker. According to Iskrov it can be stirred up if the banks based on their reports understand that they have the possibility to reduce the interest rates.
The main problem in the real estate branch is the regulation of the profession, said Iskrov. According to him it is not clear whether this will happen through a law, but it is important the companies’ work to be certified in compliance with the EU standards. Iskrov added that on this occasion a technical committee at the Bulgarian standardization institute has already been established.

Source: News.bg

The Bulgarian capital Sofia is going to open officially on Friday part of the extension of the first Sofia Metro line.
The line connecting the Mladost 1 residential quarter and the main building of the Sofia University "St. Kliment of Ohrid" in dowtown Sofia is 6 km long.
It has five subway stations. The distance will be covered in 10 minutes. The line will initially be served by four trains traveling at seven-minute intervals.
A day before the official launch of the new metro line, the construction works around the future subway stations are still in progress.
The constructing of the extension to be opened Friday started in 2006. Part of the line between Interpred and the Darvenitza Quarter does not run underground.
The Metropolitan company, which is in charge of constructing and running the Sofia subway has promised that the final part of the first metro line, which is located in the downtown between the Serdica Metro Station and the Sofia University Metro Station, would be completed by the end of September 2009.
Until then, the two parts of the first metro line - the currently existing part from the Obelya Quarter to Serdica, and the part to be opened Friday - from the Mladost Quarter to Sofia University - will be functioning independently of one another.
With the completion of the connection between Serdica and Sofia University, the first line of the Sofia Metro will be completed, thus connecting directly Sofia's two largest residential quarters - Lyulin and Mladost.
Two more metro lines are planned to be built in Sofia by 2014.

Source: novinite.com

Lease options will be one of the new schemes to be offered by investors during the BalPEX real estate exhibition, which will take place in Sofia’s Inter Expo Center between April 24 and 26.
Investors will showcase more than 150 projects, both completed and under construction, said Veneta Krasteva, managing partner at the event.
One reason why the lease option is more appealing than a mortgage is the smaller down payment of usually three rents versus 20-30% co-financing required by banks, said Rosen Plevneliev, manager of property developer Lindner Immobilien Management.
Moreover, the scheme enables homebuyers to avoid value-added tax (VAT) payments.
The buyer also has two or three years to assess the property and decide whether to buy it or extend the rental agreement, Plevnaliev explained.
Another option is the family account available in Spain where a fresh bank deposit is fed for four years and then the government guarantees tax breaks for the property purchase, explained Mauricio Mesa Gomez, Hercesa country manager for Bulgaria and Romania.
The only incentive currently offered in Bulgaria is waiving the interest payments on homes of up to BGN 100,000 purchased by spouses aged up to 35 years.
Hercesa offers a property purchase scheme where the buyer pays just 25% of the price until obtaining right of use, with the other installments distributed at five steps over a two-year period.
Israel-based AFI Europe offers a two-year grace period for buyers to live in the new home, with 20-30% of the price payable in advance and the remainder in 24 months.
The credit market is expected to start to thaw in a year and a half and now is the time for homebuyers to sign up to the scheme, the company’s country manager for Bulgaria, Shimon Ben Hamo, said.
The prices of quality homes will not go down as they are tied to quality guarantees by the developers, predicted Plamen Miryanov, head of local real estate developer Arteks Engineering.

Source: dnevnik.bg

With the strong euro making the renting of apartments and villas in Europe expensive, The Telegraph recommends Bulgaria and Turkey to British travellers looking for good value, self-catering holiday destinations.
The two countries top a cost-comparison chart of apartments and villas handled by Holiday Rentals, which offers more than 130,000 holiday properties.
According to the survey, “accommodation in resorts along the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and around Varna and Burgas, the two largest [coastal] cities, work out far cheaper than similar accommodation in the Mediterranean.”
In Bulgaria, the average weekly rental for a two-bedroom property, based on average year-round prices, is Ј303 (around 340 euro) and Ј480 (around 540) for three bedrooms. For Turkey, those costs are Ј328 (around 367 euro) and Ј488 (around 550 euro) respectively. As a comparison, rental property prices in Greece are more than double - Ј741 (around 833 euro) and Ј1,064 (around 1,197 euro) respectively.
As Courtney Wylie of Holiday Rentals told the publication, “In high season, you can get a wonderful detached two-bedroom villa in Turkey with private pool near Fethiye or in Dalyan for around Ј600 [around 675 euro] per week. A similar property on the Greek islands of Cephalonia or Crete will cost nearly twice that price.”

Source: BalkanTravellers.com

In February, the seasonally adjusted production in the construction sector in Bulgaria was the highest among the European Union (EU) Member States.
The data, released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, lists the construction output in Bulgaria at +2%.
Bulgaria is followed by Germany (+1.9%) and Slovenia (+1.1%).
The largest decreases were recorded in Romania (-8.6%), Spain (-5.3%) and Czech Republic (-2.0%).
Seasonally adjusted construction production fell by 1.8% in the Euro Area and by 1.6% in the EU in February 2009, compared with the previous month. In January, production rose by 1.6% and 1.7% respectively.
Compared with February 2008, output in February 2009 dropped by 11.8% in the Euro Area, and by 11.2% in the EU.
Building construction decreased by 1.5% in the Euro Area and by 1.6% in the EU after +0.2% and +1.7% respectively in January.
Civil engineering decreased by 3.6% in the Euro Area and by 2.8% in the EU, after +5.4% and +2.7% respectively in the previous month.

Source: Novinite.com

The low real property and labour costs in Bulgaria make the country an attractive place for investments with an opportunity to serve the business from West Europe even in times of world economic and financial crisis according to surveys of international consulting real estate companies. The countries from Central and Eastern Europe are the winners in these challenging times offering conditions, base and expertise to attract investors, say analysts from Jones Lang LaSalle in a survey about outsourcing and offshore business for activities like backup offices for document processing, distant services for clients, etc. The focus is on the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Romania. Bulgaria offers the lowest office price levels in Eastern Europe. The outsourcing of business and optimisation of business services will be the main drivers of demand in the region for the years to come in order for the business to cut down expenses. One of the local advantages is the relatively stable political system as well as the lowest in the EU wates - for 2007 the figure was EUR 2.09 per hour with a forecast for growth of 50% by 2012 against the background of its neighbour Romania where the figure is double this amount.

Source: Stroitelstvo.info

Bulgaria remains the most popular and sought-after destination for Russian real estate investors. As of March 2009, 18.8 per cent of all applications processed for real estate wanted, in the Russian Prian.ru website, were targeting properties and land in Bulgaria.
There is, however, a marginal drop in demand, as in January interest from Russia generated 19.84 per cent of applications. Regardless of that however, Bulgaria has maintained its top position in the charts.
Second after Bulgaria is the United States, with 7.85 per cent. Third is Spain with 7.31 per cent.
According to the analysis by Priun.ru, as reported by Investor.bg, there is a considerably larger drop in demand for such locations as Egypt and Finland. Latvia, which is outside the top 10, has registered a rise in demand, as it has advanced up the pecking order from 15th to 11th position.
Fourth is Germany with 7.03 per cent, followed by Finland in fifth with 5.57 per cent, Italy with 5.03 per cent, France with 3.85 per cent and the Czech Republic with 3.77 per cent.

Source: The Sofia Echo

The citizens of Serbia and Macedonia will visit Bulgaria with free tourist visa in order to support the field. This claimed the Bulgarian deputy prime minister Ivaylo Kalfin in the Council of Ministers after the session of the State-public consultative committee on tourism, informs Money.bg.
The removal of the paid visa for the Serbian tourists will cost the state around 4 million euro, and for the Macedonians – around 3 million euro.
Another measure is the equalization of the VAT rates for the different tourist services, which at the moment are between 5% and 7%. The transition will be to the lower rate, said also Kalfin.
From last year’s surplus the country has 5 million euro for advertisement of the Bulgarian tourist product, with 6 million of them being for promotions in Bulgaria, and the remaining for presentations abroad.
The deputy prime minister reminded that free visa have been introduced for children from Russia and Ukraine aged up to 18 and travelling in a group as well as for children aged up to 11 with their parents. This act of the Bulgarian government is expected to affect around 70 thousand people.

Source: News.bg

To curtail real estate fraud, the public notary chamber has made a register to accredit all documentation and legitimise bequests for any given property, houses, parcels and others.

The documentation, which is regularly suspect to fraud and subsequently used for embezzlement, will be "subjected to public notary investigation" whereby every official will input the information in the mainframe "immediately, storing the property data". The data will be followed by a brief property appraisal, and specific document disclosure for the particular property. The amended legislation was accepted yesterday, as reported by Gradski Vestnik.

This way, "everyone can check whether the appropriate documentation is valid and applicable to the specific property, house or parcel, thus it will prevent the property from being sold without the knowledge of the public notary".

As much as the public notary is "concerned" about "customers' security" they are also ensuring that they will collect taxes from every future transaction between a seller and a buyer.

The public notary chamber has insisted that it will present government institutions with access to the new register for consultations.

Source: PropertyWise Bulgaria