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The Developer's View

Thursday, Oct 02, 2008

Brendan Quinn, Executive Director of Pioneer Resort, talks to Quest Bulgaria about his views on the Bulgarian property market and his real estate development at Razlog. "I’ve now lived in Bulgaria for 9 years seeing a lot of changes in the country mostly good but as with all emerging economies there are also a lot of “growing pains”.
The country as a whole has benefitted from becoming one of the newest members of the European community. It has seen massive growth in many areas of business with foreign investment, particularly property and real estate, growing at an extremely large rate.
I have been involved in the design and construction of the Pioneer Resort for over 3 years. It took 2 years to acquire all the appropriate permissions to ensure we had all the boxes ticked as the location is in area of natural beauty and only 150m away from the Pirin National Park.
The property market has got a lot tougher and only high quality built products will move in such an environment. If you know anything about building, it’s all about building materials and methods used. The Pioneer Resort is built to standards deployed throughout Western Europe.

Investment Facts

As we all know the world has moved into a time of economic uncertainty, the many years of “fat cats” and large city bonuses being given to people whether they succeeded or failed is now well and truly over.
Looking at the stock markets recently I almost feel sorry for the people working on the floor of the investment houses, that’s until I remind myself of how much money they most probably made over the last 10 years.
If we have cash in banks and building societies is it now actually safe? One thing my father always told me was that there was never any safer investment than bricks and mortar - for example in Ireland an average house in Dublin in 1996 cost 75,000 euro, In August 2008- in the middle of this credit crunch the same house is valued at 271,000 euro’s - not a bad return over the ten years. OK recently world real estate markets have slowed; some have been affected more than others.
Ironically because Eastern Europe has only recently become part of the EU and now has access to similar financial products and services available in Western Europe for many years it has not been affected in the same way as say the UK or Ireland. Only 60-70% mortgages have been available over 10-15 years. Prices of property are a lot cheaper per square metre than those in Western Europe and are actually still rising as there is some equalisation between the East and West market prices. Believe it or not Bulgaria has been the world’s fastest growing market quarter on quarter since Q3 2007 according to the Knight Frank Global House price reports. The latest Q1 2008 figures shows Bulgaria still having the largest annualised price growth at 31.5% Knight Frank stating, “Bulgaria continues to confound market fears of oversupply and has so far proved immune to the deceleration seen in much of the continent.“
Even with such growth, property prices are still at relatively low levels compared with the rest of Europe, along with its fast-growing economy and the extensive inward investment it is attracting, they combine to make the Bulgarian housing market one of Europe’s most bullish opportunities.
However, it is not only the low prices that should make you think about Bulgaria as a good investment, the tourist potential indicates significant price growth in the future and so makes Bulgaria a compelling choice for the property investor. The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) describes Bulgaria as one of the most appealing ‘new faces’ in the tourism industry today. The WTO also makes bold predictions for tourism figures, predicting in excess of 20 million tourists annually visiting Bulgaria by 2010, making it one of the world’s greatest emerging markets. This has obvious positive repercussions for the investment market.
The increased exposure enjoyed by Bulgaria recently as a tourist destination is a significant advantage to its economy in its own right, and has led to a dramatic increase in visitor numbers. Statistics gathered by the National Statistical Institute (NSI) of Bulgaria shows that between 2000 and 2004 the country saw a 70% increase in foreign visitors (with a 90% increase from EU visitors. The most recent figures show a growth of 19% of foreign visitors coming into the Blagoevgrad (Bansko,Razlog) region year on year between Q1 2007 and Q1 2008.
Combined with the excellent long ski season, together with the increased number of low-cost airlines servicing Sofia and the new highway linking Sofia to Razlog means tourists have easier access to the ski resorts with transfer times now around 2 hours from the new international airport terminal in Sofia to the doorstep of the Pioneer Resort. Another surprising fact is that Razlog is only 2 ½ hours away from Thessaloniki, which is Greece’s second largest city with a population of around 1.7m people. Also, in February 2009, the ski resort will hold an event of the women’s world skiing cup which now puts it on the world map for excellent skiing conditions and can only bring even more tourism and revenue into the area.

Source: Quest Bulgaria Property Magazine