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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Freitag, 03. September 2010 um 08:31 |
John is from Cardiff. Three years ago he bought a small apartment in Bansko for 65 800 euro. When the global financial crisis struck, property prices went down, interest went up and John started amassing debt to his bank.
Last year, the bills became too much and he decided to sell his Bulgarian investment. The apartment went on sale in March 2009, with an asking price of 57 500 euro, but found no buyer.
Two weeks ago, John finally managed to sell his apartment for 37 000 euro, incurring a loss of 44 per cent on his initial investment.
The case is real. The holiday properties market in Bulgaria is full of sellers like John, who bought properties in Bansko for prices of about 1400 to 1500 euro a sq m and are now selling for about 700 to 800 euro a sq m.
The credit crunch is one of the reasons for the outflow of British property buyers. The other is the disappointment in the investment. Most Brits bought apartments and houses in Bulgaria expecting easy returns after Bulgaria entered the European Union. Banks generously funded the purchase of a second home in Slunchev Bryag (Sunny Beach) or Bansko, while property consultants promised annual returns of 10 per cent.
None of that came to pass. "They found out that miracles do not happen and that you cannot become rich thanks to someone else. You can only make yourself rich. The Brits that bought apartments in Bulgaria wanted someone else to make them rich, but this doesn't happen in life – nowhere and never. If they didn't become rich in Britain, they won't become rich in Bulgaria," said one property developer who sold several developments on the Black Sea coast to British buyers, but asked not to be named.
Capital's investigation showed that most British-owned holiday property is either empty or being used only three to four weeks a year. Their owners have been accumulating debt because of maintenance costs. The only happy property owners are those who bought village houses that they use all-year.
Among the reasons for disappointment is the bitter experience of many buyers who became easy prey for fraudulent or bankrupt Bulgarian developers, which has helped the negative image that Bulgaria has in British media. UK newspapers, which three or four years ago advertised Bulgaria as the next investment hot spot after Spain and the Baltic countries, are now advising their readers not to buy property here.
'A house for the cost of a car'
This headline is from an article that The Sunday Times ran in October 2004. It told the story of a 37-year-old Liverpudlian who made her Balkan dream come true, buying a huge house in Ustrem, a village near the town of Elhovo in southeastern Bulgaria, for just 5000 pounds sterling. For the price of a four-year-old Ford Mondeo, she got a "solid house, complete with vines, fruit trees and a 1200 sq m garden". Another argument in favour of such an investment was the fact that "a beer in a bar costs 17p, a three-course meal for two washed down with a reasonable bottle of Bulgarian wine, about £9."
Stories like this one also helped to inflate the property bubble in Bulgaria between 2003 and 2007. For many Brits, Bulgaria was the dream of a second home come true, as seen by the names of the companies they had to register to buy property in Bulgaria. The trade register is full of companies with names like Second Home, My Dream, Dream Home Invest, Bulgarian Dream Property, Dream Land, Overseas Dream Properties, Dream Destiny – all owned by British nationals and registered to buy property.
"All you had to do is explain that Bulgaria was two hours away by plane and that it was to join the EU; as soon as you showed them the natural beauty and the nice climate and then told them that they could have a house for 5000 pounds, that was enough," says Yulian Georgiev, owner and managing director of Homes in Bulgaria, the first company that began targeting British buyers for Bulgarian properties in 2002.
In those early years, the most popular sale were village houses with a yard in the mountains and close to the seaside. A year or two later, the new fashion of holiday properties in resorts took hold. In Slunchev Bryag and mountain resorts like Bansko, Pamporovo and Borovets, properties under development were being bought by Brits off-plan. Most of them never even came to Bulgaria to see the apartment they were buying. The deals were being brokered by Bulgarian and British property consultants that handled all the paperwork and the new property owners would sign their preliminary contracts in London, Manchester or Cardiff.
Many Brits fell victim to fraud. "You cannot sell an apartment in Ravda with a view of the sea knowing that the 500 sq m between you and the sea were owned by someone else and would be built up within six months," Georgiev said.
Another case that drew even the attention of a British television crew, was in Bansko. "In front of the building, there was about 1000 sq m with a wonderful view of the ski lift and the mountains. The investor claimed that he owned the land and would leave it as a green space. In the time that passed between the signing of the preliminary contract and turning it over to the new owners, a building two storeys higher than the first property had already been developed there," Georgiev said.
Burst bubble
The global financial crisis put an end to British hopes for easy returns. Few are those that made a profit from the resale of a property in the past two years. Most have suffered heavy losses because the value of their properties has drastically decreased.
At the peak of the property bubble, apartments with a view of the sea reached up to 2500 euro a sq m and the average price of a village house with a yard was 30 000 euro. Now prices have more than halved. Apartments in Slunchev Bryag can be had for 400 euro a sq m and the average price of village houses is between 14 000 and 15 000 euro.
"There are many resales at half the price at which the properties were bought. Most Brits are not selling, but some have incurred such debts that they have no choice," said Polina Stoikova, operational director of Bulgarian Properties, one of the largest property consultancy firms working with British buyers, which has more than 10 000 deals with Britons.
According to Georgiev, Bulgaria never drew the middle and high-scale British investors. "This is part of the drama of the Bulgarian market. In the first years of the boom, we had many first-time buyers, who often could not afford a home in Britain but did in Bulgaria, because it only cost them a two-month salary. That is why as soon as the investment amounts went past 70 000 pounds, the interest died out," he said.
Proof of the changed trend is the decline in the number of intermediaries and property websites, Georgiev said. "The few agencies around are mostly being sought not by buyers, but worried owners who have found a problem with their property. There are some cases where owners that paid in full are yet to receive their property title," he said.
Empty apartments...
Empty apartments are everywhere. Most newly-built apartments in the developments near the Radomir golf course and in Bansko are unfurnished, which means that they are not being used, Capital has established.
In the recently-completed Four Seasons complex, the same one that was stormed six months ago by unhappy Brits who were denied access to their property by the developer, we found only one guard who said that the only Brit had left the previous day.
The guard said that the problem has been solved and the British owners were given access to their apartments. Except that there is still no road to the complex and to get there, the owners need to drive through the neighbouring meadow.
"They are being used two-three months a year. Maybe the Britons investing in Bulgaria are being misled by British and Bulgarian firms telling them 'buy an apartment, we will use it throughout the year and pay you 10-12 per cent rent', but it's not happening. I don't know why, but many apartments are not used the entire year," Bansko mayor Alexander Kravarov told Capital.
The mayor of Chepelare, whose demesne includes some of the developments around Pamporovo, said: "Maybe one third of the apartments are in use, the rest are not. Some [owners] might not even know where their apartments are."
It is no different at the seaside. One property developer, with more than 3000 sales to Britons in Slunchev Bryag, told Capital that about 60 to 70 per cent of the apartments in his developments were empty for most of the summer season. He asked not to be named because he was still working with British customers, but said that the blame for the dashed dreams was with the Britons themselves, who trusted property brokers.
"If a property yields enough to pay for the mortgage, trust me that no investor will sell that. If my properties could yield 10 per cent returns every year, I would not be selling them to the Brits. It's a basic truth," the developer said.
...accumulating debt
We checked how much renting out an apartment in Slunchev Bryag can yield. It turns out that in most cases, the amount rarely exceeds 2000 euro a year. If the complex is more luxurious and in a good location, the amount can reach 2500 to 3000 euro a year.
At the same time, these properties have fixed expenses. One of them is the fee for maintaining the grounds, including the swimming pools, green areas, security and other services without which the property would not be attractive to tourists. The fee is calculated based on the area of the property and is nine to 10 euro a sq m in Slunchev Bryag. Thus, the owner of a 100 sq m apartment in Slunchev Bryag has to pay, on average, about 1000 euro a year for grounds maintenance.
Separately, there is the property management fee, which varies between 300 and 400 euro a year. This fee requires the management company to seek rentals for the months when the apartment is not being used by the owner. Thus, the unavoidable expense of the property owner is about 1300 to 1400 euro a year, according to Petar Radev, the executive director of Property Management BG, one of the largest firms managing property owned by foreigners in the country.
According to Radev, the average yield of apartments owned by Britons in Slunchev Bryag is rarely higher than two per cent, which is partially caused by the shorter summer season, which now lasts 70 to 75 days. Higher yields are available only in developments that work throughout the year, but their number in resorts like Bansko is small.
"One of the big problems of first-time buyers is that they see the purchase as a one-off expense and rarely thought of the necessary annual maintenance costs. Right now, facing the prospect of spending money on maintenance and taxes, they prefer to sell. There is a large number of agencies at the seaside that work on the Russian market and try to sell the Britons' apartments at a distressed price," Georgiev said.
Another confirmation of the lost interest in property in Bulgaria is the news that about 600 Brits have not paid their local taxes for the apartments they own in Pamporovo. The amount is more than 600 000 leva and covers the period 2007/10. Chepelare town hall has said that it sent letters to the owners' British addresses, asking them to voluntarily pay the overdue taxes.
"For the first time ever, we have decided to send official letters, but we cannot even find the addresses of all the apartment owners. Usually we get calls asking for the number of the bank account where to pay, but insist that it should be a town hall account, rather than some intermediary's or someone else who has lied to them in the past," Chepelare mayor Georgi Popov said. "The people are willing, but they either don't have the information or are afraid [of fraud] to start paying their taxes as owners of those apartments."
Will the Britons return?
To answer this question, one must first establish what sent them packing from Bulgaria. The recession is one reason, but it is linked to the worries about the dramatic oversupply of apartments in many Bulgarian resorts and the media reports about inadequate infrastructure, according to Graham Norwood, a British property journalist, who has contributed to numerous British newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, The Independent, The Guardian and The Observer.
Fears about corruption and crime were a smaller concern than oversupply and inadequate infrastructure, he said.
Should Bulgarian authorities exercise strict control over future construction, allowing fewer developments in popular resorts and investing in more and better infrastructure, there was a chance that British interest in Bulgarian property would return, he said.
"Throughout the boom, the government was only interested in counting the inflow of foreign investment, without anyone being concerned whether this investment would prove successful and bring sustainable economic development," Homes in Bulgaria's Georgiev said. "What does it matter that Sofia is two hours away from London if you need eight more hours to reach your Bulgarian property, never mind the potholes and the lack of proper infrastructure in the newly-built developments."
According to Polina Stoikova of Bulgarian Properties, the negative image in British media did not help matters. "There were negative reports about Bulgaria by unhappy buyers and people who had been swindled. Since Britain has a more developed civil society, the people's voice is being heard. But it was definitely the financial crisis that caused the outflow," she said.
"If the economy begins recovering, which will happen sooner or later, I think that Britons will regain their interest in Bulgaria. Although there were many people disappointed, there were many who were happy with Bulgaria and Bulgarians, the food, the culture and the nature," she said. "Our experience thus far shows that small investors in property have a short memory and as soon as the crisis is over, they will become bold again."
Liquidation threat
Britons had to buy property in Bulgaria through companies because of the constitutional ban on foreigners owning Bulgarian land. This unnecessary ban could now cause a lot of headaches for the owners of such companies, because by law, all companies must re-register by the end of 2010. The companies that fail to do so will have to be declared in liquidation, which raises the question of what is to happen to the properties they own.
This affects all properties bought by a company in 2002/07. Mostly, these are country houses and involved the transfer of land. With apartments, what is being sold is the right to build and there is no interdiction on foreigners owning them, lawyers say.
"Many owners have no way of being informed about the change in legislation and might not find out that they need to re-register their companies. This will be yet another 'advert' for the Bulgarian market," according to Yulian Georgiev of Homes in Bulgaria.
The ban on foreigners owning land in Bulgaria remains despite Bulgaria's accession to the European Union and has to be lifted no later than 2014.
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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Freitag, 03. September 2010 um 08:31 |
He's a 55-year-old construction entrepreneur from London and one of the victims of property fraud, an issue that thousands of Britons have encountered in Bulgaria.
We'll call him Steven because he does not want his identity revealed. Right now he is in Britain and the last thing he wants is to meet journalists. We talked to his lawyer in Sofia, who also asked not to be named because the court action is still pending. But the story we are about to tell is very much real.
Auspicious start
The year is 2005. Under the influence of ubiquitous advertising in British newspapers, Steven decides to buy an apartment on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast through Bulgarian Dreams – one of the largest and most popular property intermediaries during the boom era.
He picks the Windows to Paradise development near Kavarna because of the golf courses under construction nearby. Steven's dream is to buy a second home in Bulgaria, which at the time is already certain to join the European Union. He picks a 123 sq m apartment on the fifth floor of one of the buildings in the future development. The price is 108 000 euro and Steven pays half of it.
After the promising start comes the shock.
No fifth floor
A year after paying for his apartment, Steven received an e-mail from a Bulgarian Dreams representative informing him that construction would be delayed, although it did not say for how long. More shocking, however, was the revelation that the building would only have four floors.
Turns out that Kavarna town hall did not approve the fifth floor in the building where Steven paid for the apartment. In the name of Bulgarian Dreams, he is offered to choose another apartment for the same price in a future building, without specifying which building.
Steven refused and asked for his money back, along with interest and damages.
What followed was five months of tortured correspondence between Steven and Bulgarian Dreams, in the course of which he was once again offered to buy a smaller apartment in Bansko or Pamporovo. In the end, he was promised that he would get his money back, but was referred to Bulgarian Dreams' Bulgarian partner – Interlink BG.
After more talks with the lawyers of the Bulgarian company, he was refused a refund because not all shareholders of Interlink BG gave their approval.
In court
Steven was lucky to find a good Bulgarian lawyer who began actively pursuing Interlink BG. First, he secured an impounding of the company's bank accounts, but finding no money there, he persuaded the court to impound two plots owned by the company. In the end, the court ruled in Steven's favour, ordering the company to pay back the money plus interest.
We are telling you Steven's story because it is a typical case involving British nationals. There are hundreds of such court actions in Bulgarian courts and a big part of them are deals brokered by Bulgarian Dreams.
"Most of them signed blindly, without even reading their contracts. Many contracts have no date or builder signature. To a large extent, the blame belongs to the Britons themselves, who were overly trusting in their dealings. Many of them did not consult a lawyer, thinking it an unnecessary expense," said Milen Hristov, a lawyer who represents several British buyers burned by Bulgarian Dreams.
So far, he has secured one out-of-court settlement to recover 20 000 euro for a client who bought an apartment in the Windows to Paradise development near Kavarna.
After boom, bust
Bulgarian Dreams is the most often cited name whenever one talks of Britons having problems with their Bulgarian properties. It started as a family business, founded by Briton Robert Jenkin and his spouse Maria Georgieva. Business grew as the generous advertising campaign and promises of quick returns won new clients.
Hundreds of properties in several large developments on the Black Sea coast and in Bansko were sold with the company acting as an intermediary.
The first signs of the impending fiasco came in March 2008, when the company was expelled by the London-based Association of International Property Professionals because of customer complaints. The crash came at the end of 2008, when the company surprisingly announced that it ceased trading, closed its Moorgate office and told customers on its website that "following the extraordinarily difficult economic conditions", customers should contact the Bulgarian building companies directly.
In March 2009, it was reported that the economic crime department of the City of London Police was investigating the company. The Sunday Times said at the time that Bulgarian Dreams held a prominent spot in the list of fraud investigations.
Representatives of Bulgarian Dreams and the Bulgarian companies linked to the firm could not be found for comment before Capital went to print.
Brilliant scheme
At least four developments in which Bulgarian Dreams sold apartments have been identified. These are Windows to Paradise in Kavarna, Cedar Heights in Pamporovo, Cedar Lodge and Orchard Lodge in Bansko.
Actually, Bulgarian Dreams is only a trademark operated by British company Berkley Square Trading Limited. The company worked with Bulgarian construction firms that were also investors in the property developments and sold the apartments.
"The real firm, registered in Britain, is Berkley Square Trading Limited, while Bulgarian Dreams is only a trademark – this is what Bulgarian courts cannot understand," Hristov said. "In Britain, the legislation allows you to register a company name, but trade under a different name, so they can identify themselves as Bulgarian Dreams and use that name in all the paperwork. The only trail that links them to the real firm is that their stationery features the name of the company and its identification number in the trade register."
British buyers paid for their apartments to Berkley Square Trading Limited accounts. It is assumed that the intermediary then wired the funds to Bulgarian builders.
The court actions against Bulgarian Dreams are further compounded by the fact that all payments were made through the intermediary, which is difficult to prove.
"The money transfer happened through the British intermediary, so none of the payments were made directly to the builder. This is the practice in Britain, when one advertises something, they have to sign an intermediation contract and the intermediary then has to transfer the money to the builder. This is why so many people agreed to pay that way. In Bulgaria, no one would do it, because people prefer to pay the builder directly," Hristov said.
Another story
Rachel Gawith is one of the numerous victims of Bulgarian Dreams. Her experience with the Bulgarian property market began in the summer of 2004, when she decided to buy an apartment in Bansko from Bulgarian Dreams, an intermediary well-known in London, paying 1100 euro a sq m. She later acknowledged that she signed a contract full of mistakes.
When she visited the development in October 2004, she found that, contrary to promises, it was much further from the ski lift and the view of Bansko was actually a view of the balcony on the neighbouring building.
Worried, Gawith contacted other owners in the same building, only to find out that they had the same unanswered concerns. Bulgarian Dreams told the Britons that their concerns would be addressed by the builder.
Having realised her mistake, Gawith decided to sell her Bansko apartment. After long negotiations with the building company, she managed to get back two thirds of her deposit, but Bulgarian Dreams refused to refund the 6000 euro commission paid to them. With the help of a British NGO, Trading Standards Institute, Gawith was later refunded the commission.
Her story does not end there. "Despite this initial setback I still loved Bulgaria and wanted to invest in property there but had decided that buying cheaper old rural property was a much better bet," she wrote on her blog, thetravelbug.org.
She would later travel throughout the country to get to know the different regions and meet real estate agents. She said she met both the kind that were "out just to rip you off" as well as some "really helpful and friendly". She bought several properties and had problems with them as well, detailing her experience in an e-book titled My Bulgarian Property Nightmare.
"Whilst Bulgaria is a lovely country in many ways and has much to offer, I do not know a single person that has moved here or bought here and not faced problems with agencies, builders and general difficulties of living in a different country and culture," she wrote on her blog. "Please just be careful, ask as many questions as you can, however silly they may seem and do not rush into anything, however a fantastic deal it may look."
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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Montag, 30. August 2010 um 09:01 |
There is no difference between the expenses incurred in buying an office in Bulgaria using a mortgage and leasing an office, according to non-banking financial institution Creditex, part of the Bulgarian unit of Dutch-based TBI Financial Services.
The company anticipates a pick-up in the Bulgarian business property market due to changes in the ratio between selling prices and rents, it said.
About 16 percent of Creditex’s loan portfolio covers investment properties.
While lease prices are lower than in 2008 and loan interest rates are higher, the purchase of an office through a bank loan costs as much as renting one, according to the company.
"Coming out of the crisis would lead to a gradual increase in rents and selling prices of not just offices but also of manufacturing and warehousing space," according to Krasimir Gumnishki, business lending manager of Creditex.
"The companies that will have managed to purchase their own site by this time will save money from rents in the future and could make a capital profit, too," he said.
Source: Dnevnik.bg
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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Dienstag, 24. August 2010 um 09:01 |
A serious rise in the Bulgaria's construction sector was recorded in the second quarter of 2010, compared to the preceding three months, the National Statistics Institute announced on August 23 2010.
Data reveals that construction permits increased by 46 per cent, while actual construction soared by about 70 per cent. Despite this trend, on an annual basis this still represents a 21 per cent decline, the report said.
Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv and Bourgas are the four cities with the most active ongoing construction projects at the moment, the report said.
In total, 1441 real estate buildings were authorised for construction in the second quarter, with 3933 units in total, encompassing about 509 000 sq m in area, or a 46 per cent rise in quarterly terms. This is still 21.3 per cent lower than Q2 for 2009.
Varna leads the charts with 176 new buildings authorised for construction, followed by Sofia with 166, Bourgas with 135 and Plovdiv with 121, the report said.
Office buildings also marked an increase in Q2 of 2010, with 58 new sites constructed, embracing 36 697 sq m of built up area, or 18.4 per cent on quarterly basis, and a decline of 26.6 per cent on annual basis, the report said.
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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Dienstag, 10. August 2010 um 15:03 |
Sofia's main streets are offering the lowest rents since 2002, according to consulting company Forton International.
As of August 2010, prices are around 55 euro a sq m for a store on some of Sofia's elite streets, as opposed to 120 euro in 2005, when prices were at their peak. Rents have gone down by a further 30 per cent in the second quarter of 2010 in Sofia, while in other cities across the country, the decline is between 43 and 50 per cent, Forton said in a report.
Meanwhile, 163 000 sq m of new retail area was made available on the market with the launching of several new malls, such as The Mall in Sofia, Galeria Plovdiv and Grand Mall in Varna, which means that there are now more than 485 000 sq m of "modern retail area" constructed in Bulgaria. This translates into Bulgaria surpassing both Greece and Ukraine in terms of the amount of retail area per capita of population, with 64 sq m per 1000 people now available.
Additionally, new malls which have been already under construction, encompassing more than 550 000 sq m of retail area, have been frozen indefinitely because of the crisis and because of decreased demand and the apparent oversupply.
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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Montag, 02. August 2010 um 15:03 |
Parking in the city centre has always been an experience bordering on anything from a sheer nuisance to an outright nightmare, especially in grid locked, congested urban centres, lacking the modern infrastructure which would allow for the city to accommodate the growing number of vehicles. Athens is notorious in the Balkan Peninsula for this trend, but then Sofia is also not lagging too far behind.
But whereas paid parking in Athens rivals that of Washington DC, Sofia still offers considerably lower charges. In fact, Bulgaria's capital is way behind most European cities – and this time – for a change, this is good news.
Whether to park for a day or to have access to parking anytime during the month, the world’s top cities remain among the most expensive places to park a car. According to a report from Colliers International, no one region dominated this year’s survey with a good mix of North American, European, Asia Pacific and the Middle Eastern cities all represented in the top 10.
Perhaps predictably, the most expensive city to park a car for a month in the world is London. The City аnd west end sub-markets ranked number one and number two in the world. Monthly parking rates in the City topped the global list at $933.00 а month followed by the west end at $874.00, the Colliers report said on August 2 2010.
By comparison, Sofia costs 186.00 leva a month, the report said.
London is followed by Hong Kong in second place at $744.72 a month, Tokyo in third at $654, Rome in fourth at $615, and Zurich at 605.64, wrapping up the top five.
New York is in ninth place – with $538.00, while Washington DC is less than half the price of New York, at $245.00. Athens, on the other hand, is one dollar more expensive than the Unites States capital – at $246.06 a month.
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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Sonntag, 25. Juli 2010 um 23:04 |
Housing prices in Bulgaria slid by 0.8 per cent between April and June compared with the previous quarter, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said.
On an annual basis, home prices have decreased by 9.7 per cent, according to the most recent statistics.
The second quarter saw declines in 13 cities and towns in Bulgaria, the sharpest in Gabrovo (-8.3 per cent), Shoumen (-7.8 per cent) and Vratsa (-6.9 per cent).
Home prices in Sofia remained unchanged, and increased in 15 cities and towns.
Bulgarian homes were selling for an average of 971 leva a sq m in the second quarter, the highest in Varna (1594 leva a sq m), followed by Sofia (1558 leva a sq m) and Bourgas (1231 leva a sq m). The least expensive dwellings were in Kyustendil, at 569 leva a sq m.
Source: Dnevnik.bg
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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Donnerstag, 22. Juli 2010 um 14:03 |
The target date for the opening of the Markovo Tepe Mall in Plovdiv is November 2010, according to Melina, the Bulgarian-Israeli firm that is the investor in the project.
The mall was proceeding on schedule, Melina said, after being asked whether the project was running to plan given previous media reports that it would open in spring 2010.
"Due to the current market situation there is no investor that is not making very careful research when is the best to open a shopping centre in order to guarantee the success of the mall and the retailers," a statement said.
In spring 2010, three large-scale shopping centres opened in Bulgaria: Serdika Center and The Mall in Sofia and Grand Mall in Varna.
"Currently we are 70 per cent rented and due to the excellent location of the shopping centre in the heart of the city, we are positive that upon the opening we will have full occupancy," Melina said.
Earlier media reports put the value of the project at 65 million euro.
Markovo Tepe Mall is on the junction of Plovdiv’s Ruski Blvd, Gladstone Street and Dragan Tsankov Street.
Two companies, the Israeli Peleg Architects, and the Plovdiv-based RG Projects, designed the mall, led by chief architects Manuel Manuelian and Vesselin Roussev.
Structurally, the complex consists of a three level low block and a high-rise 10 storey main building along Ruski Blvd.
Four underground levels are underneath the mall totalling 21 000 sq m in area with an underground parking lot with capacity for 600 vehicles. On the top floor of the mall will be a 2000 sq m supermarket.
According to the website of Forton, which is arranging tenants for the project, there will be more than 100 shops, a Billa supermarket, restaurants, cafes and a food court.
Speaking at the March 2009 ceremony inaugurating the project, Yakov Niv, the manager of the Israeli–Bulgarian company Melina Ltd, the main investor in the project, said: "Markovo Tepe Hall has an excellent location, it will therefore guarantee investments, it has excellent management and services and professional expertise in design and construction – these are just some of the advantages that make it truly special".
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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Dienstag, 13. Juli 2010 um 23:04 |
Mortgage loans for foreign nationals and Bulgarians working abroad are back on the Bulgarian banking market in response to reviving demand, banks and credit consultants said.
Tihomir Toshev, executive director of credit consultant Credit Center, said interest in this type of loans was zero at the time when the crisis was at its worst, forcing lenders to withdraw such offers.
Other consultants say that banks are imposing new requirements, such as targeting borrowers from specific nationalities and financing the purchases of a property whose construction the lender has backed.
UniCredit Bulbank said on July 13 2010 that it had launched mortgages for foreigners and Bulgarians working abroad, who could choose from among a list of 22 projects financed by the bank.
Source: Dnevnik.bg
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Geschrieben von: Mercie
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Donnerstag, 01. Juli 2010 um 15:03 |
About 600 British property owners have not paid their estate taxes in the Bulgarian resort town of Pamporovo for the past two years, Bulgarian news agency BTA said on July 1 2010.
According to Chepelare deputy mayor Georgi Pepelanov, the municipality has sent nearly 600 letters to debtors, addressed to the UK, in which the owners concerned are "kindly requested" to pay their taxes.
The municipality's mailings cost 600 leva, as each letter costs about one lev, the report said.
Perhaps to defuse tension, Pepelanov said that the municipality is certain that this was not a deliberate evasion but merely a misunderstanding between the British owners and the companies managing their properties in Bulgaria.
However, the municipality is also owed a large sum from local hotels in the resort of Pamporovo.
According to the BTA, the sum owed by the British and the hotels amounts to 600 000 leva in total.
"Russians and Spanish nationals also have property here but they have paid pay taxes on time," Pepelanov said.
So far, the municipality has only received about a third of the money owed to it by hotels in Pamporovo.
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