Pearl Property News & Blog

The other two countries are Spain and France. The three countries look like being the hotspots of the future in the European mortgage market, the study showed.

The Broker World in 2020 study reveals that two-thirds of brokers (68%) think they will do more business in the overseas mortgage market in the future. Nine out of ten (90%) of them think Europe will see the biggest impact and nearly half (45%) expect to expand into Europe by 2020.

“The appearance of Bulgaria as a booming property market is interesting as I would class this as an \’emerging\’ country, compared to the more established property markets of Spain and France. House prices remain relatively cheap for Brits, and joining the European Union should make the prospects for this area even more attractive”, said Mehrdad Yousefi, head of Intermediary Mortgages at Alliance & Leicester.

The research also reveals that brokers expect to form more strategic partnerships with lenders which will lead to more consolidation in the broker market and also to lower profitability for brokers by the year 2020. (www.novinite.com)

The Invest Bulgaria Agency issued Friday a First Class Investor certificate to local company Sports and Tourism Centre Perelik for its investment project of the same name.

Under the large scale project, the investor will deploy facilities for winter and summer tourism and will upgrade the infrastructure in the city of Smolyan and the villages of Stoikite, Gela, Solishta, Stikal and Mugla, all in the Rhodope Mountains, South-western Bulgaria.

The resort development will feature ski runs with a combined length of around 55 km, snow canons, 24 ski lifts, shelters and ski rentals, roofed parking lots as well as accommodation and leisure facilities and areas for recreation activities as varied as tennis, swimming, caving, trekking and mountain-biking.

A golf course and a congress hall will be added at a later stage of the project.

Invest Bulgaria chief noted the need for government investment in the resort access roads, especially the road link with the south-lying Greece.

The project, backed by local and international financial institutions, envisages capital expenses to the amount of 255 million euros. Investment in the first 3 years will total 94 million euros. The investor is ready to kick off the project this fall. (www.dnevnik.bg)

UK citizens were keener than ever on buying property abroad, The Independent said. They were attracted to the “prospect of their own place in the sun and an easy way of making money.”

Nearly 800,000 British families had purchased a second home abroad, marking an increase of 45 per cent since 2004.

People liked Bulgaria for it’s proximity to their country, warm climate and skiing opportunities in the winter.

Bulgaria was believed to offer the lowest property prices in Europe. “Additionally, it would benefit from joining the EU next year, with low-cost airlines expected to expand routes,” The Independent said.

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Central Portugal, America and France have been named top property hotspots for British investors looking to buy abroad in 2007. Spain, however, should be avoided, a leading foreign currency exchange said.

FCExchange, a company that buys currency at commercial rates, not available to individual purchasers, says the current low prices in Bulgaria will continue to be the main attraction for investors.

“The investment opportunities in Bulgaria are as a result of extensive World Bank funding, which has allowed dramatic improvements to Bulgaria’s infrastructure and tourism industry, transforming it from its former Communist days,” says Nick Fullerton, Director of FC Exchange.

“We have based our 2007 predictions on our industry expertise and experience of spotting and interpreting patterns and trends,” Nick Fullerton said.

“The countries FC Exchange have cited as hot spots are the ones where buyers are most likely to see good returns for their money. We have taken into consideration individual economies – the strength of each currency and the supply and demand that is already present in each market, which always affects prices and availability.”

The biggest surprise in the company’s forecasts for next year is Spain. A favourite of British buyers for years, the country is rapidly losing its appeal due to inflated property prices and bogus planning permissions. www.novinite.com

One in seven Britons is considering purchasing property in Bulgaria or Romania, following the countries’ EU accession at the beginning of this year, according to a new survey.

The number of foreign visitors to Bulgaria went up by 8.3% last year, bringing the total in 2006 to 1.5 million, while visitors to Romania went up from 800,000 in 2000 to 1.4 million in 2004.

“Based on the past history of other Eastern bloc countries joining the EU, where property prices have risen significantly these markets look set to become strong areas for capital growth.” www.novinite.com

Low cost carrier Wizz Air Monday announced it will add new destinations to and from Bulgaria with its summer flight timetable. Starting in June, Wizz Air will fly from Bulgarian coastal city Burgas to Budapest, Katowice and Warsaw. Flights to Budapest will be available from another Bulgarian coastal city, Varna. At the moment, Wizz Air flies only to London from Burgas, a route serviced by rivals Bulgaria Air, Hemus Air and British Airways. The carrier expects to fly 150,000 passengers to and from Bulgaria in 2007.

Budget carrier Sky Europe recently said it was launching a Mon-Sat Sofia-Vienna route from March 26. Sky Europe marketing and sales director Krasimir Tanev expects the share of no-frills carriers of Bulgaria’s aviation market to increase from 7-8% at present to 20% by the end of 2007.

Ryan Air is expected to open this year routes from Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second biggest city, to Britain, Spain and Germany.

Italy’s Myair and German

New 3km 6-seat lift will connect Pamporovo ski resort and Stoykite village. The lift will connect Snejanka peak to the near-by Stoykite village and will be constructed by Pamporovo AD, the company that manages the whole ski resort infrastructure. The lift will be 3km long and will be ready until December 1st 2007. There will be also 2 ski runs along the lift – 3,420 and 2,901 km long.