Bulgaria dodging the global crunch

Bulgaria's golden period of growth is expected to continue throughout 2008…

Amidst a global cooling of the property market, residential prices are forecast to grow by up to 20% in 2008, down by an average of 15% last year, Martin Gikov from UniCredit Bulbank projected.

He presented the bank's analysis of the property market and the prospects for its development up to 2009.

In view of the forecast rising prices following the county's accession to the European Union, the sellers on the house market decided to play a wait-and-see game, slowing down supplies and pushing prices up, Gikov explained.

The British and Irish home hunters are pulling out of Bulgaria's property market, unlike the Russians and Scandinavians, who are the most enthusiastic property buyers for the time being.

Mortgage credits grew by 67% in 2007 as compared to the previous year, Levon Hampartzoumian, UniCredit Bulbank CEO commented, denying reports of a speculative bubble in domestic lending.

He ruled out a Bulgarian repeat of the severe credit crunch that the United States faced.