Bulgaria gets crunched?

Bulgaria's property market has finally shown signs of slowing, after official figures compiled by the country's National Institute of Statistics (NSI) showed that Bulgaria property prices began to fall in Q4 2008...

Despite the property price slowdown in the final quarter of last year, the average price of a property in Bulgaria still recorded annual appreciation of 24.9 per cent in 2008.

Sofia (excl. Sofia City), recorded the greatest levels of capital growth in 2008 (47.8 per cent), followed by Lovech (35.7 per cent), Plovdiv (33.1 per cent), Pleven (31.8 per cent), Ruse (30.9 per cent), Yambol (29per cent) and Sofia City (28.5 per cent).

However, a fall in demand for homes in Bulgaria is likely to see prices stagnate, or even fall - in some cases considerably - across some parts of the country in 2009.

Some Bulgarian agencies are reporting a fall of up to 40 per cent in sales as a consequence of greater interest rates, a lack of liquidity and more stringent lending conditions.

Source: www.homesoverseas.co.uk/news