Russians rescue real estate market in Bulgaria

The real estate market in Bulgaria is now being saved by the Russians. Just three years ago cottages, apartments and villas at the Bulgarian resorts were actively bought by UK nationals, who determined trade conjuncture in the local real estate markets. This situation persisted until mid-2008. Currently they are replaced by the Russian buyers, who set the tone in the market.

200,000 buyers from Russia - such figure was announced by the president of FIABCI Alex Romanenko in an interview with the Bulgarian edition Dnevnik. According to the head of FIABCI, the total amount of real estate transactions in Bulgaria is amounted to over $1 billion.

Among the main reasons for the popularity of the Bulgarian real estate are mentality similarities between the two nations, similarity of Bulgarian and Russian languages and traditionally close cultural ties between the two nations. At various times dozens of Russian celebrities, including actor Mikhail Boyarsky, artist Ilya Glazunov, singers Oleg Gazmanov, Nadezhda Babkina, Philip Kirkorov, Lolita Melyavskaya and others planned to buy property in Bulgaria. Russian VIP buyers highly appreciated the Bulgarian village of Kavarna, where not so long ago appeared a village of luxury townhouses.

Bulgaria still remains one of the most popular summer holiday destinations among Russian tourists. National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria stated that at the end of 2010 the number of Russian tourists, who choose to holiday in Bulgaria, has increased by more than 35%.
To date, property market in Bulgaria according to the estimations of the local experts entered the stage of stabilization. Prior to that, prices for property in Bulgaria have been decreasing for nearly two years. The overall price decline is amounted to 25-30%.