2024-07-24 17:20:14
- Only in Nessebar there is no boom in transactions along our Black Sea coast
- The new owners are mostly Bulgarians, there are also Ukrainians
Russians, owners of vacation properties in Varna and Burgas, are selling them, often making discounts. But they are still not at a loss, because the prices have risen dramatically compared to 10-15 years ago, when they bought them.
The reasons for withdrawing from the property market after the start of the war in Ukraine are varied. The first thing that startled them were the sanctions against Russia and the rumors that their properties might be confiscated.
Visa issues too
are grandparents
Russians who need apartments and accommodation are even more forced to pay for them – there are no direct flights to Bulgaria, and passing through other destinations makes the trip more expensive.
Payment between a Bulgarian and a Russian bank is almost impossible and this creates additional obstacles for property owners in our country. Despite restrictions on bank transactions, sellers are finding ways to finalize the deal with the help of lawyers and intermediaries, people familiar with the matter say.
Maintaining the apartment from a distance also proves difficult due to the difficulty of paying fees and local taxes. Russian pensioners are also leaving and selling because they cannot receive their pensions here.
Adding inflation, it’s no wonder Russians are rushing to get rid of their summer homes.
The main buyers of such properties are Bulgarians with opportunities
– in most cases, doctors and dentists who have free financial resources.
People who can work online are also buying, and with the acquisition of a vacation apartment, their summer is set. There are also buyers in Varna and Burgas among the Ukrainians, but they are no more than 10-20%.
And the prices in some of the resorts, even with the discounts, cannot be defined as low. In St. Konstantin and Elena, for example, it is rare to find a property for less than 1,500 euros per square meter. Well-furnished apartments in closed complexes go for 2000-2300 euros. And there are individual offers for over 3,000 euros per square meter.
In “Little Moscow” – a neighborhood in Pomorie, it now turns out that the residents are Bulgarians and Ukrainians. Until a few years ago, only Russian speech could be heard there, but today the situation has changed radically.
The Russians massively sold off the vacation homes, and they are now mostly occupied by Bulgarians, but there are also wealthier Ukrainians who, instead of paying rent, got their own property.
Only his name remained in the neighborhood, there are almost no Russians,
the mayor of Pomorie Ivan Alexiev confirms the trend.
The apartments of the Russians were in great demand, as they were sold furnished and at good prices. According to real estate brokers, sellers tended to make more compromises when negotiating in order to be able to sell them faster.
And this benefited mainly Bulgarians, who bought summer property mainly for the purpose of investment.
“The boom in these sales was last year, when Bulgarians literally bought them up. They take them for investment purposes and for summer vacation,” says Stefka Tomova – manager of one of the major real estate agencies.
Many of the new owners are people who spend there from Easter to late autumn as their work permits. These are mostly IT specialists for whom the location is not of great importance, say people familiar with the real estate market.
However, the situation is different in Nessebar, where there have been many Russians for years, and according to the latest data, they own over 45,000 homes. There is no sales boom there, although some of the apartments have been locked for two or three years already.
We tend to sell English and Irish people,
who once bought vacation properties through pension funds, says the mayor of Nessebar Nikolay Dimitrov. Now Ukrainians also bought from them, but not en masse.
However, it is said that an entire hotel complex between Sveti Vlas and Elenite is already owned by Ukrainian refugees who paid for the apartments in installments.
Against the background of the rise of housing in the big cities in recent years, the prices of holiday properties have also risen and at the moment there are none below 900-1000 euros per square meter. Even cheaper can be found in the Sunny Beach resort, in the “West” zone, while destinations such as Sveti Vlas, Sozopol, Pomorie hold higher prices.
Both Bulgarians and foreigners are looking for a vacation property to invest their savings and then use it as a second home or to rent out. Brokers are unanimous that at the moment
studios and two-room apartments are most in demand, as they are more budget-friendly and more liquid
Apartments in closed complexes with a relatively low maintenance fee are the most attractive and sell the fastest. Most deals are made on the secondary market, as the vacation homes offered are furnished and ready for immediate occupancy.
New construction in the resort property segment is harder to sell because it’s an extra effort for owners to renovate and furnish from a distance, industry experts say.