Construction boom in Burgas. 78% up! (infographic)

• The growth is due to the construction of two new neighborhoods and the development of the existing “Kraimorie”. Nessebar 2 years ago was a record holder with 10,000 transactions
• Trend in Sofia – terraced houses, more spacious apartments. They are no longer looking for right next to the subway, but 5-6 minutes on foot, so that it is not noisy and crowded

A boom in commissioned housing along the Southern Black Sea coast is reported by the industry for 2023. Burgas region will see a growth of about 78% compared to 2022.

The dizzying growth there is due to the decision of the municipal council to build two new neighborhoods – “Horizon” and “Madika”, as well as to the increased development of “Kraymorie”. The first two

are still uninhabited, maybe there is an episodic againclients are pouring in,

local brokers share.

In the district, the increase in newly built apartments is much smaller. In Sozopol, for example, any potential construction site must first go through an archaeological inspection, which at best will delay permits. However, if they find valuable artifacts, the constructions may fail. This implies a longer and risky investment process.

In Tsarevo, they do not have a general development plan, and therefore there is no increased construction there. The same applies to Pomorie. It is being built with a development plan to the south.

While in Sunny Beach, brokers are selling more ready-made apartments than before.

The new buildings are in the western part,

as well as in the area of ​​Yurta in Saint Vlas, the Kosharit area.

Nessebar 2 years ago was a record holder with 10,000 real estate transactions.

The increased construction in Burgas is also due to another factor. Many people from the neighboring regions – Yambol and Sliven, who have lost their jobs, have moved to Burgas. It has several universities, and the city is also growing. The same trend is towards Varna – people move there from Targovishte, Razgrad and Shumen.

Before the war, Ukraine was full of Russians who bought properties on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. But in the last 2 years, most of them have sold them. Regular flights between Burgas and Moscow and St. Petersburg were closed

ticket prices through Istanbul cost about 3000 BGN,

brokers said. According to them, the situation has changed this year, they have already launched many planes that connect the city on the Bosphorus with Russia. The price for the trip has dropped to about BGN 700. Thus, those who have not sold their properties in our country and are not under sanctions can come in the summer. Brokers predict that they will come on vacation. In addition, Russian speakers who live permanently in Europe also buy on the Black Sea. But the largest share of transactions is for Bulgarians.

Of course, the leader in the country in the number of new apartments and houses is Sofia. 881 buildings with a total of 5,834 dwellings in them were put into operation in the capital last year. In Plovdiv they are respectively 742 and 2029, in Varna – 565 and 3347, and in Burgas – 530 and 3514, according to the Chamber of Builders in Bulgaria.

The trend is that people are increasingly looking for larger homes.

In Sofia, on average, 119 sq.m. The brokers remember that during the previous boom – around 2007, they sold properties with small rooms, with bedrooms of 10 sq.m. Now buyers don’t like them and are waiting to find more spacious ones.

Especially young families are looking for apartments with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, which are the standards in the US and Western Europe, real estate dealers say. The apartments put into operation last year in Plovdiv are slightly smaller in terms of square footage. In the city under the hills, they were on average 115 sq.m. The expanded built-up area is 234,716 sq.m.

Blocks with smaller apartments have been built in Varna and Burgas – respectively an average of 75 square meters and 63 square meters. When choosing which apartments to design in the buildings, investors take into account the prevailing type of buyers in the area. If it is close to a hospital, the properties will be smaller and will be sought after by retirees who want to be close to health care, their children or have simply returned from abroad. The second type of buyers are young people up to 29 years old, for whom this is their first home. They are looking for a simple apartment with one bedroom and a living room. The third type are families of around 40 – 45 years old with 2 children who need two or three bedrooms, separately want a living room, and some want a second bathroom. This is also the largest share of buyers.

In the hit neighborhoods in Sofia, until 5-6 years ago, there were free plots for construction, but now it is very difficult to find them, the brokers also say. They advise people to head to the areas for future development – around “Hladilnik”, “Ovcha Kupel” and “Nadezhda”.

The hottest spots are around the malls outside the center of the capital.

The other thing is that the people of Sofia both prefer the apartment to be close to the metro and not right at its exit, because there is a large stream and it is noisy. Therefore, they want the property to be 5-6 minutes walking distance from the station.

For several years, serious construction has been going on in Sofia in the districts “Krastova Vada”, “Manastirski Livadi”, “Vitosha”, but at the moment “Malinova Dolina” is also being heavily built up. A detailed development plan (DDP) was adopted for this complex and this gives impetus to construction.

Traditionally, the southern parts of the capital are more preferred, but recently a new trend has been noticed there. Blocks and terraced houses with smaller courtyards are already springing up. People like them a lot, brokers say. This is the hit. They are located not only in Boyana, Dragalevtsi, Bistrica or Simeonovo, but also in Bozhurishte, Kutina and other places about 20 – 30 km from Sofia.

The capital continues to grow. There are already blocks in areas where there was nothing or no investment for many years. For example, behind the station, next to the “Sofia” thermal power station, the “Capitol Residence” complex has appeared. New residential areas are planned in the perimeter around it. There will also be an expansion of “Lyulin”, as well as “Obelya” and “Nadezhda”. Until 10 years ago, no one wanted to buy on Lomsko Shose Blvd., but now there are almost no old houses left, the realtors report. A new huge complex – “Teatralna” is being built on “Danail Nikolaev” Blvd., near the metro station of the same name.

In the southern regions, more closed complexes have appeared. Young people tend to buy there because there are playgrounds, kindergartens are planned, there is a place to park.

The inconvenience is the high maintenance fees (gardener, 24/7 live security, cleaning), Some people give up. Recently, in one of these complexes, this amount was raised to 200 euros per month, and some left it. 10 years ago, such complexes were an exception, but not now.

Business prices are skyrocketing. There have been 2 peaks in the last 4 years. One is after covid, and the next one is after the start of the war in Ukraine, because a large part of the fittings and other construction materials came from there.

There have even been cases in which they returned the deposit and first installment

when buying green to customers. They were afraid that they would not be able to finish the construction. Every week the price of materials rose and the businessmen preferred not to sell below the cost price of the properties.

The market is currently even more dynamic than before the pandemic. There have been supplies of raw materials for a long time, but their price has risen by about 40-50 percent compared to 2020. “Offers that were expensive 2 years ago now look cheap. It is true that the builders put a high markup, but they take a high risk and have unforeseen costs, they cannot fail to calculate them”, share people from the industry. In addition, there are other factors – the minimum wage has gone up, so have insurance. All of this is included in the total property construction cost. According to the brokers, Bulgarians have money and do not know how to invest it in anything other than real estate. In Bulgaria, it is not popular to buy gold or invest in securities. One of the sources is our compatriots abroad. The results of the 2021 census showed that this was about 1 million people. They regularly send funds for their relatives in our country. Another reason people get money is land – they’ve sold lots or inherited property and want to invest their money.

There are already deals worth millions. A brand new apartment in the capital’s “Lozenets” district of 428 square meters was bought for 2.88 million euros, and it was plastered and plastered, brokers say. This means that another 50 – 100 thousand euros have gone to finishing. The furniture is separate. The buyer is Bulgarian. Three garages are included in the price, and in the area their unit price is 50 – 60 thousand euros.

In Plovdiv, new construction is in municipal areas or on agricultural land

lands on which the detailed development plan has been changed – respectively by the municipality or the Ministry of Agriculture. These neighborhoods are located around the Rowing Base, in the southern part of the city and to a lesser extent in the “Trakia” quarter, Plovdiv residents said.

In Varna, construction is increasingly high-quality and increasingly expensive – especially in “St. St. Constantine and Helena”, but new blocks are also springing up in the panel districts. In the attractive “Trakata” less, because there are almost no free plots left. People in the industry are so busy they can’t make it. They don’t have enough manpower, they hire from Turkey, Romania, Tajikistan, India, wherever they can find, brokers share.

But the boom, as it became clear, is in Burgas. At the opposite pole, among the largest cities are Vidin, Montana and Vratsa. Their residents head to Sofia, Burgas, Plovdiv and Varna, where construction and the apartment market are growing more and more.