What happend on the bulgarian real estate market in the first 3 months of 2009.

The decrease of prices of newly-constructed housings in Bulgaria is within the frame of 8-12 per cent year-on-year.

Bids for housings under construction, pre-fabricated housings and village estates show the greatest reduction of 20 to 30 per cent compared to last year.

Prices of housings with certificate of occupancy reduced the least. Only luxurious dwellings and ones of extreme quality, whose owners are not in a hurry to sell them, retained the level of their prices.

According to the master franchisers from 20 European markets of real estate at a meetingin Barcelona in January 2009, Bulgaria ranks at one of the last places of indebtness of population.

For 2008, the share of housing credits in Bulgaria stood at 12 per cent of GDP compared to an average of 50 per cent of GDP forthe EU member states and even of over 100 per cent from GDP forsome countries.

The total debts of persons in the EU stand at 6,100 thousand billion euro, which is over 50 per cent of the total GDP of the EU.

Regarding the percentage of private property of population, Bulgaria ranks third after Romania and Lithuania. This fact and the low level of debts provide for the relative security of realestate owners in Bulgaria. The transfer of property from one person to another costs between 3.5 and 4 per cent of the property value.

Currently banks extend mortgage loans for no more than 60 per cent of the value of the estate as a precaution measure. This isthe right moment to buy housings at a profit, as there are manyand more profitable proposals.

Sellers and builders cannot adapt to the reduced prices situation yet and still live with the idea of the prices of last year. The difference between a bid price and an achieved price is usually between 10 and 20 per cent. The crisis turns out to be a good regulator and everybody observing the rules might have a benefit.