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More than half of Bulgarians seeking to buy property will use mortgage loans to finance the purchase, a survey commissioned by Raiffeisenbank and carried out by GfK Bulgaria showed, as quoted by Bulgaria news agency (BTA).
The survey, carried out between January 7 and 15, covered individuals aged between 26 and 55 in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Bourgas, Rousse, Pleven and Stara Zagora.
Mortgage loans are thus the most popular means of financing, with only 17 per cent planning to pay with their own money, and eight per cent would sign hire-purchase agreements.
About 5.4 per cent of respondents said that they have used a loan in the last five years and 10.2 per cent said they planned to use one in the next two years.
Bulgarians prefer to own their home, the survey shows. Until recently, living in rented property was a viable alternative for young people early in their careers, but acquiring one's own property has become a goal for many Bulgarians lately, GfK Bulgaria said. According to its analysts, increasingly easier access to bank funding in recent years has given a new impetus to the traditional consumer preference to own a home.
However, Levon Hampartzoumyan, chief executive of UniCredit Bulbank, has recently warned potential buyers that a purchase of an average apartment cost the equivalent of a 20-year rent, and with taxes, maintenance costs and other expenses factored in, it was not yet clear whether it was better to rent or own.
Some 79.3 per cent of respondents in the survey said they owned property. In this group, 84.9 per cent owned an apartment, 30.1 per cent owned a house, and 26.5 per cent owned land. Asked how they acquired their apartment, 36.5 per cent said they paid for it with their own money, and 11.2 per cent said they used a mortgage loan from a bank. The main methods of acquisition was either by inheritance or by personal savings.
One in five respondents said that they intended to acquire property in the next three years. More than half of the people in that group (55.4 per cent) want to buy brick housing, with prefab concrete housing attracting little interest - 18.3 per cent, while 19.3 per cent wanted to buy a house.
Half of those who are planning to buy property said it would be located on the outskirts of a town, while 31 per cent planned to buy property downtown, and 13 per cent - in a village.