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Newly-built apartments in Varna cost more than in Sofia in 2007, because of the limited supply in the coastal city, Stroitelstvo Gradut weekly reported on March 10. Although Sofia's residential property prices registered a greater increase than those in Varna, 45.7 versus 33.9 per cent, respectively, the average price of new apartments in Sofia was 1043 euro a sq m, compared with 1188 euro a sq m in Varna, data provided by Varna-based Foros real estate agency showed.
“The main reason is the lack of large-scale residential complexes that are being developed now in cities like Sofia and Plovdiv,” Dobromir Ganev, Foros agency's managing director said. “There are several gated complexes in the planning stage in Varna, but they won't be delivered soon,” he added, as quoted by Stroitelstvo Gradut.
One of the main trends on the property market in 2007 was the great interest towards old buildings, mainly because a smaller part of common areas were calculated in the apartment's price and the lack of supply of newly-built apartments.
“There are buyers that simply prefer old monolithic buildings and those buildings are located in the cities' central areas where supply is very limited,” Ganev explained. Central areas of large towns serving as regional centres were suffering the greatest degree of under-supply, sending buyers to the suburbs in search of options.
The demand/supply gap has also been identified in the market research of other major property brokers like Address and Yavlena, Dnevnik daily reported earlier. The interest towards the cities' suburban areas will continue to grow, according to Foros.
Last year saw a significant pick-up in demand for homes in the vicinity of major lifestyle, office or transportation hubs like metro stations and business parks in Sofia and the shopping districts in Varna. In Varna buyers focused on Mladost and Troshevo neighbourhoods. The districts have been developing as commercial areas in recent years because of the several malls that are under construction there.
Interest in pre-fab apartments remains very high, Foros data shows. There has been a dramatic increase in panel apartments' prices in Sofia, Varna, Rousse and Veliko Turnovo and prices already comparable to those of newly built and monolithic buildings.
Panel apartments satisfy the demand of many clients with low requirements. As a result, the prices of panel apartments exceeded 1000 euro a sq m. The agency forecast a 10-15 per cent increase in housing prices in the big regional towns in 2008, while demand for suburban housing will stay buoyant.