Bulgarian Property market starts to see diversity in property buyers

For the first time since 2009, the Bulgarian property market has started to see a change in the nationality of buyers. For the past 4 years the market has been dominated by Russians or at least Russian speakers from the ex-soviet states such as Ukraine, Belarus etc. However, 2013 has seen the emergence of variety as quite a new spectrum of buyers have come into the market from countries never active before. Whilst our marketing has remained targeted in English, Russian and Bulgarian, we have had buyers for the first time from: Switzerland, Austria, France, Malta, Poland, Greece, Algeria, Nigeria and Malta. None have been in any truly significant numbers, but their presence is very welcomed and excellent news for the stability of the market as a whole. Whilst all property related businesses and owners of Bulgarian property fear the collapse of the Russian demand and pensively wait to see if the bubble will pop for a second time, the spread of buying demand is an absolute relief, it provides some respite and potentially some alternative demand to help back up the future success of the market.

Widely acknowledged to simply be the low prices that are attracting these buyers, it is no surprise that when cheap enough the sunshine, city and ski properties will be acquired for any number of small and minor reasons because their prices are also relatively small. In many cases these buyers are simply buying because they can’t lose, because it is less than the price of a secondhand car and they will enjoy getting some personal use out of it. Unlike in the boom days, these buyers are not re-mortgaging their homes in the UK or Ireland, releasing equity and relying on a speculative investment to rocket in value, they are also not renting their properties or relying on it to generate income to pay off the bank’s repayments. They are buying with earned cash savings and purchasing because they personally like the property rather than judging by what the spreadsheet suggests the future returns will be.

All in all, these are lifestyle buyers who are making choices for very sustainable reasons. Should the market become dominated by owners who are not pressured by mortgage repayments or geared entirely towards achieving rental income, then we will see a much more stable property climate where there cannot be sudden waves of vendors looking to leap from the market and sell desperately at any price, vastly disblancing supply and demand thus forcing prices down. Hopefully this greater level of international variety will bring with it international tastes, thus the sectors of the market such as the traditional rural areas that are currently static, dormant and without buying demand might soon find themselves popular again as european tastes could sweep back in and potnetially enable more vendors to sell.

Whilst this is great news for all vendors trying to sell at the current time, the vast bulk of demand remains Russian and as such their tastes still control demand and dictate what is likely to sell and at what price. We can only hope that this major section of the demand remains in place and the Russian econcomy continues to fuel it, at least until such time Bulgaria is back to being attractive to many nations and thus a greater variety of cultures and tastes.