NewEstate interviewed on national TV regarding the Ukrainian crisis and its impact on the Bulgarian market.

This week Bulgaria’s national television channel, BTV, has interviewed one of NewEstate’s property brokers from our Varna office, Ralitsa Yordanova. The hot topic in question was the Ukrainian crisis and how this is effecting every Black Sea vendor on Bulgaria’s coast, both foreign and domestic, as the property market has stalled and prices look likely to slump.

Miss Yordanova expressed that we have an increase in buyer enquiries from the Ukraine as many fear the devaluation of their currency, which is currently pegged to the Euro within a limited bracket of movement. Mr Putin’s invasion of the Crimea has caused panic, those with cash savings are looking to get them out of the Ukraine into an asset in a secure part of the European Union valued by hard currency.

Whilst the volume of interest from Ukrianians for Bulgarian properties is up, the reality is that very few additional sales are actually happening: a lot of talk, not a lot of spending. The major factor hitting the market is that the Russian Rubel has devalued by 20%, as almost all the demand comes from Russians spending Rubels those buyers now have 20% less to spend than before.

Miss Yordanova said ‘right now we see the market stalling, active sales are being cancelled as Russian buyers fail to find enough Euros to cover their initially agreed purchase price’.

Whilst the effects are immediate for those currently going through conveyancing, the asking prices of property are set to fall if sales continue to falter, overall we now expect a devaluation of Bulgarian coastal property by the end of the summer.