Developers abandon resorts

Developers are abandoning resorts. The national statistics registered record-breaking downswings in the activity in resort areas compared to the peak of 2007. The third quarter of 2008 is the third in a row indicating year-on-year drops in the volume of new residential projects in the region of Burgas and fifth consecutive for Blagoevgrad. In both regions second homes are the biggest market sector.  
The northern Black Sea coast has also set some records, especially in the area of Dobrich (Kavarna and Balchik), wherethe built-up area of approved projects was almost 60% down in the most evident sign that the holiday property market has gone through the entire boom-to-bust cycle in the past 4 years. Even always upbeat real estate agents, who managed to find new markets for Bulgarian second homes in Northern and Eastern Europe, are now as pessimistic as everyone else. Developers with completed properties hardly make any sales in the last several months. Those who have yet to build as they have sold off-plan, are asking 500-600 euros per sq m where they used to ask 800-1,000.
The global financial turmoil has swept away all markets. As a result, households in developed economies have cut off all additional expenses - from luxury cars to second homes. The only ray of hope comes from Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia where Russians with pockets full of cash from the oil boom are still looking to buy property overseas.
A completed 68-sq-m one-bedroom apartment in Pamporovo, the ski resorts, now costs 37,000 euros to buy, or 540 euros a sq m. Maximum asking levels there still reach about 1,500 euros per sq m but such offers have been on the market for months.
Although the range of asking price has not changed a lot, other resorts too, see the numbers properties for sale grow in the low end. But there are sellers who, knowing that low prices are no longer incentives for buying, prefer to wait for better times. Sales during the boom have helped some projects to survive. An apartment in a completed hotel complex in Bansko sells for 143,000 euros or 2,014 euros per each of its 71 sq m. Contrary to city homes, developments in resorts are long since being sold not only completed, but furnished as well.
At the bottom of the market new homes in the mountain town of Bansko could be found for 600 euros per sq m, a price for 53-sq-m, second-floor apartment in a new development.
Even in adverts, it is seen how the apartment with the most expensive square meters in Borovets has dropped in price on several occasions - from 132,000 euros in November 2007 to 110,000 euros in November 2008. And the property was still on the market despite the reductions.