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BRUSSELS/SOFIA – Last year, the number of housing sales transactions decreased in 13 out of the 16 EU countries for which data is available, reported the European statistical agency Eurostat. This is the second consecutive year in which most EU countries have recorded a decline in housing sales.
For Bulgaria, the data shows a 3.8 percent drop in the number of housing sales (89,880), compared to a 5.9 percent increase (93,416 transactions) in 2022.
The housing sales data includes transactions for both new and existing housing (apartments and houses), Eurostat specifies.
According to Atanas Argirov and Stefka Kalcheva from the Management Board of the Bulgarian National Real Estate Association, “The ‘Little Russia’ in the vacation market along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast is giving way to the large young Bulgaria and the aging Europe. Half of the buyers of vacation apartments on the Black Sea coast are Bulgarians – up to 30 years old, with high incomes, mainly from the IT sector, and the other half – pensioners from Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.
Two-room apartments in closed complexes are a hit, with average prices starting at 1900 euros per square meter. Ukrainian investors are also entering the new housing market along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
Since the Russians left, foreigners make up a much smaller percentage of property buyers in Bulgaria. There are Ukrainian buyers too, but most of them rent, hoping to return to their homeland, said Argirov. Ukrainian investors are entering the real estate sector, and two large companies have already “settled” in Varna. They are targeting high-end vacation construction – closed complexes near the forests. The Ukrainian market is undoubtedly a factor in Burgas, with a share of about 30 percent of transactions, he added. (July 9)