Sofia Dwelling Prices Rose by 3% in 2014

Real estate prices in Bulgaria's capital Sofia saw a nominal annual increase of 2.9% in 2014, a real estate consultant has said.

This is well below an average nominal increase of 0.5% registered across the country.

The latest Bulgarian Properties information, based on data from the national statistics body NSI, suggests that last year the real increase in property prices in the capital and in Bulgaria on average was 4.5% and 2.1%, respectively.

Annual property proces have thus gone up for the first time since the crisis began in Europe and worldwide.

"This is fully in line with our forecasts and expectations throughout the whole of 2014 about the end of the downward trend and the beginning of a new stage of the market development," the real estate firm notes.

Compared to other big cities the capital's property market is recovering at a higher speed, with prices there accelerating in Q4 of 2014 when the real annual increase was at 5% (compared to Q4, 2013) and 1.72% (compared to Q3, 2014).

Bulgaria's second-largest city Plovdiv has also seen an increase in property prices over the last quarter of 2014 (4.5%) and in 2014 in general (4.3%).

For the Black Sea cities of Burgas and Varna, the real annoual increase was 3.4% and 0.7%, respectively. Varna scored lower, but the agency attributes this to a solwer reactions to "positive trends" it says will be more visible in 2015.

Stara Zagora, a smaller city lying in south-central Bulgaria, registered one of the biggest increases in real estate prices (4.26%) on a national level in 2014.

On average, selling prices of apartments are as follows:

• Sofia – 757 Euro/sq.m.
• Plovdiv – 487 Euro/sq.m.
• Varna – 704 Euro/sq.m.
• Bourgas – 581 Euro/sq.m.
• Stara Zagora – 457 Euro/sq.m.
• Veliko Тarnovo – 373 Euro/sq.m.

Real change of prices is estimated after inflation deduction, calculated with the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP). The deduction of inflation provides a more accurate estimation of the real price changes, so when using the NSI data we always make the necessary calculations to obtain a more precise market picture.

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