The Bulgarian Black Sea coast is distinguished by wide natural beaches with golden sand in the north and slightly darker sand in the south. In the south, the sea is shallower and safer and therefore more suitable for families with young children, besides, the water there is usually warmer - in the south +25 ° C, and in the north +22 ° C, which the holiday period lasts longer by almost a month.
Southern Black Sea region
The creation of modern resorts on the Bulgarian coast began in the mid-60s of the last century. First of all, they were intended for citizens of the Soviet Union, and then for Bulgarians and other foreigners.
The southern coast with its resorts Sunny Beach (Slynchev Bryag) and Primorsko was considered a place for youth tourism. The Golden Sands located to the north (Zlatni Pyasytsy) were originally more comfortable and intended for wealthier vacationers. A similar division has been preserved even now.
The southern Black Sea region is characterized by picturesque bays and extensive beaches. Picturesque clean rivers, where snow-white lilies grow, virgin mountains and small ancient cities are adjacent here. The largest resort area of the Bulgarian coast is Sunny Beach, located north of Burgas. Other major tourist centers of the southern Black Sea region are Elenite and Dune, the small picturesque towns of Nessebar, Pomorie, Sozopol, Primorsko and Kiten are well known. In recent years, very small towns have also been developed - Ravda, Tsarevo, Sinemorets, Chernomorets and Sveti Vlas.
Magnificent nature, clean, calm sea and rich history - this is the Northern Black Sea region. Many modern resorts have been built here, the most famous of which is Golden Sands. The resorts of Albena, Riviera, Rusalka, Kamchia, Chaika, as well as small villages such as Kranevo and Obzor are also worth mentioning. There are many cultural and historical attractions here, including the botanical garden in Balchik and the cave museum at Cape Kaliakra.
Complexes of the "closed type"
In the post-socialist period, state-owned construction firms gradually began to give way to private companies. New materials and technologies began to be introduced, accelerating the construction process and improving the quality of housing. On the eve of Bulgaria's accession to the EU, a construction boom began, with foreigners rather than Bulgarian citizens acting as the main buyers. Its peak occurred in 2003, when there was a 100% increase in prices. Now the dynamics of price growth is not so impressive, although the cost of real estate is still one of the lowest in Europe.
Bulgarians themselves have a fairly low purchasing power - low salaries, coupled with a sharp increase in housing prices, have made resort real estate almost inaccessible to the local population. Large developers have begun to focus mainly on foreign buyers, and they need a high level of comfort, as well as property management services.
As a result, intensive construction on the coast is increasingly reduced to the format of modern residential complexes with developed infrastructure, which in Bulgaria are called "closed-type" complexes. As a rule, they are designed for the fact that the owner of the property uses his property 1-2 months a year, and the rest of the time rents it out. This format is well known to Europeans in the resorts of Spain, Cyprus and many exotic countries.
"The first such complexes were built in Sofia, and then began to appear in other Bulgarian cities, as well as on the coast. – says Zhenya Todorova, a specialist at BGP. - Over the years, they have gone through certain stages of development – the very first of them consisted of separate houses with fencing, security and a minimum of additional services for residents. Then huge complexes began to be built, including not only residential buildings, but also hotels, shops, household services, swimming pools and sports facilities. Now there is a return to medium-sized low-rise complexes with a reasonable amount of high-quality infrastructure, a spacious park area and a high degree of security."
And who are the buyers?
But for foreign private investors who want to make money on rising prices, as well as profit from renting out real estate, Bulgarian resort complexes turned out to be the most suitable, especially given the still low price level. The first buyers of property in the gated complexes were the British, but gradually other foreigners, mainly Scandinavians and Russians, and more recently Arabs, began to pay attention to them.
The level of service and the list of services offered in the resort complexes are more and more in line with European standards every year, but "luxury" in the Bulgarian sense of the word, of course, does not meet the expectations of those who are used to real luxury. The quality of real estate in Bulgarian resorts is most in line with the expectations of the middle class – and the same can be said about prices that in "closed" resort complexes start from 900-1200 euros per sq.m., and maintenance and management services are paid separately. In ordinary new buildings, without infrastructure and services, the cost per square meter starts from 600-800 euros per sq.m., even if the house is located next to the beach. Such offers can be found at resorts such as Ravda, Tsarevo and Kranevo.
Property owners can confidently expect capital gains of 6-10% per annum, which corresponds to a payback period of 10-14 years. However, if the buyer rents out his property on his own or with the help of a management company, the investment can return much faster. And yet, you should not focus on advertising that promises an income of 25% per annum - for the current state of the market, this figure is clearly overestimated.
??? (Geography)
Sunny Beach has become the main area for the construction of resort residential complexes. Of course, the main developer in this region is Fort Noks, which has already built and is building more than ten complexes that can easily be distinguished by the use of the word Fort in the name – Green Fort, Marina View Fort Beach, Nessebar Fort Club. Each of the projects has its own highlights - some, for example, are designed for golf enthusiasts, while others have a unique set of infrastructure.
One of the largest projects on the coast has been named the Royal Garden, which includes a five-star hotel and a shopping center. One of the most comfortable is the Emerald Beach Resort and Apartments, which is positioned in the "5 star" category.
Several interesting projects are located in areas south of Sunny Beach – these are the Oasis and Sunrise Club complexes in Ravda, Costa del Croco in Tsarevo, designed for almost 1000 apartments, Santa Marina in Sozopol, and many others.
There turned out to be much less space suitable for development on Golden Sands, so there are fewer offers. In the name of marine complexes here, as a rule, there is the word ‘Bay’, that is, the coast - Luna Bay, Panorama Bay, Riviera Bay, etc. Complexes located on elevated places began to receive the endings of Hills - Harmoni Hills, Orchid Hills Varna, etc.
Of course, this is far from a complete list of residential complexes on the Bulgarian coast – there are quite a lot of them, both fully completed, where only a few unsold apartments remain, and those that will only begin to be built in the coming months and will be completed in 2008-2009.
The popularity of the resort has a direct impact on the value of real estate. For example, if on Sunny Beach or on Golden Sands in a complex located on the first line from the sea, the price per square meter is in the region of 1500-2000 euros, then in less well-known areas such as Lozenets or Sozopol, it is about 1000 euros.
Resorts located 150-200 m away. from the sea, even in prestigious resorts they have a lower price in the region of 1000 euros per sq.m. A good example is the Triumph complex in the town of Sveti Vlas. Well, at a distance of 2-3 km from the sea, the price drops to about 600 euros per sq.m. – for example, in the low-rise Sunny Hills complex. At a distance of about 4-5 km. from the sea, complexes of small private houses can be found at 350-450 euros / sq.m. taking into account the cost of a small plot of 2-5 acres.
It is possible that within a few years, after improving the infrastructure of coastal areas under EU programs, such a large difference with the price on the coast is leveled, and if so, then real estate in less well-known or remote areas from the sea may be a more successful investment than buying in resorts. This is indirectly confirmed by the fact that Scandinavian, British and Israeli investment firms are actively buying up such sites and building hotel and residential complexes on them.
Difficulties of developers.
Closed-type complexes are extremely popular with foreign buyers, so large Bulgarian andforeign developers working on the coasts are now focusing on this type of housing. The two main problems they face are the shortage of sites suitable for construction, as well as the lack of engineering infrastructure.
Land plots are usually highly fragmented. As a result, the developer has to deal with the purchase of small plots, and since there is still no unified register, difficulties arise in finding legitimate owners, and negotiations with them greatly delay the process.
The construction of roads, sewers and water pipes in accordance with Bulgarian legislation is the responsibility of local authorities, but due to the lack of budgetary funds for these purposes, funds in the budget, all these costs have to be borne by the developer. All this leads to an increase in the cost of construction and increases the likelihood of construction delays, which ultimately affects the buyer.
??? (Buyers)
As a rule, in "closed" complexes, buyers are offered apartments without a land plot, so they are not subject to a ban on the purchase of land by foreigners. The entire infrastructure of the complex remains owned by the developer, and the management company created by him takes care of all the security, maintenance and rental of apartments. Mortgages in Bulgaria are not yet developed, but developers, as a rule, provide for the possibility of payment in installments.
The cost of operating complex b is 6-8 euros per sq.m. If the owner instructs the management company to search for tenants and manage apartments, then the cost of the service will be 20-30% of the profit received by the owner, despite the fact that renting two-bedroom apartments during peak season brings 150-200 euros per day.
The secondary market of apartments in "closed type" complexes has not yet been formed, so it is premature to talk about the amount of profit when reselling them. Nevertheless, interest in them is constantly growing: in successful projects, more than 50% of the area is sold at the excavation stage, and the stable economic situation in the country and the constantly improving legislative framework make the purchase almost risk-free. As a likely trend in the creation of such complexes, we can expect a constant increase in interest in offers with more affordable prices achieved through technologies that reduce the cost of construction.