Bulgaria is among the top 10 countries in Europe in terms of growth in investments in the real estate market

“Bulgaria is among the top 10 countries with the largest increase in investments in the real estate market in Europe,” said Sergei Koinov, Executive Director of the Forton International consulting firm. “The ranking of our country shows that, without having enjoyed exceptional sales volumes in absolute terms, we are once again becoming attractive to international investors after nearly two years of stagnation,” he added. Last year, some 9 large investment transactions were signed in the country amounting to €200 mln. The acquisition of Mall of Sofia for €105 mln was the largest of these. Retail Park Plovdiv changed its owner for €20 mln.

The investment market in Europe grew by 7.8% and reached a total volume of €126 bn. The increase in investments in CEE was 75% in 2011, while the market grew by just 2.8% in Western Europe.

The markets in Bulgaria, Estonia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia and Croatia were the most active. Office spaces were the most preferred sector which attracted 44% of the proceeds, followed by commercial spaces with 32% and industrial properties with 24.5%, showed Forton's data.

In Bulgaria, two main trends became noticeable on the commercial property market in 2011. The first was related to the stopping of the "free fall in prices" and the second is the clear distinction of the successful projects on the market. Projects not precisely designed and built encountered substantial difficulties in attracting new tenants which remains the main challenge for them.

The average rent of a modern office at a top location is in the range of between €10 and €12 per sq. m. The total volume of this type of areas amounted to 1.478 mln sq. m., since in 2011 some 163,000 new sq. m appeared on the market.