Bulgarian Properties

Bulgarian Land Development (BLD) investment fund acquired another 46 673 sq m piece of agricultural Bulgarian properties near Sofia for 500 000 euro, although its exact situation was not revealed.

The plot is situated in an area with good potential for the development of a residential compound in Sofia’s suburban areas. BLD wants to consolidating several stretches of agricultural land in the area to a total of about 250 000 sq m. Once the fund has gained all the necessary land, it plans to change its purpose into plots for residential building.

BLD representatives consider the project very attractive to both holiday property buyers and Sofia residents, because of its enticing situation - only a 45-minute car drive from Sofia, the complex will combine the benefits of an urban complex with facilitated approach to ski slopes, spa facilities and golf courses.

The purchase will be financed by own resources, the exact situation will be pinpointed after all the adjoining lands have been acquired, company officials said in a statement. Earlier this month, BLD announced that it had bought a piece with an area exceeding 38 000 sq m close to Sofia for 1.7 million euro. The two Bulgarian properties are not situated to each other.

BLD’s aim is to have invested or allocated for investment all of its capital, which currently stands to 51.4 million euro, by the end of 2008.

Praim Property Bulgaria ADSIC invested 64 million euro to be build the first Business park in Plovdiv - Bulgaria.This park will include four or five storey modern buildings with offices and market areas, underground parking places ,restaurants and supermarkets.

The land where will be construct the park is 48 682 sq.m and the total area is 110 000 sq.m. At this time the company is preparing the premeditated project who foresee functional buildings.

A lot of companies, the most of them foreign, will put their offices in this first Business park in Povdiv.
Important premise for good development is the correctly choice of the place where will be build the park. It will locate in Trakia region - one of the biggest quarter in Plovdiv. Other premise for well development is the university tradition.

The universities will provide the number of good skilled employees, necessary to the companies which are going to rent places in the park.

At the moment Plovdiv disposed with industrial parks and smaller complexes which include and house areas. This park is designed for administrative aims. Similar complexes are going to be build in another biggest cities in our country Bulgaria.

Prime property is the first stockholder’s association with special investment aim in Bulgaria. It invest in construction and selling of properties, rent of houses, offices and market places in Sofia and all over the countre.

The holding has 8 projects with total value of around 180 million euro. In the future Praim Property Bulgaria is going to invest in the flowing project about 25 million euro.

Banning the exchange of forest-properties was proposed yesterday during a press conference in Sofia by eco-activists of the “Sustaining the Nature in Bulgaria” (SNB) coalition. They have suggested that current “re-zoning” of the existing forests should also be terminated as soon as possible.

Forestland swapping has been introduced in order to make the state’s forest fund easier to manage. However, it is now used as a mechanism to acquire woodland plots, which are later fully chopped and built up.

A vivid example, given by Vanya Rutarova from Bulgarian Society for Bird Protection, is that of Kaliakra land plots exchanged for land in the Shoumen region. The companies that gained possession of such attractive lands had immediately started regulation procedures in order to start construction works.

The biggest problem and major flaw in the “swapping” procedure is that land which is evaluated at 1500-2000 BGN/hectare have been exchanged for similar land plots with market price of 2.5-3 million Euro/hectare. Konstantin Ivanov explained that the exchange had not been implemented as a market mechanism and that is why only the tax evaluation was used in the procedure.

According to the environmental organizations’ representatives there are numerous cases of fraudulent property swaps, many completed with the help of the municipal administrations and even the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture.

Eco-activists reminded that this was not simply a crime against Bulgaria’s nature resources, but also against all Bulgarians and the state itself. These procedures encourage corruption among public administration and also leads to incredible financial losses for Bulgaria.

Despite the enormous and overcrowded seaside resort, Bulgaria still has several well-preserved nature areas, which unfortunately are threatened to become new construction sights because of administrative procedures, violated Bulgarian and European laws and corruption driven state resolutions.