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Bulgaria Property Myths and Legends
Hello everybody !
I believe most of you have come up so far on numerous resources and information about Bulgaria property. I don't know how relevant and interesting you have found them - to me most of them are of little value. After years - that is right almost 3 years of research, I decided to start a series of articles covering the thousands of "myth" and "legends" spread around, specially on the Internet. This is the first of them, or rather the beginning of the first of them. Please feel free to post your comments and express opinions. They would be highly appreciated and used (with your permission, of course) in the next posts.
Meanwhile, here we go!!
BULGARIA PROPERTY – MYTHS AND LEGENDS
Why Myths and Legends?
Six or seven years ago Bulgaria was a poor post-communist country that was just recovering from the 1996-1997 inflation. Then all of a sudden in the media reports sprung of foreigners, mainly Brits buying properties both at the sea and ski resorts as well as the countryside. Why was this happening? Were those people crazy to buy derelict places, especially in the countryside? Why were they coming to Bulgaria at all? Those Brits, Irish, Russians etc. were neither crazy nor stupid – they have simply found a new investment niche full of potential – properties at less than price of a car!!!
Back then, information about Bulgaria, let alone the property market was missing or was hard to find at best. Nowadays, the Internet is full of “resources”, “guides” drawn out of “personal experience”, all sorts of “reliable information” from “experts”. Do you notice the inverted commas? If you do, and if you have done research yourself, if you applied critical thinking while reading those “resources”, “guides” and “expert” opinions, you definitely understand the need for inverted commas. “Say a lie 100 times and it becomes the truth” – though paraphrasing from good old Nazi propaganda guru – Mr.Goebels, unfortunately, in our view, this is the truth about the predominant part of everything available as information on property in Bulgaria. At best, the misinformation available is such, because of the lack of understanding of what and why is happening on the Bulgaria property market.
As outlined above, some resources are bad, others are good to an extent, but both lack accurate statistics data for their key findings. Most conclusions in the information available are drawn from personal experience. But how accurate are these findings? Are they supported by statistics data from other sources? Most of the time the answer is NO. Personal opinion and experience continues to be a major source of information, and while it is important and must be considered, it alone cannot provide basis for informative decision making.
So, why is this report better than anything covering the same topic? What makes it different? The difference is that this report recognizes the lack of accurate statistics. At the same time it comprises statistics from local resources, with real time market data(consider www.indeximoti.bg, www.imot.bg) . It also takes into account sources like www.knightfrank.com, www.assetz.co.uk, www.globalpropertyguide.com . The report is intended to facilitate anyone considering investing in Bulgaria Property. However, it is not meant and does not provide niche specific insights into the various segments of the property market in Bulgaria. All it aims at is to unveil certain myths and legends told by “experts” or those that claim to be such.
BULGARIA PROPERTY – KEY FACTORS AFFECTING THE MARKET
As in any market, the key factors affecting the prices on the Bulgaria property market are:
1. Supply and Demand
2. Consumer Behavior
While the 1st factor is paid some in depth attention (www.knightfrank.com, www.assetz.co.uk) even it is not explained in plain, simple words. At least, so far, we have not found such explanation. The second factor is totally neglected. The “experts” and “gurus” on Bulgaria Property fail to pay any attention to it, neglecting a major correlation between factors one and two – the Bulgaria Property market is driven by LOCAL demand and supply, not by INTERNATIONAL demand and investment. The above key finding is a major point missed by most writers covering property in Bulgaria.
Exceptions to this rule are available. The Telegraph published recently an excellent article covering this topic. Four simple words there explain everything –“Follow the locals, follow the Russians”. While we are not going to pay attention to the last two words now, “follow the locals” is a very good example of accounting for the correlation between key issue 1 and 2 . Furthermore, here you might find another, personal opinion insight that supports The Telegraph findings. The above two sources, back the 1st of our key findings about the Bulgaria Property market – it is driven by local supply and demand.
I believe most of you have come up so far on numerous resources and information about Bulgaria property. I don't know how relevant and interesting you have found them - to me most of them are of little value. After years - that is right almost 3 years of research, I decided to start a series of articles covering the thousands of "myth" and "legends" spread around, specially on the Internet. This is the first of them, or rather the beginning of the first of them. Please feel free to post your comments and express opinions. They would be highly appreciated and used (with your permission, of course) in the next posts.
Meanwhile, here we go!!
BULGARIA PROPERTY – MYTHS AND LEGENDS
Why Myths and Legends?
Six or seven years ago Bulgaria was a poor post-communist country that was just recovering from the 1996-1997 inflation. Then all of a sudden in the media reports sprung of foreigners, mainly Brits buying properties both at the sea and ski resorts as well as the countryside. Why was this happening? Were those people crazy to buy derelict places, especially in the countryside? Why were they coming to Bulgaria at all? Those Brits, Irish, Russians etc. were neither crazy nor stupid – they have simply found a new investment niche full of potential – properties at less than price of a car!!!
Back then, information about Bulgaria, let alone the property market was missing or was hard to find at best. Nowadays, the Internet is full of “resources”, “guides” drawn out of “personal experience”, all sorts of “reliable information” from “experts”. Do you notice the inverted commas? If you do, and if you have done research yourself, if you applied critical thinking while reading those “resources”, “guides” and “expert” opinions, you definitely understand the need for inverted commas. “Say a lie 100 times and it becomes the truth” – though paraphrasing from good old Nazi propaganda guru – Mr.Goebels, unfortunately, in our view, this is the truth about the predominant part of everything available as information on property in Bulgaria. At best, the misinformation available is such, because of the lack of understanding of what and why is happening on the Bulgaria property market.
As outlined above, some resources are bad, others are good to an extent, but both lack accurate statistics data for their key findings. Most conclusions in the information available are drawn from personal experience. But how accurate are these findings? Are they supported by statistics data from other sources? Most of the time the answer is NO. Personal opinion and experience continues to be a major source of information, and while it is important and must be considered, it alone cannot provide basis for informative decision making.
So, why is this report better than anything covering the same topic? What makes it different? The difference is that this report recognizes the lack of accurate statistics. At the same time it comprises statistics from local resources, with real time market data(consider www.indeximoti.bg, www.imot.bg) . It also takes into account sources like www.knightfrank.com, www.assetz.co.uk, www.globalpropertyguide.com . The report is intended to facilitate anyone considering investing in Bulgaria Property. However, it is not meant and does not provide niche specific insights into the various segments of the property market in Bulgaria. All it aims at is to unveil certain myths and legends told by “experts” or those that claim to be such.
BULGARIA PROPERTY – KEY FACTORS AFFECTING THE MARKET
As in any market, the key factors affecting the prices on the Bulgaria property market are:
1. Supply and Demand
2. Consumer Behavior
While the 1st factor is paid some in depth attention (www.knightfrank.com, www.assetz.co.uk) even it is not explained in plain, simple words. At least, so far, we have not found such explanation. The second factor is totally neglected. The “experts” and “gurus” on Bulgaria Property fail to pay any attention to it, neglecting a major correlation between factors one and two – the Bulgaria Property market is driven by LOCAL demand and supply, not by INTERNATIONAL demand and investment. The above key finding is a major point missed by most writers covering property in Bulgaria.
Exceptions to this rule are available. The Telegraph published recently an excellent article covering this topic. Four simple words there explain everything –“Follow the locals, follow the Russians”. While we are not going to pay attention to the last two words now, “follow the locals” is a very good example of accounting for the correlation between key issue 1 and 2 . Furthermore, here you might find another, personal opinion insight that supports The Telegraph findings. The above two sources, back the 1st of our key findings about the Bulgaria Property market – it is driven by local supply and demand.
Tags: property, abroad, bulgaria, data, estate, international, market, real
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