News

Sofia Among the Cheapest Cities in the World

Moscow is the most expensive city in the world for 2008 year for the foreign businessmen. The Russian capital is leader in this category for the third time, after Tokyo and London. This is shownby an investigation, cited by ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'. The most expensive German cities will be Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt. There have been examined the products, used by the contractors for the aims of the examination. New York has become cheaper. The losing position of the dollars... [more]

New Airline Sofia - Brussels to be Opened

The Bulgarian ambassador for Belgium Hristo Georgiev opened the new airline of ‘Wizzair' Avio Company, which will connect Sofia with the second by size Belgium airport ‘Brussels - South - Charleroi. That was announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affiaris. The first passenger, who came down from the plane received a brunch of flowers with the colours of Bulgarian flag. The ‘Wizzair' planes will fly between Sofia and Charleroi twice per week - in Thursday and in Sunday. This is... [more]

Biggest Mall Projects in Bulgaria

Commercial space market in Bulgaria maintained its upward trend in the first half of 2008. Two shopping malls with a gross leasable area of 37,000 sq. m were opened during the period – Mall Varna (32 000 sq. m) and Mall Sandanski (5,000 sq. m), data of Foros real estate company show. Thus, the total number of commercial centers in Bulgaria rose to seven, while their gross leasable area went up to 123,660 sq. m. Nevertheless, Bulgaria still occupies one of the last spots in the ranking... [more]

Residential Property Prices in Sofia Up by 6.9% Q/Q in Q2

Residential property prices in Sofia went up by 6.9% in the second quarter of 2008, compared to the first quarter of the year to 2,312.5 leva per sq. m, data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) show. Thus, Sofia retained its top spot in terms of highest residential property prices, followed by Varna where price went up by a mere 1.8% on a quarterly basis to 2,137.33 leva per sq.m. Residential property prices in Bulgaria marked a 5.9-percent increase in the second quarter of 2008,... [more]

Central Europe boasts some of continent's top industrial property destinations

Three out of Europe’s top five markets with the best location for industrial/logistics facilities are in Central and Eastern Europe, according to the European Distribution Report 2008, produced biennially by global real estate consultant Cushman & Wakefield (C&W). The top position in this year’s ranking is retained by Belgium. In second place is the Netherlands, followed by Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland in fifth place, while Slovakia is the highest new entry at... [more]

Sigma Consulting named as buyer of Plovdiv cigarette factory

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Setback for transfer of airport area site to Plovdiv fair

The site in the area of the Sofia International Airport that was eyed by the Plovdiv International Fair is classified as green area and any title transfer will first have to be approved by the chief architect of the city, Petar Dikov, it emerged at a government meeting on Thursday. At the same meeting, the government gave the go-ahead to transfer the site from the assets of the transport ministry to those of the economy ministry. Dikov could not be reached for comment on Thursday. The economy... [more]

Financia Group wraps Broker Ins take-over

Financia Group, the financial services division of Bulgarian conglomerate Alfa Finance Holding, said it has completed the acquisition of 51% in insurance broker Broker Ins. The current owners of the brokerage, Rumen Staikov, Stean Enchev and Konstantina Dragieva, will retain a stake of 49% as well as full executive management control. As a result of the deal, Broker Ins clients will get access to services like mutual funds and trust management provided by Financia Group. Financia Group will... [more]

Bulgartabac sells Plovdiv cigarette factory

Bulgartabac Holding, the Bulgarian tobacco monopoly, Wednesday sold 78% in its Plovdiv cigarette factory for 30.8 mln levs on the Sofia stock exchange. The bulk of the share package fetched 36.57 levs per share on average, way higher than the guide price of 24.90 levs. The buyer of the larger share packages will be revealed after the transactions are processed by the Central Depository. Over 868,000 shares in the Plovdiv cigarette maker changed hands on Wednesday in more than 100 trades. The... [more]

Realtors: construction co's facing decline in profit margins

The increased cost of construction materials and the standstill in property prices will push down the profit margins of the Bulgarian construction companies by 6-8% in 2008, said local real estate brokerage Yavlena. At the moment, the profit margin per build is 30-35%, considerably higher than the 10-20% margin typical for mature markets, said the realtors. Yavlena is also forecasting zero growth for the price of land plots zoned for residential construction in the bigger cities, citing... [more]