News
Mall developers flock to smaller Bulgarian cities
Seven of the 20 mall-type schemes currently under development across the country are located in cities with less than 200,000 residents, shows Q2 market data of real estate consultants Forton. Four of the mall developments in progress are in Ruse with one each in Kazanlak, Gabrovo and Pleven, said Forton. No less than six mixed-use shopping and entertainment schemes have been announced over the last quarter with locations in Sliven, Kazanlak, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Burgas ad Blagoevgrad. Shopping mall projects are also taking shape in bigger cities like Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and Stara Zagora. The profusion of mall projects in the major metropolitan areas has sent developers scurrying for opportunities in understored cities with 30,000 to 60,000 residents. The spate of new mall developments has done little to quell demand for retail space with vacancy rates at just about zero. The yield on retail space properties in Bulgaria has halved since 2002 and now stands at around 6%. The retail space rent costs in Sofia peaked at 1,440 euro/sq m per year in 2005. They have since come down to 1,200 euro/sq m per year. Neither is the office space market showing any signs of a slowdown, said Forton. Some 850,000 sq m of office properties are under construction at the moment with another 800,000 sq m on the drawing boards. The undersupply of Class A office space is keeping vacancy levels at around 3%.Source: http://news.dnevnik.bg/