Thu, Feb 23 2012
King Sturge, the international real estate advisory, is surveying opportunities for entering the Bulgarian market, company officials told investor.bg.
Preparations are still at a very early stage, with set plans and a detailed strategy yet to be clarified, company representatives said, adding that they had not decided whether to step directly onto the market or to penetrate through a local partner. The decision is to be made over the next several months.
"We will definitely need local expertise," Liz Agar, European human resources manager at King Sturge, said, noting that it would prompt the employment of specialists familiar with Bulgarian market.
As far as the time span, she expected that the office would open late in the year.
King Sturge offers a wide range of services: consultancy in the field of real estate, asset management, advice on investments, acquisitions and mergers, project development, mediation in selling, purchasing and renting, value assessment services and related.
The company has 3800 employees in 150 own and associated offices in Europe, North and Central America and Asia.
On the Balkans it has offices in Greece as of 2003, in Romania as of 2005 and in Turkey as of 2007.
Average market prices of homes in Sofia fell by one per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to the same period of 2010, according to the Raiffeisen Real Estate Index, as quoted by Klasa daily.
Proportionately, the number of transactions in leva increased as people reacted to speculation that the euro would disappear.
Nearly all banks are ready to finance between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of the price of a home, provided it is a good building in a large city, Bulgarian daily says.
Property prices in Bulgaria were five to 10 per cent lower in 2011 than in 2010, while initial estimates for this year are that they will remain largely unchanged, with transactions remaining at ‘crisis levels’.
Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia ranks 17th, report says, quoting Global Property Guide.