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 the Klasa daily.
 
The index was 297 at the end of 2011 which is close to the results in the second and third quarters of 2007, the report said, according to local news agency Focus.
 
Average selling prices of homes sold in Sofia have risen by 4.8 per cent compared to July-September.
 
According to Raiffeisen analysts, such an increase over the last quarter of the year does not necessarily mean a trend reversal.
 
Real estate prices were the highest in mid-2008 when the Raiffeisen Real Estate Index reached 417 points.
 
Home prices in Plovdiv in Q4 2011 were 10.5 per cent less than in Q4 2010. The index was unchanged for almost the entire 2011 year, staying at a level of 273 and going up only in the second half of 2010.
 
The price decrease in Varna at the end of 2011 was almost twice as big as the fall in Plovdiv – just 5.2 per cent.
 
According to Raiffeisen Real Estate, real selling prices of homes in Varna decreased throughout 2011, and the index reached 286 at the end of 2011 compared to 208 in January-March.
 
Meanwhile, Bulgarian-language mass-circulation dailies 24 Chassa and Trud said that available high-quality office spaces categorized as Class A in Sofia will be rented out by the end of 2012, according to projections by international commercial real estate consulting company Colliers International.
 
Rents of shops on Vitosha Boulevard in Sofia have fallen 27 per cent in 2011, according to Colliers. Top areas cost 40 euro a sq m. compared to 100 euro before the crisis hit. The area of high-quality buildings in the centre is about 300 000 sq. m., Atanas Garov, CEO of Colliers said. They are rented for 11 euro a sq m at the most.