Address Group, one of Bulgarias leading real estate companies, said on June 29 that it had set up a division to assist property buyers in choosing the loan scheme most suited to their needs.
The new facility provides free consultations for anyone intending to borrow to finance the purchase of a new home, a repair or a new business, said Address executive director Tihomir Toshev.
Every Bulgarian who has tried to get a bank loan in the past five years knows what he or she has to go through, without even knowing the result of their efforts, Toshev said.
He said that the true liberalisation of the loan market for most Bulgarians had come only in the past two years when they have been allowed to repay loans with incomes other than those received under labour contracts.
Anyone who had gone through the entire action scene of preparing documents, filing them, awaiting approval and the giving of the loan from any bank, would know what a relief it would be to be assisted by someone from the very beginning and be directed to the most appropriate bank depending on their income, Toshev said.
He said that Address would not be making money out of serving the customers of the CreditCentre because many banks were ready to pay the centre a commission for each successful customer.
Addresss CreditCentre was working with 12 local banks and one non-banking institution but was expected to start providing information on the loan programmes of all domestic banks by the end of the year, Toshev said.
The market will see at least another three to four non-banking institutions for loan-financing by the end of 2006, said Toshev.
CreditCenter, whose advisory services are available to non-Address clients as well, brokered the disbursement of 1.2 million leva in loans in May when it still operated as Address Credit Centre.
About 80 per cent of CreditCentre clients opt for mortgage loans while another 15 per cent choose consumer loans.
Between 60 and 80 per cent of property transactions are loan-financed, said Address Real Estate executive director Katia Tsenova.
Address Group said that it planned to launch an insurance centre in the autumn.
The new credit centre would also give consultations to foreign citizens because there were Bulgarian banks that had started lending to foreigners, said Tsenova. She said that about 20 per cent of customers buying property in Bulgaria through Address Real Estate were foreigners.
