There is a total decline in the sales of apartments and houses in Sandanski and the surrounding villages, a broker in one of the real estate agencies reported.
According to Mariana Angelieva, the reason is that many Ukrainians settled in Sandanski after the start of the war, renting accommodation. This prevents property owners from selling, as the rent ranges from BGN 300 to 500, depending on the square footage of the home, and is good business, struma.bg writes.
Almost all vacant apartments in Nishan Kushi and Polenyshki Path street are rented by Ukrainians. It is very difficult to find an apartment for sale there, Angelieva said.
She said that in addition to the total collapse of apartment sales, there is also a collapse in the supply of private accommodation through agencies.
The picture is the same with the leasing of commercial premises along the main street in Sandanski. Over the past six months, there has been a wave of owners finding tenants for their premises themselves, without the help of agencies. The rent is BGN 1,200 for a 10 square meter room on Svoboda Blvd., which is meters from the central Bulgaria Square.
There is also a rejection of agency mediation in the sale of new housing cooperatives in the city, with the owners looking for buyers themselves. Several new cooperatives are being built on Svoboda Blvd., on the minor Todor Kableshkov Street, but in a conversation with the owners, they refuse to sell their apartments. I learn that their sales are negligible.
As an example, I will point out that a large housing cooperative on the boulevard, in the area of the former “Monopola” enterprise, only 6-7 of the apartments have been sold green, and there they number more than 50 and the price per square meter is BGN 1,200 green, when you get a carabiner house on plaster, only with joinery. The interest is in properties that are relatively maintained, i.e. ready for living.
Such properties are sought after near the city. In cases where the house will be occupied only on weekends, cheaper properties are sought, albeit with a need for renovation. Leading in both cases is the presence of a large yard.
The demand for properties in the villages increased significantly after the Covid-19 pandemic, when people were looking for properties amidst greenery and tranquility so that they could work from home, the broker also said.
“The pandemic has caused a whole industry to develop quite rapidly in terms of houses, many houses have started to be built and bought at high prices, and this has given an impetus to developers to buy plots. From there, the prices of the plots also jumped, the prices of some agricultural lands, which have the possibility of being redeveloped into a plot with good access, a good location, also jumped,” Angelieva also stated.
The increase in prices is around and even more than double, pointed out Angelieva, who has been working in the real estate sector for 12 years.
