Fri, Feb 10 2012
Bulgarian Real Estate Fund, the local real estate investment trust (REIT), has prepaid two loans from Eurobank EFG Bulgaria, worth a combined 20.16 million leva, to avoid interest payment, the head of the fund's project manager Kaloyan Ninov said.
The loans financed the purchases of 78 000 sq m of land plots in Sofia's Mladost district and a building in the Borovets resort complex in the town of the same name.
The company sold some of the properties to repay the bank loans, which both bore floating interest rates based on the Euribor inter-bank interest rate.
The REIT has taken another seven million leva loan from Eurobank EFG Bulgaria to buy stores in Varna and Sofia, now rented out to do-it-yourself retail chain Mr. Bricolage.
Source: Dnevnik.bg
Real Estate Fund Bulgaria announced it had drawn a nine-year, 5 million euro loan from EFG Bulgaria to refinance its Kambanite Business Centre in Sofia.
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.