Investors in Bulgaria lose around 200 million euro annually. The reason? They also have to fork out the cost of development and installation of all auxiliary infrastructure that goes with the construction of those facilities, Rossen Plevneliev, head of Lindner Immobile Management has said, during a real estate conference at BalPEx.

"Every year in Bulgaria, more than six million sq m are being built – and the investor has to pay an additional 30 to 35 euro per sq for the development of infrastructure: cables, water, electric grid, roads, drainage systems, and others," Dnevnik daily reports.

Plamen Miranov, executive of Artex Engineering, complained that "utility companies are racketeering the construction firms because they invest absolutely nothing in the project and then end up receiving everything on a silver plate from investors".  He has demanded that this "illegal activity be thwarted".

Marianov has called for municipalities to reduce their taxes on the rent of pavements, costs that have to be met by construction firms. Currently, those rates differ around Sofia according to location, but it usually is around one leva per sq m. The "pavement rights tax is equivalent to that of a retail centre or an office building and this is completely abnormal," he said.

Sofia's chief architect, Petar Dikov, a self-proclaimed pavement rights ideologist, explained that the "aim is not to fill Sofia's budget but for construction companies to be encouraged to get their job done more efficiently and free the pavements designed to facilitate the pedestrians".

Some independent observers may wonder why vehicles in Sofia are allowed to park all over the pavements, and why they aren't subjected to so called pavement rights.

Dikov has agreed, however, that in some areas in Sofia pavement rights should be cheaper.

Source propertywisebulgaria.