The Foros company, owned by Dobromir Ganev, CEO of GVA Sollers Solutions, signed a contract with international consultancy firm GVA Worldwide on September 24 2009 aimed at helping both firms provide consultancy intelligence and investment services in the real estate sector, the Bulgarian news agency (BTA) has reported.

This deal, reported by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), was forged at a time when the retail property sector is beginning to show tentative signs of recovery.

Viable deals in some of Sofia's most prestigious areas like Vitosha Boulevard and Graf Ignatiev, considered impossible several months ago due to high rents, are now possible, according to Ganev, cited by Dnevnik daily.

"It used to be hard, now the market is flexible and accessible," he said, quoted by Dnevnik.

Inactivity on the part of large retail chains on the Bulgarian market has had its negative effect, while new independent retail parcels are being constantly made available through new construction. This, in turn, contributed to the substantial escalation of vacant stores, a subsequent increase in supply, drop in demand and slump in value.

Nine months into 2009 and there have been no new projects for large retail centres in Bulgaria. Additionally, many large centres that were under construction have been postponed or frozen. In some cases, projects were scrapped indefinitely. However, new retail space was also made available through alternative construction, at least those projects not stalled or postponed.

Source: propertywisebulgaria.

Between January and September 2009, two medium-class malls opened in Plovdiv and Bourgas, the first of their kind in those cities. But, according to the GVA Sollers Solutions report, by the end of 2009, an additional 207 000 sq m of new retail area is expected to be available in Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv, Rousse, Stara Zagora, Gabrovo and Gotse Delchev. This will have a further effect on the local market because retail prices in the country and Sofia, in particular, are expected to fall further.