Permits for real estate construction in Bulgaria were down by 45 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009, totalling 69.9 per cent fewer apartments compared to the third quarter, Dnevnik daily reported on February 22.

Permits for construction of administrative buildings were down by 37 per cent.

In the last quarter of 2009, a total of 1343 residential buildings were approved for construction, totaling 3 900 flats, according to data from the National Statistical Institute. The port city of Bourgas topped the chart with 155 new buildings approved, followed by Sofia with 150, and Plovdiv with 143.

The most apartments, however, would be built in Sofia - 773, followed by 604 in Varna.

A week earlier, Eurostat data showed that Bulgaria's construction sector marked the sharpest decline in the European Union, shrinking by a third in 2009.

Average housing property prices in Bulgaria will hit rock bottom by the middle of 2010 before settling in the following months and then starting to pick up, rising by at least 10 per cent by the end of the year, according to Tihomir Tsakov, manager of Bulgarian real estate agency Aristo.

This forecast clashed with projections made by other major real estate agencies such as Colliers, Address and Foros, which expect the fall to continue throughout the first half of the year, tumbling by 10 per cent before settling.

Aristo estimated that the Bulgarian housing market has gone back to 2004 levels in terms of deal numbers as only about 200 000 transactions took place.

For the first time since 2000, Bulgaria’s average home prices slid to 548 euro a sq m, according to the National Statistical Institute. On a brighter note, the market dodged the bleakest forecasts, with prices diving 21.36 per cent year-on-year and returning to 2007 levels, according to Tsakov.