A third of foreign investment in Bulgaria is going into the country’s construction industry, according to an Industry Watch survey that coincided with the Balkan Property Exhibition (BalPEx).

The think-tank’s report said that the construction industry was currently worth about 2.3 billion to 2.6 billion euro annually, and there was every indication that the industry’s strong growth would grow.

The projects on show at BalPEx, which was held from October 5 to 7, were an indication why this growth pattern was so vigorous, and reinforced the view in some quarters that the negative trend in the US real estate market that has infected some European markets will not spread to Bulgaria.

Residential projects were much in evidence at the expo. Asking prices for gated residential developments start at about 1000 euro a sq m. The Este Home and Spa development in the Iztok residential area of Sofia, which will cover 1.7ha near the planned Dragan Tsankov Boulevard metro station, was on show with asking prices beginning at 1500 euro a sq m for an apartment in one of the complex’s seven blocks.

With environmental issues increasingly on the agenda in Bulgaria, some participants sought to claim that they were on board with the “green” agenda.

Home for You, presenting its Oasis holiday village near Lozenets on the southern Black Sea coast – a development for which a camping site with trees and vegetation was demolished to make way for the large complex – emphasised that 70 per cent of the natural vegetation had been retained and that waste water from Oasis was being treated at a plant in nearby Tsarevo.

A report in Bulgarian daily Dnevnik said that BalPEx showed that the luxury housing market in Plovdiv was gaining ground on front-runners Sofia and Varna, albeit only in terms of supply, not price. One of the Plovdiv projects on show at the expo was the Royal City gated compound where housing units were priced at 450 to 550 euro a sq m, about half the level of Sofia prices.

In addition to numerous condo compounds, developers also exhibited suburban communities of single-family houses. One such project was Crystal Bell, a complex of 34 single-family houses across from Business Park Sofia in the capital city’s Mladost area.

Vistas of Pamporovo is one of the latest holiday homes development. The complex, near the village of Levochevo in the Rhodope mountains, comprises six buildings with 180 apartments ranging in size between 38 to 130 sq m and priced from 900 euro a sq m. Catalunya Real Estate, which is developing the project, said that about 60 units had been sold off-plan to Spanish buyers. The complex should be completed by the end of 2008.

Among the highlights of the office properties showcased at the exhibition was Vasilev Business City, the new concept for the redevelopment of the site of the disused Mraz refrigerator plant in Sofia. The property, with a 4.3ha footprint, will have 90 000 sq m of office, retail and residential space.

The STAD logistics centre was a notable entrant on the contemporary storage facilities segment. The property, on the Sofia ring road near Kazichene, is close to both the Trakia and Hemus motorways. Rent rates were advertised at five to six euro a sq m.

Also noteworthy at BalPEx was the increased participation of companies linked to growing Russian interest in Bulgaria’s property market.