Bulgaria Q3 Housing Prices Fall 5.0% Q/Q

The average price of apartments fell to 1,021.45 levs ($600.3/399.8 euro) per square metre in the year's third quarter, from 1,074.98 levs in the previous three months, the NSI said in a statement.

Prices in Varna fell by 3.1% quarter-on-quarter to 1,770.00 levs per square metre, the statement said.

Bulgaria's capital city Sofia was the second most expensive city with 1,640 levs per square metre, down 6.0% from the previous quarter. Burgas, a major port city on the Black Sea coast and a holiday destination, ranked third with prices of 1,380 levs per square metre in the three months through September, down by 6.2% on the quarter.

The most significant fall in housing prices in the third quarter, by 16.3% to 737 levs per square metre, was registered in the town of Montana, in northwestern Bulgaria, NSI data showed.

Flat prices in the country, which joined the European Union in January 2007, rose 24.9% year-on-year in 2008 to an average 1,363 levs per square metre.

The NSI data reflect the prices in concluded purchases of apartments reported by real estate brokers operating in the administrative centres of Bulgaria's 28 regions.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)