SOFIA (Bulgaria), June 24 (SeeNews) – The recovery of the real estate market in Bulgaria will start when internal consumption and personal prosperity in general improve, an industry expert said.
"The real estate sector has developed as an investment activity while the truth is that it is a service. […] The sector will recover when we witness the resurgence of the primary need to own an apartment. This will come as a result of the recovery of the entire economy," Lachezar Todorov, CEO of Bulgarian real estate and tourism company Terra Tour Service, told SeeNews in an interview.
The company, which owns several hotels and a residential complex on the Black Sea, has seen some improvement in the coastal real estate market.
"There is some movement on the Russian market but it is in the low-end segment," Todorov said, adding that Bulgaria's profile among Russian investors has been raised as a result of the country's membership of the EU and hopefully soon of the Schengen zone as well.
Terra Tour Service, which both invests in and operates residential and recreational real estate, plans to expand its portfolio by spending a combined 135 million euro ($193 million) on two hotel projects in the short term, Todorov said.
"The first project is for the construction of a resort compound with 1,000-1,200 rooms in the northern part of [Black Sea resort] Sunny Beach." The second one involves the construction of a hotel in the centre of Sofia to replace the former hotel and cinema complex Serdika, he said.
Terra Tour Service is also investor in the Pravets Golf Club, located 50 km northeast of Sofia, which is part of the Pravets Golf & Spa resort project. The full amount of the investment in Pravets Golf & Spa will be more than 60 million euro, with the golf course alone exceeding 15 million euro out of the total.
Apart from the golf course, Pravets Golf & Spa includes a RIU-branded hotel with 242 rooms, four 30-unit apartment buildings and 68 houses.
The portfolio of Terra Tour Service, fully-owned by local company Agrohold, includes the Helios Beach Apartments residential complex, the RIU Helios Palace, RIU Helios Bay and LUCA Helios Beach hotels on the Black Sea and in Pravets Golf & Spa.
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