In the six month period from the beginning of the year, rental rates for residential property have increased, website investor.bg said, quoting brokers from various agencies. The professionals, however, have not been unanimous in their prognoses of how the situation would change in the second half of the year. Some say that further increase is to be expected, others do not anticipate changes.
MartinsaFadesa SA, the largest Spanish developer with a residential project in Sofia, has sought bankruptcy protection, Bloomberg agency reported as quoted by website investor.bg.With the 10year real estate boom in Spain beginning to die down, more companies fail to secure a loan for refinancing old debts. What makes it harder for developers to pay their debts is the sharp decrease in home sales in addition to rising borrowing costs, the agency said.
Real estate company Foros said it has signed up two franchisees, in Plovdiv and in Stara Zagora. The company is also in talks to set up Foros franchises in another 25 local town, including Blagoevgrad, Silistra, Vidin, Gabrovo, Haskovo, Kavarna, Sandanski, Elena and Sliven. The first of the signed contracts are for a period of five years.
FairPlay Commercial, an office property developer that is part of FairPlay International, said it plans to build distribution warehouses and a 120 000 sq m logistics park. The location of the new property developments was not named.The warehouses would most likely be in smaller cities with shortage of purposebuilt logistics properties, FairPlay Commercial board director Mario Zahariev said.
Construction interests united the church, archaeologists and architects to start protesting against plans for a 22storey building meant to replace Rila hotel in the heart of Sofia.In an interview with private broadcaster bTV on July 10, a representative of the St Nikolai ancient church behind the hotel said that the construction of the hotel in the 1940s caused a partial reduction of the church yard and cracking of one of the church walls. It is feared that new construction could further damage the church.
Carrefour, the French hypermarket chain, announced plans to build a retailentertainment complex in Stara Zagora, weekly Stroitelstvo Gradut said. The total investment will amount to 10 million euro as the property itself will be situated on a land plot of 20 900 sq m. The project features a mall, whose retail space will be 14 575 sq m, as well as hypermarket on a further 6324 sq m.Architect Ilian Iliev of Planning Ltd. has been picked todesign the mall, with Carrefour currently still looking to select a construction company to build it. With the opening of the complex, Carrefour has promised to offer 400 new job positions when the project is completed by 2010 as planned.
Plovdivs architectural studio ArkontA won the tender called to pick a design for the renovation of the citys central railway station, mediapool.bg reported.The National Railway Infrastructure Company NRIC has said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily, that the investor selected to do the renovation will also be granted building permission for additional construction in the area as compensation.
XarXa Real Estate, a Spanish company specialising in property sales and investments, arrived on the Bulgarian scene. Its motto is Lets turn our competitors into our partners, Petar Atanassov, executive director for the Bulgarian branch of the company, said during a news conference July 3.XarXa means fishnet and it has been established in Barcelona, Spain in 1994. It is a part of Gestion Immuebles Compartidos, a world network of 80 companies based in Spain and other European countries.