Bulgaria is the leader in real estate investment growth in Central and Eastern Europe - Colliers Intl

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On August2nd (SeeNews) -

Bulgaria was the only country out of six Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in the first half of2023 where the volume of real estate investments increased compared to the previous year, a representative of Colliers International in Bulgaria told SeeNews.

“The volume of investments in the first half of the year slightly exceeded 83 million euros (91.1 million dollars),” a representative of SeeNews reported in a written statement on Tuesday.

Investment volume in Bulgaria increased by 196% compared to the previous year in the first six months of 2023, but was 7% lower than in the same period of 2021, according to Colliers International in their CEE Investment Scene H1 report published last week.

The total volume of real estate investments in Central and Eastern Europe decreased by 64% to 2.02 billion euros year-on-year, reflecting the downward trends in Europe and globally.

Trading was the main driver of the market, accounting for 35% of all transactions by the end of June, although it was only conducted in the Czech Republic.

Investment volumes in offices have significantly decreased, accounting for 29.5% of the total volume.

Positive dynamics in Bulgaria occurred against the backdrop of an annual decline in investment volumes in the first half of the year by 42% to 87% in the other five CEE countries - Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

The report showed that investment volume levels in the second quarter and the first half of this year in CEE were among the lowest in history, with the largest decline in Hungary and Poland.

In Romania, there was a reduction in volumes by half compared to last year and by 43% compared to 2021.

“The lack of transactional data in the market is prolonging the price discovery period, and a significant recovery will largely depend on improvements in the inflation and interest rate environment,” said Colliers.

In the future, it is forecasted that market volumes for the remainder of 2023 could reach or exceed 5 billion euros at the current pace of development, although it is warned that forecasts of activity are complicated by the rising cost of debt.

($ = 0.9108 euros)