Bulgarian apartment price drop slows in third quarter of 2011

The decline of Bulgarian apartment prices has slowed in the third quarter of 2011. The latest data, announced by the National Statistical Institute, shows that apartment prices continued to fall between July and Septmber, but that the drop is slowing down compared to previous periods.

The average price of apartments in Bulgaria’s regional cities dropped by 0.84 per cent between July and September, compared to the second quarter of 2011 – the smallest drop since 2008, reports BulgarianProperties.com.

The real decrease after inflation is 0.95 per cent compared to the previous quarter and 8.92 per cent year-on-year (compared to the same quarter in 2010). For Sofia, the nominal decrease in prices is 0.64 per cent compared to the previous quarter and 8.55 per cent year-on-year. According to NSI, the average price of an apartment is 460 EUR/sq.m.

In the last quarter, apartments in the capital Sofia were sold for an average of 745 EUR/sq.m and in Varna 763 Euros per sq.m. The report from the NSI marks a slowdown in price falls, three years after the beginning of the crisis. The slowing rate of decline is a trend that started in the middle of 2010 and has been expected by experts for some time, as the Bulgarian property market may at last be showing signs of beginning to stabilise.