Slow rate of housing price appreciation to 3-5% on an annual basis and fewer property transactions. This will happen on the apartment market by 2028, experts predict for both the Bulgarian and European markets. “We will no longer witness annual price growth of 10% or 15%”, says Georg Petras, managing director of the company Engel & Vоlkеrѕ.
There are currently some anomalies, such as the fact that in larger cities the prices per square meter of living space are higher than in the capitals. An example is Athens and Thessaloniki. Up to 2400 EUR/sq.m is the price of housing in Thessaloniki, which is an increase of 83% from the third quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2023. For comparison, in Athens the average price is currently 2177 EUR/sq.m. Compared to the middle of 2019, the price increase is 43%, which clearly outlines the large imbalance in the rate of increase in the price of the residential area in our southern neighbor.
To some extent, the imbalance can be determined by the fact that Greece attracts more and more foreign investors, and they visit not only Athens, but also other large developed tourist cities. Another factor for the increase in price is that, if before the interest was from tourists, to date institutional investors predominate.
Undoubtedly, tourism has a significant impact on housing prices. Foreign buyers are also targeting properties on the large Greek islands, which offer good healthcare and convenient air connections. Among them are Corfu, Crete and Rhodes.
You can see detailed statistics on average property prices in Bulgaria by cities and neighborhoods HERE