Archive for December, 2007
Thursday, December 27th, 2007
Beachfront land in Bulgaria rezoned for commercial development to January 1, 2008
Not surprisingly, many owners of coastal area farmland properties have seized the window of opportunity afforded to them by the delayed entry into force of the new Black Sea Coastline Development Act to have their plots rezoned for commercial development, a Dnevnik survey found. The asking sale price for beachfront properties with good infrastructure and zoning approval will jump after the the January 1, 2008 enforcement of the new legislation, said local realtors.
Saturday, December 15th, 2007
The Real Estate Mafia in Bulgaria and Its Schemes
Dozens of people become victim of the so called real estate mafia in Bulgaria every year, losing their properties in their desperate need to get money cash as soon as possible. But the results are shocking - the owners pawn flats or houses, whose value is set at hundreds of thousands Euro to receive some half of this sum immediately. Besides such “services” are at a high rate of interests. Of course, everybody, who takes such a risk, hopes he is to get his property back right after he pays off his debts. But often that is not the case… At least not in Bulgaria…
Police probes proved that some owners of pawnbroker’s have up to 15 properties registered in their names. Contracts however show that these flats have actually been pawned and according to the law they should not be transferred to the “brokers”. Suspicious foreign jobbing-houses, taxi drivers, change bureaus or Bulgarian nationals, who work abroad often play the roles of such “brokers”. They even use forged documents to sell to ordinary people mortgaged properties. Only 500 out of about 1400 jobbing-houses are legally working. The rest perform such activities without paying any taxes or insurances to their employees.
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Thursday, December 13th, 2007
Eco-Complex Black Sea Gardens will be built at Bulgarian Coast
A unique and extremely luxurious residential complex, the Black Sea Gardens, will be built at the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Especially for Bulgaria, superstar architect Sir Norman Foster has designed eco-houses that pick up the breeze and collect sunrays at their verandas. Black Sea Gardens will not be a resort only but also a residential complex, a car-free zone. Thus it will be absolutely unpolluted as no waste gases will be emitted in the area. The complex will be built on 200 ha to the north of the town of Biala, on the seashore. It will house five separate “villages”. Norman Foster explained that Black Sea Gardens would combine Bulgaria’s unique nature and the typically 18-century Bulgarian terraced streets.
“This is a world project that aims at preserving the environment,” explained architect Georgi Stanishev, head of the International Architecture Academy and brother of Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev. Sergey Stanishev visited the National Foreign Art Gallery to meet with Foster. The PM was interested in the models for the complex. Investment has been found but it is still unclear when the Black Sea Gardens will be constructed.
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