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Switch in Romanians' leisure homes preference

Until the outbreak of the real estate crunch, Spain had topped the preferences of Romanians interested in buying a leisure house abroad, but they now switched to Bulgaria, Dubai or Greece; bids also envisage the US, where the prices of houses hit by the subprime crisis slumped in certain areas by as much as 75 pct, writes the Capital weekly.

A market like Dubai's now appears tempting not only because of the intrinsic attractiveness of the area, but also due to the price rise potential, with the annual increase around 30 pct - according to representatives of the real estate agencies that sell property in the area. Depending on the specific location in Dubai, a 36 sq.m. studio costs around 70,000 euro, whereas a five bedroom home can exceed eight million euro. In Bulgaria, prices for a new single room (24 sq. m) start from 16,000 euro for a house that stands three km away from the seashore and can hit as much as 90,000 euro if the property lies 20 m from the beach. Romanian investors started eyeing Bulgaria's vacation houses after mid-2007. Property brokers say that around 9,000 Romanians own houses in Bulgaria, for which they paid in cash, by banking transfer or even by mortgage credits raised from Bulgarian banks that charge lower interests than Romanian peer institutions. Ioannis Panagiotidis, vice-president of the Greek company Panhol Development, says the Bulgarian market might be affected by the poor quality of property sold to foreign citizens. 'Many British citizens bought properties tempted exclusively by the low prices, but they later found the houses were not fit to live in and decided to sell. If more such cases occur, we might witness a considerable decrease in prices in the area,' says Panagiotidis. Sursa: http://www.rompress.ro

Tags: euro