James Flint at Sofia Casa knows all about the current market in Bulgaria. His Property Services Company has taken the rough with the smooth in recent times but is at least optimistic about what the future holds.

Sofia Casa continues to expect demand for competitively priced apartments in gated complexes such as 'Silver City' in Lozenets, offering spa & fitness facilities however the price point remains highly sensitive. The value added lifestyle facilities that gated Complex's such as 'Silver City' offers manage to differentiate your residential property investment in an otherwise highly comoditised off-plan buy-to-let market in much of Lozenets, with declining yields across the board. Such differentiators help you to shield investors from prolonged rental voids (untenanted periods) in time of crisis, however price is still very much the final motivator for many executives looking to rent in this tenant's market!

The 'Tulip' development about 1km further up the road from Silver City has also added to the competition for tenants in this segment as it offers modern gated style living and good gym/spa facilities to prospective tenants. We have recently let out a 1 bedroom apartment in the 'Tulip Complex'.

After a less than spectacular first 6 months in 2010 we are now starting to see slender signs of recovery in the rental market with more rental enquiries coming through to us however still mostly in the lower budget range of upto 400 Euros. Much of this is of course seasonally driven with foreign students particularily Greeks (despite the Hellenic melt down we have seen on the news!) still coming over to Bulgaria to seek a high quality but comparatively affordable education in Sofia. This particular segment is interesting for investment as leases tend to be upto 3 years giving opportunity for stable medium/long term return. Of course not at any price and the problem has always been getting suitable property at reasonable prices in central areas of Sofia.

Tenants with budgets from 650-850 Euros are currently looking for good deals on stylish 2 & 3 bed apartments in central locations such as the 'Golden Zone' (Zlatiya Zona) where most civic and cultural buildings are located.

For house rentals in mostly Southern parts of Sofia such as Boiana our experience is that budgets range from 950-2500 Euros topping out at around 3000 Euros/month. Such high flyers often get good relocation packages and can tend to bring their furniture with them from their last overseas posting.

We hope that signs of recovery in the rest of the EU will trickle through to Bulgaria with some stable growth in demand for rental units returning to the market by the end of Q2 2011.

James Flint www.sofiacasa.com