Vesela Ilieva: Prime property is unique and special

Vesela Ilieva is General Manager of Unique Estates, an agent in the luxury real estate segment, which is part of Christie’s Great Estates international network. She has 8 years of experience in the sector, four of them on management positions at AG Capital, the largest Bulgarian real estate service group. Ms. Ilieva is a member of RICS (the British Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), one of the most influential organizations in the real estate sector.

The real estate market has changed in the last couple of years: luxury residential projects are now developed but there are still problems involving infrastructure and transport access to the properties that have yet to be solved. The wealthy have more requirements towards the quality and extras of new builds. They expect the homes to meet their expectations and have individual criteria for locations, streets, addresses, views, environment, luxury common areas, neighbors, proximity of parks, infrastructure. On the whole, there is rising interest in single-family houses with yards of more than 1,000 sq m but there are hardly any available.
I do not assume that the luxury segment will come to a saturation point as these properties are not mass products and developers of luxury projects are few. The sector is yet to develop and attract buyers and investors. Prime property is special, unique and differs from mass real estate supply.
The banking system in Bulgaria is relatively stable so the mortgage crisis that affected the US and the UK has produced no impact on the local real estate market, in particular in larger cities. In addition, higher interest rates have not affected people resolved to invest in real estate. Now most of the deals are conducted with bank loans. Generally, supply is higher than demand and some buyers prefer to wait for a while and see if anything changes before they invest.
However, luxury properties are the most stable real estate market segment, so investment in them always brings good returns.

Read more:
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