Regional Chairman of the BCC Eng. Valentin Valev: In 2013 there will be shortage for homes near the sea
Eng. Valev, you held the first for the new 2012 year meeting of the managing board of the regional office of the Bulgarian Construction Chamber. How will the fact that you acquired a new home affect the organizational life? Do you collect more often and what initiatives are outlined? Our vision and dream to have a club for the builder has come true and our first initiative was the tasting of homemade wine by our members. We prepared the event at which we invited a special commission with a sommelier for wines to be evaluated and their properties in dignity and to make a ranking of the best. As you said hard years, the crisis affected most construction, especially near the sea, having in mind the paces until 2008. How are forecasts for this year outlined – is there more optimism in companies of the sector? The volume of construction continues to decrease. Some investors get away. There were projects to be completed – some were finished, others were frozen. I mean large construction sites. Housing construction continues to go on somehow – because there is a demand, people have to meet their needs but they are looking for very low prices - 500-600 euro per square meter built area. This is a difficult price because most of the compensations were made before the crisis. These terrains, which are now completed and built, were bought from the owners with compensations exceeding 30-40%. And now to sell finished apartments at 500-600 euro per square meter with the costs incurred and the high salaries given then is absolutely impossible. So now it is difficult to start new housing construction because owners who have land do not break below these prices taken before the crisis. If we have to meet the prices at which we sell, compensations should be 20%. But they do not agree to sell their property at these prices and this blocks new housing construction. Who benefited the most? The owners of property benefited the most. If profit in pure construction before the crisis was 20%, now it dropped to 7%. Are there many unsold homes? They are reducing because there is a demand. Anyone who sells in order to balance supply and demand cuts prices. But since a long time nothing new has been built I guess that this year and in 2013 there will be shortage for homes. In fact, migration from small towns to big cities continues and people come to seek work and housing respectively, to settle. Demand will increase.