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The third quarter turned out to be weaker than the second in terms of housing transactions, rather than the other way around. PHOTO: “24 HOURS”
Less sales are also made in agricultural areas
Predictions that the coronavirus pandemic will have a negative impact on the housing market have already come true. In the third quarter, which is generally among the strongest in this market, the number of transactions registered in the Registry Agency fell to 37,667, representing a decrease of 31.6% compared to the same quarter of the year past.
In the second quarter, which passed entirely under the sign of the state of emergency, the annual decrease was 28%, according to agency data, through which all real estate transactions were carried out – for homes, businesses, offices, warehouses and agricultural land.
In large cities, where the real estate market is mainly housing, the annual decline is more or less the same, with the strongest in the capital – 35.8% compared to the third quarter of 2019. In the three months – July, August and September, in Sofia there were only 4412 real estate transactions, and they are fewer even than in the second quarter, when there were 6352, instead of the other way around. In practice, this is the quarter with the fewest number of real estate deals in the capital since 2014, when the market was just beginning to recover from the global financial and economic crisis. This applies to the whole country, ie. the real estate market practically goes back 6 years.
In Plovdiv, the drop in the third quarter compared to a year ago was 26.5%. In Varna, the contraction is 27% and in Burgas, 28.6%.
The situation of the mortgages constituted is identical to that of the number of operations carried out. Across the country in the third quarter there were 6,797 registered mortgage loans, that is. there is a decrease of 38.7% compared to the third quarter of last year. The drop was 33% in the second quarter.
If we compare the last nine months of 2020 with the same months of 2019, the drop in established mortgages is 24.3%. It should be noted that these figures do not equal the number of mortgages granted, but only the mortgages that were active during this period. At some point, many mortgages may have been paid off early or due to expiration of the term and then come off the statistics.
In any case, the trend of mortgages is the same in the big cities. In Plovdiv, for example, the number of active mortgages in the third quarter was 40.5% lower than the previous year. In Varna, the decrease is 36.3% and in Burgas, 30.5%. However, only in Burgas they increased slightly compared to the previous quarter, by 10.7%.
The data shows that not only the housing market is affected, but also transactions with farm land and farm buildings. In the Registry Agency offices in typical agricultural areas such as General Toshevo, Omurtag, Popovo, Aytos and many others, there is also a large decrease in registered transactions. In General Toshevo it is 35% annually, in Popovo – 36.9%, in Aytos – 40% and in Omurtag 55.7%.
So far, the price drop is much slower than in the agreements concluded. According to the latest data from the INE for the second quarter, house prices fell only 1.1% compared to the previous quarter.
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