Bulgarians drive real estate boom in seaside Kavala villages

Mariana Borikova ne'er imagined that when she arrived successful Ofrynio, successful Greece’s bluish metropolis of Kavala, successful 2001 – a 20-year-old from Sandanski, Bulgaria, seeking work successful the hospitality manufacture – she would 1 time co-manage 1 of the area’s astir salient existent property agencies alongside a chap compatriot.

Stylish and smiling, she welcomes us successful a agelong light-blue formal astatine her modern, coastal-road office. In fluent Greek, she recalls how, when she archetypal arrived successful Ofrynio – the seaside colony of Kavala, known locally arsenic Touzla – it struck her arsenic a beauteous and peaceful place, cleanable for household vacations. These qualities, combined with the area’s proximity to galore Bulgarian cities – conscionable 3.5 hours from Sofia – attracted galore Bulgarian visitors who initially came for holidays and aboriginal returned to acquisition homes. Borikova noticed a spread successful connection betwixt sellers and buyers and, thanks to her cognition of Bulgarian, began working professionally successful existent property transactions.

Interest successful vacation flat purchases began, arsenic she describes, astir 10 years ago. However, conscionable earlier and during the Covid pandemic, it escalated into a frenzy. “Just earlier the coronavirus, it was madness. Properties were being bought via video calls. That’s however we made the sales,” she emphasizes. The request became so precocious that today, there are virtually nary ready-to-build plots near on the Ofrynio coastline.

From tourists to buyers

A stroll on the formation makes the trend clear. On the seaside plots, some are under construction, with monolithic excavators moving soil and clouding the air, while others already big small, recently built homes – a caller town rising supra the old. On plots where thing is yet underway, dreams are connected sale. Large posters featuring models of “vacation apartments” committedness a summertime phantasy successful English, often showing a smiling couple: “First you autumn successful love. Then you invest. This is the formation of Ofrynio.”

The connection has intelligibly resonated. Bulgarians present marque up the largest stock of second-home owners. According to a Bulgarian quality site, Greece remains their top choice, and by the extremity of past year, 3,228 Bulgarian citizens had declared spot successful the country. Real property agents and contractors successful Kavala study that fractional of their clients are Bulgarian, buying homes and plots on the full coastal enactment from Nea Peramos and Irakleitsa to Ofrynio, extending adjacent into upland villages up to 20 kilometers from the sea.

Those working successful hospitality and tourism mostly view the trend positively. However, galore locals consciousness somewhat uneasy, arsenic their villages are filled for 5 months of the year with Bulgarian tourists who person present go clients, neighbors, and sometimes adjacent employers. Their unease is not conscionable astir the usual challenges of tourism successful Greece – traffic, noise, and unit connected constricted infrastructure. A caller section paper header read: “You nary longer find Greeks successful Touzla – Bulgarians and Turks person taken implicit Ofrynio beach.” Similar sentiments are often overheard successful restaurants and cafes.

I stock this interest with Borikova, and she responds thoughtfully: “In a tourist area, it’s earthy that there are much tourists. Isn’t it the aforesaid connected an island?” I inquire locals, “If they were Germans, would it fuss you arsenic much?” They reply with disarming honesty: “No.”

Prices skyrocketed

Ritsa Karagiannidou, an experienced designer and engineer, tries to weigh the positives against the negatives. The surge successful request from the Bulgarian marketplace was 1 of the main factors driving merchantability prices up, making available plots progressively scarce. As she notes, successful already tourist-developed areas similar Nea Peramos, prices person doubled. Even much melodramatic is the emergence successful settlements such arsenic Touzla, where implicit the past decade, prices person acold exceeded expectations: From €900 per square meter, the mean spot merchantability terms has surged to €2,500 per square meter. “There was a benignant of free-for-all,” Karagiannidou explains, adding that successful the aboriginal stages, Bulgarians often bought plots astatine prices supra their existent value, pushing the marketplace upward.

On a walk adjacent Nea Peramos, we spotted a crippled advertizing the operation of luxury homes with pools and garages. The foundations hadn’t adjacent been laid, yet each the properties were sold but for 1 300-square-meter villa, priced astatine €1.2 million. According to Karagiannidou, successful the beginning, galore buyers arrived with “black money,” but nowadays, astir couples either use their savings oregon take retired loans. Increasingly, buyers are looking for concern properties they tin rent retired short-term when not utilizing them themselves.

This upward trend has besides impacted Greeks who had hoped to bargain homes successful the country astatine initially much affordable prices, while simultaneously driving up rental costs. A well-known section concealed is that some of these properties are rented done informal websites, illegally, creating unfair contention for Greek short-term rental operators and hoteliers. At the aforesaid time, Karagiannidou admits, adjacent the particulate from a tourist’s shoes – paraphrasing a section saying – brings economical benefits to a place.

Historical reflexes

Trying to explicate the sometimes antagonistic cognition of locals toward Bulgarians, she refers to the area’s caller history. “Here, we didn’t person Germans; we had Bulgarians. There are memories. I knew radical who suffered due to the fact that of Bulgarians. I don’t want to beryllium intolerant, but present a Bulgarian comes with a flashy, costly αυτοκίνητο and the aerial of a cardinal to amusement off? If it were an Italian, it would person been much acceptable.”

These humanities memories transportation acold little weight with the younger generation, who spot the hold of the tourist play thanks to their bluish neighbors. On a weekday successful mid-September, each the tables astatine Nikos Kourkoumbas’ edifice successful Irakleitsa are full, and each the customers are speaking Bulgarian. A fewer years ago, such a country would person lasted astatine astir until the extremity of August.

“We’re fortunate to person them,” says the 24-year-old who runs the household business, a food store where food is grilled and served. “I’ve adjacent learned Bulgarian, retired of respect for the customer.”

Maria Davidova often comes to devour astatine the store and has known the proprietor since helium was a child. “Niko! Maria (his mother). You are similar family. You cognize it! I sent my friends present the different time to eat. They took it backmost to Bulgaria. Your food is so good!” She archetypal visited with her girl 15 years agone and has spent each summertime present since. The cleanable sea, tranquility, Greek lifestyle, and bully nutrient won her over, and present she considers Irakleitsa her 2nd home. Some years ago, she decided to bargain an apartment. “The archetypal clip I came, my girl didn’t similar it. She asked why we came to such a small village. And now, look astatine however galore houses person been built. It’s for the bully of the area,” she says.

Kourkoumbas believes the accomplishment of Bulgarian investors and buyers came too aboriginal and too abruptly, earlier the country had a accidental to put successful offering a prime tourist merchandise oregon pull a antithetic illustration of visitors. When asked astir the downsides, helium diplomatically notes that Bulgarian clients whitethorn necessitate much effort than Western Europeans. “But there’s not overmuch we tin bash close now. We are spectators! We conscionable adapt.”