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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Belarus: What's going on out there?In the last couple of months I received some letters from our readers complaining about the lack of information on the Net about the situation on the real estate market (both residential and commercial) in Belarus. They said they were planning to buy or rent something there so for them it was crucial to obtain at least some fresh information about the country. Indeed I haven't mentioned Belarus since late 2000 so it was quite natural to look for updates and to see if there were any major changes on the real estate market there.
The Russians are comingThe last months have witnessed major positive moves on the commercial (office) market in the capital city of Minsk. If a year ago office space in the capital sold for $350 per sq.meter, today the average price has been increased to more than $450 per sq.meter. This move up will probably continue because the demand is three times higher than supply and now everything that can be used as office space (even private garages and the auxiliary rooms of the kindergartens) are turned into offices. There isn't sufficient new construction of new office buildings in the city and the government (notorious for its anti-business approaches) even doesn't try to improve this situation by creating better financial conditions for the office builders and developers.How do people on the ground explain this sudden up-turn on the office market? They say that the main reason behind this upswing is the massive influx of dirty Russian money for local laundering. Eastern European countries hoping to join the European Union have tightened the financial controls so the Russian mafia and semi legal businesses have fewer options to wash their millions even billions. Minsk is relatively a small market for such huge sums so the result is obvious. More cash means higher prices and rents for offices. On the other hand the local government, which wants to unite the republic with the Russian federation, simply can't oppose this financial invasion because this could risk hindering the process of integration. Thus we can only expect to see the office prices and rents go up.
Exclusive buyer representationWhat I consider the most interesting phenomenon in the residential market in Belarus and more exactly in Minsk, even more interesting than the price levels is the presence on the market of the companies that offer exclusive buyer services. In other words they promise to represent only the buyers, not the sellers. Of course they are not tied by any administrative rule set by the state legislature concerning the process of buyer's representation itself. But even if we have to trust only on their words, the fact remains that even in Belarus the new and modern approach is to offer the buyers exclusive services and not to represent uniquely the sellers in the transaction.
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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Belarus.
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