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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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East Balkan storiesTwo stories coming from the Eastern Balkans can affect directly real estate markets in many countries in the region. First of them is that after more than 10 years of negotiations, Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece, have finally signed the agreement for building a new oil international pipeline, that will start from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas, and will end in the Greek Aegean Sea port of Alexandroupolis. The second one, is that after Romania became a EU member earlier this year, the number of Moldovans looking for Romanian citizenship has increased dramatically, making this neighboring country an ideal place for additional European expansion. Both events or rather processes have direct effects on the local economies, including on the land markets.
Burgas - Alexandroupolis pipelineFor the beginning of this project we must look at ... Turkey, the country that is located on the both sides of the straits linking Mediterranean and Black Sea. It was Ankara in the early 1990s that made the fateful decision to ask for limitation of tanker traffic going through the Straits, citing environmental concerns. The reason for this sudden ecological worry was to force the main international players to redirect the expected big Caspian oil toward less environmentally damaging and much more financially beneficial for Turkey road toward its Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Eventually the pipeline to Ceyhan was built, but this argument was used by Russia in order to force an alternative road bypassing Turkey from northwest, what we know now as Burgas - Alexandroupolis project.Enough with the oil. What's more important here regarding the real estate is that this new pipeline will pass through areas traditionally economically underdeveloped by both Bulgaria and Greece. The pipeline will pass just miles away in northwest of their national borders with Turkey. Buying out land in these areas in order to resell it at much higher prices once the project starts has begun in the 1990s. Now, when everybody expects to see the exact path of the pipe, the appetites for fast becoming millionaire will only get bigger. What once was economically abandoned land may arguably become among the most expansive agricultural land in both Bulgaria and Greece.
Moldovans becoming RomaniansThe exact scale of this phenomenon is still hard to assess. Nevertheless, if the Romanian politicians are to be trusted, up to a million citizens of Moldova have either applied for Romanian citizenship, or have already obtained it. For a country of slightly more than 4 million, some of which don't even live there permanently, this is huge. So huge that some politicians in Romania are already advancing 'heretical' ideas of peaceful reunification of the both countries. Romania has officially never recognized the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939, meaning the public opinion in this country may be ready to accept the idea of such reunification. Moldova, which otherwise will remain outside the EU indefinitely, may at the end also accept the idea, even more when the majority of its citizens 'vote' for it with their feet.What will be the consequences for the real estate in Moldova, assuming that it may become part of Romania, with or without Russian-speaking Transnistria region? The market impact will be positive, no matter whether the EU pours money or not for regional development. Moldova will stop being a 'no man's land' for investors, looking for political and other sorts of protections for their money. As a part of the EU/NATO zone, it will finally get market-friendly rules. The weakness of the EU right now may in fact be a good thing regarding such development. With nobody in the West loudly objecting this reunification, Romania and Russia may eventually find mutually acceptable 'solution' for Moldova.
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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Moldova.
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