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Archived Articles
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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Russia: Market is looking downwardThe financial crisis, already deep in America and taking shape in Europe, is reaching as far east as Russia, where residential and commercial developers are already cutting activity and looking for better placements. For Russia the game is even more symbolic. After almost two decades of turbulent post-communist development, the real estate investment has remained a relative island of stability. Is it over? Now the Russian experts aren't discussing the possible trends, but just the amplitude of the coming market correction. This time they are talking about a real correction, after two mini-corrections in 1998 and 2004, which were provoked mainly not by the market, but by state mismanagement. Russian society had its real estate myths too. Myths about the unsinkable market; about the ever-growing prices; about the inexhaustible oil and mineral resources that will get more and more expensive on the international markets, thus eventually pulling up the market without any limits. Up until very recently, these myths represented common sense truths despite the sporadic warnings. This time it seems more serious; it's like the crumbling of century-old financial institutions on the other side of the Atlantic has convinced many that there are no unsinkable ships. Not in Russia, to be more precise. The signals that not everything is going well in Russia come from different directions. According to Russian sources, Fitch Ratings warned about financial overexposures of the Russian developers. According to the same sources, The Wall Street Journal predicted bankruptcies in the coming months, and Moody's Investors Service changed to negative the rating of the Russian banking system in general. These may be isolated events, with no link whatsoever with the future of the Russian residential or commercial real estate business. Taken together and in conjuncture with the recent global financial crisis, these warnings, however, affect deeply the trust of the investors. The bank consolidation in Russia is another phenomenon that doesn't make the investors calmer. No less than a dozen banks are considered problematic or experiencing significant problems with liquidity. The state so far is generous with the state-owned institutions, but some private banks may go under or face unfriendly takeovers. The problems elsewhere, however, may, unexpectedly, bring some comfort to the real estate business in Russia. With the world oil prices going down for some time, other investments may turn to be even riskier, thus making the real estate a safe place once more.
Russia profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Russia.
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