Christophe Gater, the agency's co-founder, talks to Hanna Lindon about his highs and lows with New Estate, and advises on where you should be putting your cash in the Bulgarian property sector.

How did New Estate Consultancy get started?
Me, Gorian a university friend, and two other Bulgarian friends, Tony and George, all founded the company two-and-a-half years ago. We all had business backgrounds in one form or another and whilst sitting in a coffee shop in Tooting one rainy afternoon we decided to pool our efforts and create New Estate Consultancy Ltd.

What made you pick the Bulgarian property market as the country to concentrate on?
When we first started the Bulgarian property market was just getting going but showed huge promise. There was a lack of British based companies and it was hard to find straight answers and honest prices. With the contacts and experience between us we knew that our multicultural team had a lot going for it and Bulgaria was the best place to start.

Tell me a little bit about how the company developed.
Well, we started off with nothing but four credit cards and four mobile phones between us. At first, we all had other full-time jobs. I was spending my lunch-hour in a phone box talking to customers, and all of us were spending every evening and weekend dealing with customers. On the first day of our website going live we had enquiries and within four weeks we had our first profitable customers. Five months later Tony went back to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia and set up an office there. Shortly after that came our London office and this year we have opened a new flagship office and showroom in Varna, which is now the hub of our operations.

But you must have had some problems while you were starting out?
Yes, the first year was very tough, hours were long, money was tight and social life was non existent. Where there wasn't one of us in Bulgaria, we employed family members that we knew we could trust and that cut out so many of the loyalty problems our competition faced. As with many new companies the biggest issue was financial: as we built the company from the ground up without loans or investors there were many months where none of us took a wage and everyone else always got paid before us.

How big is the company today?
Today New Estate is comprises 12 people in total, with three main Bulgarian property offices and a specific team for the Elhovo region.

Do you consider yourself to be one of the major players in the Bulgarian property market?
It's difficult to make a classification like that, but if you're basing it on who is going to be around in five or ten years then I would say yes. Eighty per cent of the businesses selling Bulgarian property today aren't sustainable and won't be around to provide after-sales services in the future. I would say that we were among the forerunners in the Bulgarian property market, and whilst some agencies have renovated one or two houses class themselves, not many have grown to undertake a 15 million euro development as we have (190 apartments built on one four-acre site).

What motivated the expansion from consultancy to developer?
There are two reasons really. The first is that there is a good business in selling, but there is more sustainability in development. It's a bigger part of the market and it will allow us to continue in this line of business for considerably longer. The second reason is that we saw a large part of the Bulgarian property market not being catered for. People want to buy an apartment under a deal where the mortgage and rental system is all included without having to pay fortunes for overpriced furniture packs or artificial rental guarantees. As such we developed 'Vantage Heights' where you need 40 per cent of the value and that's it; included is everything from the furniture to the bed linen, wine glasses and roasting dishes and a genuine rental guarantee.

What do you think you are able to offer your customers that your rivals can't?
We offer a level of honesty and decency that is tough to find, especially in the Bulgarian property sector. We won't sell anything that isn't right for the client as we can't afford to have our reputation tarnished. All of our customers are making money and that's a record we'll protect, even if it means not making 'easy sales' such as cheap but bad property investments in the Bulgarian area of Sunny Beach. Whilst we do provide holiday homes, renovations, etcetera, we specialise in investment property and as such we look at the risk and profitability first and foremost. The other considerable advantage is that we're based in the UK – we're a British limited company and anyone can come and see us at anytime and sit down face to face.

How do you see the company developing in the future?
I predict that we will continue to develop on a large scale, increasing the number of projects we have in both the ski and coastal resorts.

What kind of Bulgarian property would you recommend investors to put their money into?
It all depends on a few key factors: how much you want to spend, how long you want to be in the Bulgarian property market and if you want a rental income. For the best returns within three-to-five years a Bulgarian holiday property is undoubtedly the least risk and most stable investment. For those wanting to spend longer, lets say 15 years, but receive considerably less rental income (for the moment) then I would recommend commercial space in central Sofia. Either way, you must buy Bulgarian property at the top end of the, especially on the coast, if you want to see top end performance. 

Finally, what are your predictions regarding the future of the Bulgarian property market?
My prediction is that it the Bulgarian property market will continue to flourish for years yet, no doubt about it. Prices of Bulgarian property will continue to rise, probably at an average of 15 per cent per year on for the next 5 years.

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For further information about Bulgarian property:
New Estate 

Read other Bulgarian property articles:
Discovering Bulgaria's Black Sea coast
Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast excites Brits

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Article published on 17 May 2007