«Why is your new build fifteen thousand cheaper than a finished apartment? Is something wrong with it?»
Nothing is wrong. These are two different products, and people usually compare them by a single number in the listing. I am breaking it down on apartments that are in our database right now, all prices checked today. To keep the comparison honest I took six apartments in one place — Sunny Beach, three in new complexes and three in finished buildings.
One location, the same square metres, different money
A studio in the new J'adore Blanc complex — 35.36 m², 54,808 euro, 625 metres to the beach. That is 1,550 euro per square metre.
A studio in Cascadas, a finished building — 31 m², 68,500 euro. That is 2,210 euro per metre.
The second studio in Cascadas is twice as close to the sea, 514 metres, and it is bigger: 37 m² for 69,900 euro. That is 1,890 euro per metre.
The gap per metre is three to six hundred euro. On the whole apartment it is around fifteen thousand. Now about what that difference actually buys.
What you pay extra for in a finished building
Furniture. All three Cascadas apartments have it and it is included in the price. Both new builds are sold turnkey — that means finished walls and floors, but no furniture. Furnishing a studio for rental costs real money, and it is not five hundred euro.
A building you can see with your own eyes. Not a render and not a pit in the ground, but the entrance, the lift, the pool, the neighbours and the real view from the window rather than the one drawn on the plan.
A move-in date. It is today.
And income that starts with the coming season, not after the building is handed over.
What you pay extra for in a new build
Here it is the other way round — there is nothing extra to pay, you get in cheaper. In exchange, you wait.
You get a building with no history: new pipes, new lift, new roof. By the sea this is not a small thing — salt eats a building faster than in town, and repairs to the common parts are sooner or later paid for by the owners.
You choose the floor and the view while the complex is still not sold out. In a finished building you take what is left.
And you get in at the starting price. The new build listings say exactly that — «starting prices from». As construction moves on the developer raises them, which is normal practice on the coast.
Ready-to-move furnished homes — resale apartments by the sea.
The maintenance fee — count it before you buy, not after
This is the line people forget most often. You pay it every year for as long as the apartment is yours, whether you live in it or not.
In Cascadas it is set out neatly: 527 euro a year for a 31 m² studio, 629 euro for 37 m², 1,156 euro for a 68 m² apartment. Everywhere it works out at 17 euro per square metre per year.
In J'adore Blanc it is 15 euro per metre per year. In La Mer Home 3 there is no maintenance fee at all, and that is written into the terms. This is rare, and worth a close look.
The difference between 17 and 15 euro per metre looks like pennies on a studio. Over ten years of ownership it adds up to an extra thousand euro.
So what should you buy
The answer comes down to one question: when does the apartment have to start giving money back.
You need it next summer — buy finished. A furnished studio rents from day one, and the extra you paid comes back gradually through rent while the new build is still under construction.
You are in no hurry and buying for the future — take the new complex. The entry price is lower, the building is new, and you get in at the starting price.
What not to do is buy a complex under construction counting on «I will rent it out next summer already». It almost never works out that way, and the disappointment then gets blamed on the market, when the real issue was the timeline.
The apartments from this breakdown
New complexes: the studio in J'adore Blanc for 54,808 euro, the studio in La Mer Home 3 for 55,540 euro and the one-bedroom apartment in La Mer Home 3 for 79,760 euro.
Finished buildings with furniture: the 31 m² studio in Cascadas for 68,500 euro, the 37 m² studio in Cascadas for 69,900 euro and the 68 m² one-bedroom apartment for 125,000 euro.
The rest of the coast is in the catalogue.
If you are looking at new builds — see new-build apartments by the sea in Bulgaria.
