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Interviews

27.10.2011

Management of gated communities requires a legal change

Inj. Borislava Zaharieva, Lindner Immobilien Management

AUTHOR: publics.bg

How does the gated communities real estate market with look like at the moment? Is there some movement in this area?

- According to new marketing studies real estate purchases are made mainly in complete projects because they are more secure. The property sales in Residential Park Sofia are healthy and we continue having stability in the realized deals.

My explanation for this is that the buyers are more critical with their choice and have more requirements from a property. We are able to cover these requirements thanks to the quality, the provided complete infrastructure and facility management, and the good location. Opposite to other residential complexes and residential buildings where the investor manages the project only to the point when the property is sold, we continue our presence in the project. And it’s no accident that we put an accent on the cosiness and the peacefulness of the family background. Our perceived and fulfilled goals in this project are distinguishing us from the others and provide us with sales these days.

What are the most common problems you encounter in Residential Park Sofia?

- Thanks to the frequent preventive actions and our everyday presence and control in the complex, we don’t have many or unsolvable problems. Taking into account the scale of the residential park which is a whole residential district, problems are inevitable but we cope with them on time. What is important for us is not to allow problems and compromise with the cleanness, security or the good look of Residential Park Sofia. For example we take effort to keep the plants in the complex in a good condition but we have some problems because of the relatively strong winds at the foot of Vitosha mountain. Nevertheless our effort is worth and we see good results. We stand up for the name Sofia Park.

There are also two more problems here, which are common for whole Sofia. On first place these are the stray dogs that sometime enter the complex and unfortunately there is no institution which can react as quickly as we would like to. As far as it concerns the measures undertaken in this direction by Sofia Inspectorate I don’t think the practice to send the animal back to the street after castration and parasite treatment is right. That’s the same like if I put my dog in your yard and fine you when you don’t take care of it well – that’s what our provisions actually do. The next problem are the utilities and the activities around the complex. I hope that as the area yet gets urbanized the administration will pay more attention to snow removal, transportation and illegal parking. At the moment for the comfort of our residents and our staff we provide all these public services on our own.

How do you tackle the biggest problem in all residential properties – the maintenance fee collection?

- The complex started to operate in 2009. Since then we've been providing the management and maintenance services. For this period we have the following statistics:

For 2009 and 2010 we don’t have any uncollected fees. In 2011 taking into account the economic downturn we try to be more flexible – we allowed payment by installments for some of our residents who were affected in some way by the economic situation in the country. As a result we don’t have uncollected payments for the first half of the year.

Of course we have a contractual mechanism which guarantees the payment collection with the help of specialized companies, but we are happy that we have used their services only once.

Do you think that there should be legal changes to make the management of residential property and the fee collection easier?

- There definitely is a need for legal changes for gated communities of our scale. As far as I know we are the only of our kind here. Actually we are a “city within a city” and this demands such changes. The decrees should take into account that the management board of the companies which provide facility management does a work similar to the duties of the municipal mayors. I think that there should be given more mechanisms and administrative rights to the companies managing residential property. The Condominium Property Act is the only legal act concerning the term “gated community”, but this is not a complete picture and is not enough.

I will give you an example to illustrate the need to think about a change in the law. In my opinion all property owners in a gated community with its own internal infrastructure and which provides services such as snow removal, should have their waste treatment fee paid to the Sofia municipality decreased. Every owner of an apartment in a gated community with a professional management and support should pay lower waste treatment fees, because the owner receives less service from the municipally in comparison to owners of traditional residential property.

What are your future plans for development in Bulgaria?

- Looking in the short term we plan to finalize the project Residential park Sofia, which has only its first phase complete. After the financial situation stabilizes in the country and in Europe we will execute the second and third phases of the project. Undoubtedly there is a demand for such types of property on the real estate market and we look upon this as a good possibility to improve ourselves as a team and prove ourselves as professionals in the area of managing residential property.

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Inj. Borislava Zaharieva is a construction engineer and has graduated in the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Sofia as a hydrotechnical facilities specialist and has specialized in water power plants and cascades.

Borislava has a long experience in the National Construction Supervision Directorate in Sofia. She has worked as a property management expert in Glavbolgarstroy Holding.

At the moment Borislava occupies a property management position in Lindner Immobilien Management and is a vice chair of the management board of Residential Park Sofia Facility Management AD.