In the early 1980s, one could buy an apartment with 3 bedrooms on the Spanish Costa del Sol for 400,000 Pesetas (2,410 Euro) and for a similar price also an old house in one of the villages. Today the apartment on the coast may have a price tag of 350,000 Euro, and the house in the village even higher. A value increase of 163 times over 35 years.

Construction costs in Bulgaria, according to a number of sources, are between 200 and 600 Euro per overbuilt m², the lower end for standard dwellings and the upper end for luxury dwellings. The similar costs in Spain would span from 586 Euro per m² in standard dwellings, to 1,028 Euro for luxury dwellings (Boletin Economico de la Construccion, 2nd quarter 2006).

In the Sofia area, certain projects on the Black Sea and in the developments around the ski stations, sales prices have now reached and surpassed both 1,500 and 2,000 Euro per built m². But outside those pressure areas, sales prices for finished dwellings are still extremely low, the lowest in Europe.

The crisis has reduced building activity and prices in many places, especially the overbuilt tourist centers.