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21/03/07

The SJH Gallery has been updated with new photos.

A flyer has been released for St John Palace (the 7M hotel previously designated as St John Castle).

7M are in advanced negotiations with a number of leading tour operators and expect to issue full details with regards to rental agreements and furniture packages before the end of April

 

27/02/07

The SJH Gallery has been updated with some photos from February kindly supplied by Vera at 7M Property Partners.

Steve advises the following regarding the web cams:

“The problem with the cameras is that there is an incredible amount of dust onsite because of the construction (Park has also started) and this ruins both the computer and the cameras. Even thought they are protected in a box the dust still gets inside.

I just came back from Bansko yesterday and I took some images of the site – pls see attachmnts. Things are progressing very well.

The EU championship in biathlon was great. There is a new ice rink on Bansko.”

 

02/02/07

The SJH Gallery has been updated with some photos from mid-January kindly supplied by Steve at ExperienceBG.

Steve advises that he expects to have full details of furniture and the rental program from 7M by the end of February

04/01/07

Not a lot to update you on at the moment. Details of furniture packs should arrive soon. The SJH Gallery has been updated with more pictures to follow in January.

 

09/07/06

I stumbled across the following Divx animation on the Nola7 website:

It's a large file giving a virtual tour around the Spa and Wellness Centre, in a similar fashion to the Development fly-around movie supplied by Emerging Real Estates.

I have created a couple of lower resolution versions of the Spa movie and uploaded them here:

Get booking your massages now!

We’re off back to Bansko on 11 August for 5 days so I’ll update the site afterwards.

10/05/06

Commencement of Construction

A recent email from ExperienceBG attached the following announcement from 7M Property Partners:

ANNOUNCEMENT

Construction Works
St. John Hill SPA and Wellness Centre
Bansko, Bulgaria

7M Property Partners would like to notify all clients that the construction works for the St. John Hill SPA and Wellness Centre in Bansko officially started on May 2nd, 2006. The officially appointed construction company is Balkanstroy AD. For your convenience, by the 17th May two real-time web-cameras will be installed on site throughout the duration of the construction works and will be available on: www.7mpropertypartners.com.

Second Payments – Phase I Clients

For clients who purchased in Phase I, elevation 0 of sections A-D will be reached on 2nd of September 2006, and for sections E-K on 2nd August 2006. As per your contract, as soon as elevation 0 is reached, you will receive by e-mail a protocol for the issuance of certificate for elevation 0. As within the specified period in your contract after receiving this protocol second payment will be due.

7M Property Partners would like to assure you that we have taken all measures with the construction company to secure a smooth and timely construction process and that the May 2007 deadline for completion of the entire development will be met.

The actual attached document is available here:

    St John Hill Commencement of Construction Works.doc (44Kb)

Development Fly-by Movie

Emerging Real Estate have provided their clients with a disc that includes a fly-by of the development (architects impression etc). Thanks to Jon and Dom for letting me know, and thanks to Martin of Emerging Real Estate for send a copy to me.

The fly-by is available for download as DivX files here:

    St John Hill Fly-by - High resolution (33,191Kb)
    St John Hill Fly-by - Low resolution (5,132Kb)

Kind regards

Justin

24/04/06

A recent email response from 7M Properties confirmed the following:

Construction of St John Hill has now been decided on and will start on the 5th May 2006..

Based on our practice and the experience of the construction company that we have chosen, we have jointly decided to take quality time to map in detail all the specifications of the various stages of the construction process, which we strongly believe will guarantee the smooth construction process in the future. Once again, I would like to reiterate that we do not expect any delays in the completion date - May 2007.

7M are also opening an off at 75 Pirin Street, Bansko. It was furnished but closed when we were there over Easter.

Like all of you, I can’t wait to see the development progressing via the two web cams.

I’ve added a Gallery page to the site for Bansko images and videos, please feel free to send on any that you would like to add.

Kind regards

Justin

29/03/06

A brochure is available for St John Park on the Emerging Real Estates web site:

On the last page it shows the relative locations of the St John Hill and St John Park complexes:

St_John_Village_Map03

St John Park is North of St John Hill and further down the actual hillside. I understand that the hotel planned by 7M Properties (St John Castle) will be North of St John Park. Our views of the Pirin mountain range should remain unaffected by these developments.

During the last few days I have received a receipt from 7M Properties for the first instalments (via ExperienceBG).

I am currently awaiting a response from 7M Properties regarding commencement of the construction work by Balkanstroy and a go-live date for the two on-site web cams. I’ll update you as soon as I know.

Finally, something that I previously overlooked uploading... Tom kindly sent the following interesting link:

From the Themes and Attractions section it looks like we have bought at the right side of the town!

16/03/06

Updates

The following comments are from 7M Properties are in response to an email that our fellow investor Dominic recently sent to them:

Dominic’s Enquiry:

I'm wondering if you can help update up with the development at St Johns Hills, I believe that development was due to start at the beginning of March, yet we havn't heard anything about it and nothing mentioned on the web site or through our reps about when development will commence.

I've tried to email 7m directly using their website , but not received a response.

I am also wondering now if the 2nd payment stage date is still required in March? or will this now be changed since phase 1 of the  development work as not
begun yet to my knowledge.

Is the development still going to be completed for May 2007 deadline?

When is development work going to be begin?

What is the estimated date for investors to make the 2nd payment?

If you could let me know I will pass this information on to fellow st johns investors.

7M Response:

We have been very busy preparing for the Homebuyer Show next week in London. Let me take this opportunity to invite you to stand number 336 should you wish to meet representatives of 7M.

Thank you for bringing our attention to the email problem on our website. It has now been sorted out and all correspondence is directed to a colleague of mine.

I would like to let you know that by the 15th March 2006 the municipality of Bansko has banned all construction works because of the high season of the resort. So far the indications are that the banned period will be until the 15th March despite the heavy snow and the high number of tourists in Bansko.

By the 20th March 2006 the construction company chosen for St John Hill, namely Balkanstroy, will let us know how long the mobilisation period will last for them after the banned period expires. As soon as we have agreed upon a date for the ground breaking ceremony for St John Hill, we will let you know. Please be reminded that two real time web cameras will be installed on the site in Bansko and linked to www.7mpropertypartners.com.

Regarding second payment, it is expected not earlier than April 30th 2006. As per the contract, you will be notified by email that the foundations are completed (you will also be sent a protocol certifying
this) and from that point of time you will have one week to pay the second installment. For your convenience in addition we will also ask your agent to notify you 20 days in advance of completion of foundations.

We would like to assure you that we do not expect any delays in the completion date for the development - May 2007.

I also raised a separate enquiry regarding the heating within the apartments:

My Enquiry:

I would be grateful if you could confirm whether the apartments have central heating or electric radiators, and also how the common parts will be heated. Section 6 of Appendix A of the preliminary contract states:

Heating – fully constructed piping, import aluminium radiators, electric boiler installed;

As piping is referred to it intimates that central heating would be installed, however, I note that the ExperienceBG website refers to adjustable electric radiators (http://www.experiencebg.co.uk/index.php?contentkey=71) which will prove expensive to use.

I would personally prefer central heating and would be grateful if you could confirm which is correct

7M Response

I would like to clarify that the heating system at St John Hill will work in the following way. Each apt will be heated individually by a separate electric water heated system and will have radiators in the rooms. The piping that you mention as stated in the contract refers to the connection between the radiator and the water heating devise and does not imply central heating. Calculations show that heat losses are higher for central electrical systems than for individual heating systems based in each apt. The individual based system also assures owners that their electrical bills will be calculated in a much more precise way.

All common parts such as reception area, restaurant and SPA will be heated in the same manner.

Also, our fellow owner Tom has recently been to Bansko and has sent back the following snaps and video:

    Video of St John Hill (997Kb - Divx)

    View of Bansko (520Kb)

Thanks to Dominic and Tom for sharing with us and I’ll be updating the site again after my trip to Bansko from 9 - 16 April.

10/02/06

Construction Update

The following comments are from 7M Properties are in response to an email that I recently sent to them:

When in Bansko please feel free to pop by our newly opened office on the main street of Bansko called Pirin Str – this is the street that connects the so-called old and the new town, and it is close to the Kempinski Hotel on the opposite side of the road.

Regarding your question on the construction, we have finalised negotiations with the construction company. We have not started construction because of the amount of heavy snow that Bansko has recently received and the cold temperatures. We expect construction to start in the last few days of the month or early March as soon as the weather conditions are suitable. The weather impact has been estimated in the construction timescale for St John Hill and we do not expect any delays in terms of the completion date May 2007.

Also, we are currently working on installing two web cameras at the St John Hill location which will be linked to our website: http://7mpropertypartners.com/ . These will be up and running by the time construction begins, so please feel free to check our website for real-time images.

24/01/06

Golden Tulip Hotels to manage St John Hill

ExperienceBG advise us that St John Hill will operate under the Golden Tulip Hotel franchise.

Those buying as a revenue investment will be pleased to know that they should be able to benefit from rental income immediately via the rental management scheme with Golden Tulip.

If you are like us and keeping it for friends and family to use (at least for the first year) then don’t worry as it’s only an option to join the scheme as opposed to an obligation.

Bansko on TV

Bansko was featured on Holiday 2006 (BBC1) on Monday 16 January. I have uploaded the section here as a DivX movie file:

Bansko is also due to appear on BBC2’s “Pay off your mortgage in two years” on 16 February 2006. More information is available here:

 

07/01/06

A Happy New Year to all investors in St John Hill

I am advised by 7M Properties that building works are to commence on 1 February 2006. They also inform me that a live web cam trained on the development will be available via their web site.

I have finally got around to uploading a few recent articles, one of which is not so nice reading:

  • Double Your Money in 3 Years (A Place in the Sun Magazine - Sep 2005 (2,120Kb)
  • Buy off-plan... Ski for free - Sunday Mirror Magazine - Dec 2005 (804Kb)
  • Kidnapping - The Sun - 22 Dec 2005 (176Kb)
  • Bulgaria... all a matter of timing - A Place in the Sun Magazine - February 2006 (248Kb)

(Some other articles exist in the Links page).

Finally, we (Mum, Wife, Son and I) are visiting Bansko from 9th to 16 April 2006 so if you’re in the area let me know and we can share a rakia or two. I’ll add some media updates to the site on our return.

Latest Updates

27/11/05

Here are some questions raised by one of our fellow investors and replies directly from 7M Properties:

Please can you give detailed reasons as to why the apartment has been reduced in size

I would like to apologize on behalf of the firm for any confusion caused with calculating the areas of your apartment. By law, all Bulgarian developers are obliged to split the common parts of buildings among the owners of apartments. The calculation that splits the common areas among apartments is performed by a licensed company as per regulation. The areas above are the final calculations made by such a company. Any changes in the allocation are due to the fact that the areas offered originally to you by our sales agent were rough calculations performed by the architect intended to give the client an idea of how much common parts will be allocated to the particular apartment. Being an off-plan development, the plans that you first saw needed to go through several authorities for approval.

Following the final calculations made by the licensed firm and the approval of the project from the required authorities, there have been small changes in splitting the common parts and no changes at all in the actual sizes of the living areas of all apartments. We are proud to be working with a leading Bulgarian architect Mr. Tashev and his studio “Arka”, who recently designed the 5* Kempinski Hotel in Bansko and who did a very elaborate plan for us for the St John Hill development.

7M have been giving conflicting advice with respect to phase 2 of the development (for example they told our solicitors that it had not been sold to a single investor) We are concerned that 7M is "changing the goalposts" to favour the larger investor. Have you any comments in respect of this matter?

For your information, we have recently executed a deal whereby we have sold the second phase of St John Hill to a large investor. I would like to assure you that we would not favour in any way the needs and interests of the large investor over those of the end clients such as yourself. We have twelve years of experience in the development market. This is a long term business for our company and because of that we take pride in the good relationship that we have with our clients and the reputation of 7M Property Partners that comes from it. We would do everything possible to assure you of the integrity and loyalty that we have to our clients.

We are aware of a rumour that 7M intend to "flip" the development (i.e. pull out of the current agreement, compensate the purchaser and sell the apartments on at a higher price). Are you aware of this ?

We have no intentions whatsoever of flipping the development. By selling the second phase to a single investor, we sought to achieve a balance between selling apartments to end users through our UK agents and selling apartments on a wholesale basis to a larger investor. We are very happy with the balance that we have achieved and we will continue to work actively in making St John Hill the leading development in Bansko.

We are concerned about the fact that 7M will not negotiate on access to the Spa facilities. We understand that investors in other developments (e.g. Luxor) have access to the equivalent facilities and we can see that this may make St John Hill less attractive in the rental market

In respect to the access to SPA facilities, I would like to explain to you what our thinking is behind the decision that we took:

As you know, we have been having discussions regarding the discount on the SPA facilities for owners of apartments and regarding the initial proposed maintenance fee, at the high end of the market, of 11 €/m2. Following careful considerations and in order to satisfy different requests by clients (some wanting to use the SPA centre with privileges, others complaining of the high maintenance fee saying they do not want to use the SPA and that they visit Bansko to ski mainly) we have decided on the following fair in our opinion solution:

  • Maintenance fee for the St John Hill development will be 7 €/m2 per year without VAT, a fee at the lower end of the market. Maintenance fee shall include all standard services (detailed list will be included in the contract) including free use of parking lots and free shuttle bus,
     
  • All SPA facilities will be charged for all at market prices as per standard international practice and defined by the SPA management company close to launch of operation of the facility. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that charges for using the SPA in Bulgaria are in general lower than those in the UK,
     
  • Owners of apartments and their family members shall be entitled to free use of the fitness centre for a period of 30 days per calendar year.

We have selected to offer free use of the fitness centre, as opposed to some other SPA facility such as the swimming pool for example, because the fitness centre is on a separate floor and this makes it the only facility where we can exercise control on the access of people. If we were to offer free swimming pool, it would be impossible to control the access to the rest of the facilities since they are all in the same hall. On this link: http://design.nola7.com/7m/, you will find a detailed map of the SPA floor plans where you can see that the Wellness Centre containing the saunas and the Swimming pool are accessible though a common entrance. Moving the swimming pool to a different level was not an option because of the heavy installations that come with it. The fitness hall on the other side is on a separate floor and has a separate reception area whereby we can control without any problems the access of owners of apartments versus the people who are renting the apartments.

 

Personally, the responses make me feel more assured regarding the development.

17/11/05

Here are some comments from a recent email from 7M Properties that you may wish to know:

Insolvency Insurance

“Insolvency insurance is not offered in the contract and in fact is not a practice among Bulgarian developers. The fact that you are not paying a 100% of the sum at the beginning also makes such a insurance not viable. We do have to pay clients penalty for delays in the construction however as per the contract.”

Further 7M Developments in Bansko

“We sold the second phase of the St John Hill to a large investor. We have other developments in Bansko coming up and we will be uploading information on these on our corporate website.”

Here are scans of flyers I was given by 7M regarding St John Hill and two other neighbouring developments:

  • St John Hill Brochure (2.4Mb)
  • St John Hill Flyer (308Kb)
  • St John Park Flyer (372Kb)
  • St John Castle Flyer (262Kb)

 

17/11/05

Preliminary Contract Update

My solicitors met with 7M on Tuesday and an abridged update follows:

Documents

Until now we have received the notary deeds, the schemes, the visa for design, the so-called ‘table for organising the space area’. Tomorrow we will get copies from the architectural projects of the respective building floors where your apartments are situated.

7M’s lawyer has stated that they expect to receive the Permit to build next week and will submit a copy. Follow this the preliminary contracts could be considered for signing. 7M wants to have all preliminary contracts signed and the sums of the first instalment collected before 10th of December 2005.

Comments on the preliminary contract and appendixes

Today we have received a corrected draft preliminary contract and appendixes. We haven’t examined them yet, but what appears and after discussing it with the lawyer of the Developer that some of your remarks have been resolved in the new version because other clients also have made remarks about the existing discrepancies in the old contracts and also the translation of the contract from Bulgarian to English has been revised.

More detailed comments of the new draft contract we will email you late this week.

SPA facilities

7M have changed their position about this generally and the maintenance fee has been reduced to 7 EUR per m2 per year but at the same time the investors obligations connected to the maintenance have also been reduced. Respectively your rights have been reduced.

Regarding all questions about the common parts, their management and the compliance with the Regulations by all owners, visitors and guests in the complex as per the Bulgarian legislation we will advise you on Friday.

NB Please note that you need to seek your own independent legal advice and should not rely on any of the information detailed.

 

17/11/05

Preliminary Contract

I have asked my Bulgarian Solicitors (Justus Law) to raise these enquiries and change requests.

Development Site Movie Files

I have now added a couple of Movie Files to the web site as DivX .avi files.

New Spa Images

On meeting the Developers on Friday 4 November they kindly provided me with this link to more pictures of the St John Hill Spa and Wellbeing Centre.

If you visit Bansko make sure you ask for a tour of the Spa in the Kempinski Grand Arena Hotel, it is breathtaking (Wow!)

07/11/05:

I saw an interesting article in a local fee paper on property investment in eastern ski resorts that may be of interest:

 

18/10/05:

Concern exists as to whether owners will receive the benefit of the Spa facilities free of charge or not (excluding treatments).

Condition 4.5 of Appendix 3 of the preliminary contract appears ambiguous to say the least... is the mentioned 50% a generous owners discount for the treatments... or are owners only entitled to a measly 30 days use of the spa facilities at 50% discounted price?

I’ll let you know just as soon as I do !!!

16/10/05:

One of the Official Brokers has confirmed that:

“The developers are in discussions with a large investor to purchase the remaining sections of St. John but this will only include sections G - K”

Looks like the rest of Block F will appear at some time in the future then...