The Bulgarian market of real estate property is gaining popularity among EU citizens. Bulgaria ranked third in the list of the most popular foreign places for acquisition of immovable property by UK citizens in 2006 following Spain and France and going ahead of USA, Romania’s Cotadianul newspaper wrote today, quoted by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). The newspaper quotes data of a group of specialists in international property market.

Nearly 1/3 of all real estate properties acquired by UK citizens in 2006 was in Spain, followed by France (18.9%) and Bulgaria – 7.7%.

Bulgaria’s recent EU accession is expected to further contribute to the growing number of real estate deals with UK citizens, the research group forecasts.

Romanian real estate experts find it hard to explain this phenomenon.

I don’t know why the British prefer Bulgaria to Romania. As far as I know there are only a few UK real estate property trusts in Romania buying this type of property, the real estate expert Liviu Ureke says. It seems that the British prefer our neighbour because of the prices, which are a couple of hundred euros for a square meter lower than in Romania, Ureke contemplates.

The minimum price of an apartment in Sofia is 650 euro/sq meter, Cotidianul points out. In Bucharest prices start from 950 euro/sq meters (VAT not included).