Bulgaria’s continued economic growth on the world stage has seen it rewarded with a new lending strategy from the World Bank.

As the country heads towards incorporation into the European Union at the beginning of 2007, an arrangement has been reached with the World Bank that should help Bulgaria to improve its national economy over the months ahead and allow it to continue its current good growth. The deal will see the country being lent €240 million per year up to 2009 as the country will look to consolidate its position as a major tourist and investment location when it enters into EU membership.

Top of the agenda for the Bulgarian authorities will be to utilise the new investment in structural reforms, as well as schemes to improve employment in the country. It is hoped that the plans will be able to increase productivity in the country and help Bulgaria to keep up with outside investment that is coming in through property development.

It was recently announced that Bulgaria is now one of the top destinations in the world for property investment growth and the money from the World Bank is designed to ensure that Bulgaria’s economy remains on course to grow substantially over the months and years ahead. This will enable the country to become a major player in the EU and to prosper from its membership.

The investment from the World Bank represents an acceptance of Bulgaria’s improving economic situation and the efforts it has made to develop long-term stability and engender strong growth. The World Bank’s Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) will work with the Bulgarian authorities to oversee the expenditure of the money and will assist in the management of public expenditure as well as the planning and design of programmes that will be eligible for funding from the EU.

Anand Seth, the World Bank’s country director for Bulgaria, was quoted by the Bulgarian government media office as stating: “Bulgaria is performing well and now stands on the threshold of EU accession.”

However, Mr Seth warned that Bulgaria should not rest on its laurels and “still has a long way to go to catch up with other EU member countries”, suggesting that there will be more hard work for the Bulgarian government if it is to fulfil its requirements to the EU when it becomes a member next year.

Mr Seth explained: “Our goal with the new partnership strategy is to support Bulgaria in meeting its full potential as a member state of the EU.”

This new arrangement will run from 2006 and takes over from the previous deal, which ran from 2003 to 2005, with great success for the Bulgarian economy.

Bulgaria has strengthened its position as the overseas property hotspot that will provide investors with the greatest return on investment.

Investors who buy property in the eastern European country can now expect returns of 137 per cent on cash invested, compared with 116 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

The figures from property investment firm Assetz also highlight Greece and Poland as interesting propositions for overseas property investors, but warn investors off buying property in the USA.

But it is Bulgaria that offers the greatest returns, with mortgage rates falling in the spring from seven per cent to 5.95 per cent, and deposits required falling from 30 per cent to 25 per cent.

The country has a growing tourism industry both in summer and winter following the introduction of low-cost airlines and the growth of ski resorts such as Bansko.

A stable resale market has given it greater staying power as an investment destination, while it will also be boosted by EU membership, which is expected in 2007.

Cyprus is in second place for return on investment, followed by France in third, but it is Poland in sixth place that is worthy of note.

The property market in Poland, which became an EU member in 2004, has performed well since the turn of the year, with prices rising between 20 per cent and 30 per cent so far.

Property prices in Warsaw are among the lowest in Europe, so there is plenty of potential for investors to make an excellent return on their investment.

In Greece, there has been something of a turnaround during the last 12 months. House price rises of 7.9 per cent have increased cash returns from two per cent to 25 per cent.

“The choice of overseas destinations available to investors is growing increasingly wide, driven by EU expansion, new low-cost flight routes and the prospect of hefty returns particularly in emerging markets such as Bulgaria and Poland,” said Stuart Law, managing director of Assetz.

“More traditional destinations such as France and Cyprus are still stacking up very well against the competition and hold huge appeal for investors who are attracted by a stable growth pattern, uncomplicated buying process and guaranteed resale market.”

However, overseas property investors considering the United States should beware that the fall in value of the US dollar against the pound means that for many, the 12 per cent rise in US house prices over the last year will have been wiped out.

In Spain, house price rises of 12.8 per cent mean the country is growing slower than in the previous two years, but with rental yields at eight per cent, the total return on investment is still a healthy 43 per cent.

By comparison, UK house prices are now averaging 6.8 per cent growth, resulting in a 44 per cent return on cash invested.

New research shows that Bulgaria is still the best place to buy an overseas property to invest in.

According to property investment specialists Assetz, the central European state tops the list of places to buy in thanks to cheaper borrowing and a higher loan-to-value ratio boosting the amount of money that can be made.

In the second quarter of 2006 Bulgaria offered investors a 137 per cent annual return on cash invested, up from 116 per cent in March.

“The choice of overseas destinations available to investors is growing increasingly wide, driven by EU expansion, new low cost flight routes and the prospect of hefty returns particularly in emerging markets such as Bulgaria and Poland,” said Assetz managing director Stuart Law.

While Bulgaria continues to top the list, Assetz also highlights Greece as somewhere property investors should keep an eye on.

In the last 12 months house prices in the southern European country have increased by almost eight per cent, meaning returns on cash invested have rocketed from two per cent to 25 per cent, Assetz calculates.

Poland also looks a good investment opportunity, with prices rising between 20 and 30 per cent in the first three months of 2006, Assetz reports. Additionally, property in Warsaw remains among the cheapest in Europe.

House prices are also rising in Spain, with property values up 12.8 per cent in the last year. Strong demand from overseas investors as well as Spanish locals means gross rental yields of eight per cent and total returns on investment of 43 per cent are still available.

“More traditional destinations such as France and Cyprus are still stacking up very well against the competition and hold huge appeal for investors who are attracted by a stable growth pattern, uncomplicated buying process and guaranteed resale market,” said Mr Law.

“However investors keeping an eye on home turf will be interested to know that the six major UK house price indices are now averaging 6.8 per cent growth, resulting in a healthy 44 per cent return on cash invested.”

However, investors have been warned off buying property in the US.

The changes in the value of the dollar mean UK investors have effectively lost seven per cent of their investment, wiping out any gain in house prices.

BULGARIA’S ‘WESTWARD MOVE’ ATTRACTS PROPERTY SEEKERS

An article named The Bulgarian Property Renaissance, published on 999 Today website presents Bulgaria as an increasingly appealing destination for Western European property seekers.

Previously known as communist country, Bulgaria is now making moves westward with its NATO membership and expected EU entry in the beginning of 2007, 999 Today reported.

This ‘opening’ to the Western world enabled property investors discover the potential of the country. 999 Today reported Bulgaria has rich cultural heritage, good climate and beautiful nature. The relatively low costs of living further the appeal of the country, the website said.

These developments influence the decision of many Western property seekers. Increasing number of British decide to purchase a first home abroad in Bulgaria, the website reported.

Bulgarian coastal resorts have always attracted investor interest but increasing number of West European property seekers are now turning to the country’s winter resorts.

The capital of Sofia also offers good opportunities with modern new suburbs located close to Vitosha Mountain, 999 Today reported.

Bansko heading Bulgaria’s Olympic bid
With the summer months upon us, it is inevitable that the majority of property investors are currently fixated with the Black Sea resorts in Bulgaria.

Sunny Beach is perhaps the most obvious example and with 1,700 hours of sunshine between May and September this should come as no surprise. The area also boasts an average daily temperature in the region of 27 degrees centigrade and it is definitely the most vibrant holiday resort on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.

It is an area that is often compared to some of Spain’s more famous coasts and with prices still very reasonable it has emerged as a favourite choice among those interested in property investment opportunities.

But investors with a more long-term outlook will undoubtedly be keeping one eye on Bansko, which is going to be the driving force behind Bulgaria’s bid to capture the Winter Olympics in 2014.

The area attracts tourists in the summer and the winter and so rental potential is strong throughout the year. The ski season is when Bansko really comes alive, however, with outstanding snow conditions and some of Europe’s most promising slopes.

Located just two hours from Sofia Airport, Bansko has been stealing tourists from more familiar resorts in France and there is no evidence of this trend abating as investors continue to plough their money into hotels, chalets and amenities for the tourists flocking there each year.

Property prices have already increased at pace in Bansko in the last few years but the prospect of bringing the Olympics to the country is likely to boost prospects for capital growth still further.

A report in the Sofia Echo has drawn attention to some of Bulgaria’s strongest points when it comes to the Olympics bid and all are encouraging irrespective of whether it is ultimately successful.

One observation of particular note is that Bansko and Borovetz are both ski centres that now have international recognition. Both have emerged as popular tourist destinations in the last few years and both have seen strong levels of investment in accommodation and infrastructure.

The report also notes that Bulgaria’s government has been modernising the transport infrastructure in the country. Once again, the completion of this project is not dependent on Bulgaria hosting the Olympics, which bodes well for those hoping to invest in a property at this early stage.

With Bulgaria also set to join the European Union next year, there is certainly a lot to look forward to in the country and property investors have inevitably been some of the first to take advantage of this great promise.

Asked what inspires him, Kostas Birtahas replies: “Developing new things, and moving ahead”.

To this, he swiftly adds: “Working hard. Working with good people”.

The desk at which we sit is immaculate and flawlessly clean. It is not his desk; we moved to it so as be to able to conduct the interview without disturbing, or being disturbed by, clients examining the displays elsewhere on the shop floor of Dromeas’s premises in Building 1 of Business Park Sofia.

Dromeas has been in the country since 1991. Athens-born Birtahas, although he has been in the country for about the same length of time, joined about six months ago.

The company is making its way in an extremely competitive market. There are very many furniture companies in Bulgaria, including a number, although not that large a number, specialising in office furniture. Nonetheless, while the niche is not overcrowded, the market is very competitive.

In some ways, the current shape of the company’s client base reflects the transitions in the country. It is serving companies newly-arrived in Bulgaria, mainly middle-sized enterprises. “The big companies already arrived in the past,” says Birtahas.

Clients include real estate firms, various commercial companies, and banks.

The biggest project that Dromeas in Bulgaria has landed for the moment is to supply furniture for all the branches of Postbank. Greek-owned Postbank has been in the country since 1991 and is this country’s seventh-largest bank. It has more than 140 branches, and spent about 40 million leva last year on opening and renovating a total of 40 offices.

Birtahas says that the Postbank project will take about two to three years to complete.

“We sat down with them and did the design for the whole branch,” he says. The project includes designing and installing the furniture for the bank’s central branch in the Soravia Centre.

He says that his firm is using to operating under time pressure, being asked by clients to come in to provide furniture within a tight deadline to enable the firm to open its doors as scheduled.

Dromeas has a significant global presence. Since 1979, it has been in the field of manufacturing and trading in office furniture, partition walls and filing systems. It is headquartered in Serres in Greece, about 80km north-east of Thessaloniki. Its production, warehousing and management premises at its headquarters cover an area of 45 000 sq m in a total company-owned area of 115 000 sq m.

The company is ISO 9001- and 14001-certified, and in 1999 was given an award by the European Union for employee safety. Its sales network operates in the major cities of Greece and in South East Europe. Its export department sends goods to the United Kingdom, Australia, the UAE, Australia, Egypt, Cyprus and Russia. Dromeas has been listed on the Athens Stock Exchange since 2000.

In Bulgaria, the company has plans for expansion. In Sofia, while it will keep its current premises, it will be expanding its offices in the capital city, to a location of 45 000 sq m in the area of Business Park Sofia. By the end of 2007, Dromeas Bulgaria will be branching out to a further five cities, Varna, Plovdiv, Bourgas, Stara Zagora and Blagoevrad. It currently has a sales staff of 10 people, and after next year’s expansion, its complement will rise to about 50, including team members that deliver and install office furniture.

Birtahas, inspired by the growth of the company and by his experiences of working in Bulgaria, has an optimistic outlook.

Since arriving in the country, he has gained a wide range of career experience.

His first post was with a car alarms company, again an icon of the early stages of Bulgaria’s post-communist transition, as such Western devices arrived to sound the changes. In 1997, with the economic crisis that hit the country, the company was sold and he moved on, to a bottle manufacturing company, where he stayed until 2001, subsequently moving on to a steel-producing plant in Pernik, 30km to the south-west of Sofia. He remained there until his move to Dromeas six months ago.

Of Bulgaria today, he says “it’s a different country” from the one he arrived in 14 years ago.

The country is “getting better all the time” although there continue to be problems because of bureaucracy. However, the fact of a six per cent growth rate is a significant one, he says.

That he has remained here is evidence of how he feels about Bulgaria. “After all, I arrived here only for a two-year contract, and here I still am.”

Asked what lessons made an especial impression on him in his early days in the country, he says, grinning: “Be careful of everybody”.

That was then and this is now, Birtahas emphasises.

To anyone who now asked him about investing in a business in a Bulgaria, his response would be “this is a great opportunity”.

“There is stability, there is predictability, and yet it is a place where things have not yet firmed up. It is a place for new businesses.”

He says that the environment is one characterised by significant transitions and challenges. First, the country is headed for membership of the European Union. Not only is competition on the domestic market steepening, but like every other country, competition from China is “around every corner, all the time”.

He says that Dromeas is looking to its competitive edge by having invested in the automation of production “and we are very competitive, price-wise”.

“Our strong point is service.” To him, this is a crucial element, and good service includes always being honest with customers, and “whatever you say that you will do, make sure that you do it, and in good time”.

The company’s human resources policy is to hire experienced staff and also to provide training.

Sales people are giving professional training in sales, and spend a week at the factory. “They get to know the phases of production, get to know the products and get to know the people that they are going to be working with.”

Asked about his management approach, and how he sees the balance between discipline and a consultative approach, Birtahas says: “Discipline and showing authority are very good in an industrial company. But this is a sales company. People are the strength of our company. We work very closely as a team. We help the sales staff at every stage of a sale. As to discipline, well, that is part of everyday life”.

Skill in positively motivating people is, of course, what makes the difference between a modern manager and a bombast.

“It is a fact that we are growing together. I tell the team that we are a modern company, that we want to expand, and that people putting in the effort will be compensated. We have all kinds of schemes for compensation, including bonuses and travel abroad.”

Asked what makes a good sales person, Birtahas says: “someone who knows the product, who has an open personality and is able to deal freely with the customers, and who is able to manage the process through to the end”.

He emphasises that the company’s staff work closely with clients to ensure that their needs are fulfilled. “We go to the office, make sketches, propose various combinations and come up with a solution. That is part of our everyday life.”

As yet, there is no association in the sector, although Birtahas says that this would be to the mutual benefit of players in the furniture business. Ideas and information could be exchanged, he says, and common interests pursued. “We have had some conversations with two or three of our competitors, but there does not seem to be a willingness to go ahead with the idea”.

In the meantime, Dromeas in Bulgaria is to join the Bulgarian International Business Association and will affiliate itself with the Greek business association.

As to how he sees the future of Bulgaria, Birtahas says that in the next five years, “life will become better.” Membership of the EU will mean, for Bulgaria, some “rearrangement” within the economy.

“In a competitive economic environment, with less bureaucracy and better laws, good SMEs will have a great place in this market.”

One area in which Birtahas would like to see reforms is in public tenders.

“This sector of the economy needs to operate in terms that are clearer, with a great deal more transparency. When a tender comes out, someone trying to read and understand it finds it difficult to understand exactly what it is that they are looking for.

“We are frustrated because there are things that a logical person reading the tender document cannot understand, and when we send a letter asking for clarification, we cannot understand the answer either.”

Strange things appear to happen in this respect, he says.

Tenders that are awarded for office furniture for the Government “go to different people, but no one knows who is behind them. Sometimes, there are companies that get tenders, and I have never heard of these companies before”.

He remains optimistic, however, that playing by the rules within the EU will bring with it greater transparency.

“We believe that we are competitive and that we should have a place in the market for the public sector.”

Working in the country for the past 14 years has given him great respect for Bulgarians. He is contemptuous of the notion that Bulgarians do not have a good work ethic.

“They are industrially minded and they care about their company much more than people in a lot of countries in Europe.”

He recalls an episode when he was still working in Pernik. The factory sent some of its machine operators to Greece for a training course. “When it was over, the people in Greece wanted to keep them there – they didn’t want to let them come back,” he says.

He nods: “Bulgaria is going to be a great country”.

By Clive Leviev-Sawyer

Participants in the Real Estate and Investment Forum held at the Sheraton Hotel in Sofia from May 30 to June 2 heard a wide variety of messages, some encouraging, and some causing concern.

During a discussion on the environment for investors in South Eastern Europe, Canada’s trade commissioner in charge of Bulgaria, David McGregor, said that Bulgaria’s business environment had “a pretty good story to tell”.

Costs were low, the country was headed for European Union accession, and there were favourable policies towards investors. However, in terms of results, notwithstanding the rising number of Greenfield investments, “you could be doing so much more,” McGregor said.

He said that he was concerned by the “blockages” being faced by Canadian companies. These could possibly be ascribed to bureaucracy, contradictory rules, “perhaps because of corruption and vested interests”.

McGregor, who is Bucharest-based, said that his list of “problem files” regarding Canadian companies in Romania was small, but for Bulgaria it was “not very small”.

He said that, going by recent surveys, Bulgaria had a worse problem with corruption that Romania, and in spite of a downturn in corruption up to 2004, the problem was resurging.

Corruption made individuals rich but countries poor, McGregor said.

“For you in the real estate sector, your voices, if raised to eliminate corruption, will benefit you.”

From other speakers, it was clear that corruption was not the only issue facing investors and the real estate sector.

Ivan Velikov, director-general of the Bulgarian office of Colliers International, said that Bulgaria was rapidly losing competitive ground because of its poor infrastructure, the shortage of skilled labour and a lack of government incentives.

Major companies, including Avon, Oracle, Microsoft and footwear manufacturer Geox, had chosen Romania instead of Bulgaria for new regional production or distribution hubs.

Velikov said that, in the experience of his company, most foreign investment funds had chosen neighbouring countries or put on hold their entry into the Bulgarian market.

However, Elta Consult executive director Valeri Leviev was more optimistic, saying that the past six months had seen a number of significant deals. He listed the Serdika Hotel development and the shopping mall complexes in Sofia and in Veliko Turnovo as evidence that confidence in the Bulgarian investment market was on the increase.

At the same time, a decline in the profitability of the real estate market was being seen.

Profitability from first class real estates reached seven per cent in Central Europe in 2005 with ranges of 6.5 per cent to 10.25 per cent for offices, from 7.5 per cent to 11.7 per cent for trade centres and from 8.5 per cent to 15 per cent for industrial estates.

Bulgaria was also showing this trend of a decline in profitability, and this was expected to continue this year.

“Sales of investment properties in Bulgaria in 2005 and the beginning of 2006 amounted to about 350 million euro. Sixty-two per cent of these were trade centres, 19 per cent office buildings and hardly one per cent were industrial realties,” Leviev said.

At the same time as the forum, the International Herald Tribune published a story saying that prices of real estate in Bulgaria were certain to continue rising and chances of making a loss on an investment were nil.

According to the National Statistical Institute, the average price of a square metre of a built-up area in Bulgaria in January was 36.6 per cent higher than in the same month of 2005.

The average price of housing in Sofia is about 600 euro a sq m. About 23 per cent of all 220 000 real estate deals in Bulgaria in 2005 were signed with foreigners. The total value of these deals added up to four billion euro, according to Nedvizhimi Imoti agency data.

Nadia Zaharieva, senior investment office at the Bulgarian-American Credit Bank, said that a double room in four- and five-star city hotels brought an annual profit of more than 6000 euro. Smaller hotels at the seaside made about 600 to 800 euro a bed every year and a bed in a mountainous hotel brought a profit of about 1000 to 1500 euro during the winter season, Zaharieva told the forum.

Assen Chaushev, associate professor at the International Academy of Luxury Restaurant Training in Bansko, said that Bulgaria needed more than 100 motels in order to develop urban tourism.

At least 50 small motels meeting the needs of the Bulgarians with average incomes should be built in Sofia alone, Chaushev said. These should be three- or four-storey buildings without lifts and with prices varying between 10 and 15 leva a night. At present the average cost of a room a night in Sofia is about 50 to 60 leva.

Despite the dense infrastructure at the seaside, a clear-cut strategy would make the building of another 200 hotels possible, Chaushev said.

Dobromir Ganev of real estate agency Foros said that residential properties would gain about 15 per cent on average with the market in some parts of the country appreciating by as much as 20 per cent. He told a news conference that residential markets in Plovdiv and Rousse were undervalued.

The National Statistics Institute said that values of residential properties appreciated by about 4.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2006.

Clair Satchi, chief executive of Netherlands firm Engel East Europe, said that the residential market in Bulgaria had huge potential.

In other announcements at the forum, Georg Schlegel, development director at InterContinental Hotels Group, said that the hotel was looking at the markets in Bulgaria and Romania, and the group could open hotels in Sofia, Varna and other major cities.

On the final day of the conference, a discussion was held on investments in spas, wine and culture.

Valentin Alexandrov, vice-president of the Spa Association and owner of the Strimon Spa Club, said that Bulgaria could turn into a European and world spa centre.

However, he was “horrified” by the trend of the past two years of what he termed the fragmentation of the tourism industry into varying niches, from extreme sports to geological, among other categories.

A serious national concept was needed to create a “centre of gravity” in the tourism industry to counteract this fragmentation, he said.
“Spa could be that centre of gravity for the vision of Bulgarian national tourism.”

He called on investors and the state for closer public-private partnerships, towards developing a national spa academy of Bulgaria to provide trained staff for the industry.

Alexandrov said that the Tourism Act made reference to the spa concept, but no one had raised the issue of a national spa standard. Facilities and qualifications varied from place to place, he said.

Noting that there was a series of non-profit organisations linked to the industry, he said that, in the week starting June 5, a “unifying forum” would be held to come up with a single body to enter into partnership with the state.

By Clive Leviev-Sawyer

The world is getting smaller, or so it seems, as developers, investors and other real estate professionals go to great lengths to find opportunities these days, California Real Estate Journal wrote in one of its articles.

In the article Tishman International Chairman Alan Levy explains how his company discovered Bulgaria and why it decided to invest in the Balkan country. Tishman had been active in London, where its European office is located, since the 1980s. Levy said one of the company’s London bankers had been approached by the investment division of Bulgaria’s Interior ministry, which wanted to know if it had any clients who would be interested in developing Western-style buildings in that country.

“Bulgaria was about to enter NATO, which it did, and is scheduled to enter the European Union in 2007, which it will,” Levy said. “They don’t have all the environmental studies and traffic studies and difficult and time-consuming bureaucratic procedures to get development rights,” he explains. “It’s a much more efficient and welcoming process.”

Tishman International chairman also commented that a number of Westerners, though not from the US, have undertaken residential developments in the country.

Alan Levy backs his choice of Bulgaria with a number of arguments. “First of all, they like Americans, which is nice,” Levy said. “They welcome Americans”, the chairman of the major company explains his interest in Bulgaria. The younger generations of Bulgarians all speak English, he added. Besides Bulgarian, German and English are the two main languages that are taught at any early age. The business culture tends to be more Western-style and less formal than, say, Japan’s.

“You get to know somebody on a first-name basis much more readily than the Japanese culture permits,” Levy said. In addition, he said, the education level of most Bulgarians is very high and the work ethic is very good.

Levy said local newspapers still have stories about corruption and bribery, but the government is trying to crack down on that, particularly since Bulgaria is poised to enter the European Union. If fact, he said one of the country’s chief crime fighters recently was elected as the mayor of Sofia.”One of his campaign promises was to patch all the potholes in town, and he actually did,” Levy said. “He got the streets cleaner. It’s becoming a more user-friendly city, because it’s an international city.”

Accession to the European Union is inevitably going to play a central role in the future of property investment in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian property is already proving popular with investors looking for long-term capital growth, but there is no doubt that accession to the EU will encourage many more to purchase properties in the country with a view to capitalising on the extensive house price growth that will presumably ensue.

The road to EU membership has certainly been a bumpy one for Bulgaria and reports on its progress have let officials know that there is still some work to do. Despite this, financial experts in the country are seemingly confident that everything is on track to join on January 1st next year. The implications for property investment could be immense.

Speaking to the Sofia News Agency, Mr Maxim Behar, head of the Bulgarian Business Leader Forum, said: “I am even more optimistic than before. I am sure that we are going to join the EU on January 1st 2007. The tone of the monitoring report is very positive.”

The news agency reports that one of the chief roles of the Bulgarian Business Leader Forum is to encourage transparency and promote good ethics in the Bulgarian business sphere. These issues are all central to Bulgaria’s accession to the EU and there appears to be a great deal of confidence that things are moving in the right direction.

As EU accession draws closer, the Bulgarian property market is also beginning to benefit from increased access. More and more airlines are now taking advantage of high demand from investors, with particular interest being shown in the Black Sea resorts and around the ski slopes in Bansko, Borovets, Pamporovo.

The Bulgaria News Network reports that Bulgaria Air has now launched summertime flights from the Black Sea town of Burgas to London and it is a move that makes it even easier for investors to investigate their chosen areas.

Zlatin Sarastov, CEO of Bulgaria Air, mentioned that British nationals are now choosing Bulgaria as a destination for their main summer vacation, while others are looking to buy coastal properties.

It is thought that national carriers will soon run flights between Burgas and Madrid as well as Burgas and Dublin, while Bulgaria Air already has a couple of routes between European capital cities and Varna.

Bulgarian officials are continuing to work on the country’s weaker areas and it is looking increasingly like things will be in place for accession to the EU early next year.

Because it offers diverse opportunities for property investment ranging from ski chalets to beach houses, there is a great deal of hope that growth in the Bulgarian property market will be rapid once membership is achieved. With numerous airlines now offering flights to the country for competitive prices, it would seem that the foundations for this expansion are well and truly in place.