British investors are being tempted by countries such as Bulgaria and Turkey years after they looked little further than a farmhouse in France or an apartment on the Costa de Sol, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Dosop, the international property company based in west London, reckons that three in four inquiries received in the past year have been about Bulgaria.
One attraction is price. A large one-bedroom flat in Ravda, 10 minutes from the Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach, for example, bought two and a half years ago for just under 20,000 pounds fully furnished, would now cost 45,000 pounds.
"But some of the big resorts, such as Sunny Beach itself, are becoming overdeveloped," warns Marc Todd of Dosop. "There's a large supply of less desirable properties coming on the market. And don't bother trying to get a Bulgarian mortgage. Lending criteria are strict and the interest rate is around 7 per cent."
He recommends people remortgage their UK property and buy with cash instead. With membership of the euro pencilled in for 2009 (Bulgaria will join the EU in 2007 or 2008), local interest rates should fall, he adds.
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