The data covered the price of flats in 28 cities and towns.

Bulgarian apartment prices rose by an average of 5.4 percent in the second quarter of 2007, the National Statistical Institute reported on Monday. The data covered the price of flats in 28 cities and towns.

Compared with the first quarter of the year, when the average price of residential property in those centres was 988 leva (around 505 euros) per square metre, for the second quarter it reached 1,041 leva (around 532 euros).

According to the Institute, the average residential property price was 738 leva (around 377 euro) for 2005 and 846 leva (around 433 euro) for 2006 and there was a 14.7 per cent rise between the two years.

Compared with the last quarter of 2006, there was a 9.3 per cent growth in property prices in 2007’s first trimester.

Property was most expensive in Varna, on Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast where a square meter cost an average of 1,710 leva (around 874 euro) in the last three months. The capital, Sofia, came in second place, with flats costing an average of 1,648 (843 euro) per square metre.

The continued rise is linked to Bulgaria’s EU entry in January 2007.

Teodora Dimitrova, of the Bulgarian branch of the international real estate broker network ERA, told Balkan Insight: “The market has calmed down now but property prices are expected to grow steadily.”

Bulgaria has one of the world’s highest rates of real estate ownership. According to a study by ERA, 94 per cent of Bulgarians own real estate and 60 per cent own more than one property. “This is a powerful engine for the real estate market,” Dimitrova said, because the high level of property ownership increased the potential for selling and buying real estate.