Russians prefer buying holiday property in the Balkans, especially Bulgaria and Montenegro, the Russian daily gazeta.ru and Bulgarian media reported on Tuesday.

The two destinations currently attract 20 per cent each of the overall property interest of Russians. Compared to the first half of 2006, Russian interest in buying real estate in Bulgaria and Montenegro has almost doubled, according to money.bg.

Teodora Dimitrova, head of the Bulgarian branch of the international real estate broker network ERA, said: “The Russians have been among the most stable foreign buyers of property in Bulgaria and this tendency strengthened in the last two years.”

Russian investment in Bulgaria amounts to 70 million euros, of which 14 million are investments in real estate, according to the InvestBulgaria Agency, a state body that aims to encourage investment in the country.

The real number of Russian buyers in Bulgaria may be bigger than statistics suggest. “A large part of Russian investments enter through other countries, for example Holland and Switzerland, and according to the international methodology … they are not counted as Russian,” Lyudmil Mihailov, from the agency, told Balkan Insight.

Reasons for the interest range from similarity in language, culture and mentality to the geographical proximity of Russia to the two Balkan states, the publication noted. Another factor is the low prices of property and living. “Russians have close ties to Bulgaria because of the history and the language. They feel like they know Bulgaria well,” Dimitrova added.

Property prices in Bulgaria have grown since the country entered the EU in January 2007. Compared with the last quarter of 2006, there was a 9.3 per cent growth in property prices in 2007’s first trimester, according to data of the National Statistical Institute published last week.

Bulgarian property is most expensive in Varna, on the northern Black Sea coast, where a square metre costs an average of 1,710 leva (around 874 euros). In Montenegro, real estate is even more expensive, at 2 500 – 3 000 euros per square metre, gazeta.ru reported.

Real estate experts in Bulgaria predict that prices in the new EU member state will continue to grow steadily.