About Bulgaria
Located in the far South East of Europe, Bulgaria borders Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey. It has a land mass roughly the same size as England with a population of approximately 7.45 million people.
Boasting 354km of coastline, numerous hot mineral springs, picturesque villages and one of the lowest costs of living in Europe, Bulgaria continues to attract increasing levels of foreign investment and tourism.
In 2006 Bulgaria attracted record amount of foreign investment, reaching €3.2 billion (£2.13B) by November 06. This ranked Bulgaria as Number One out of the 10 newest EU member states for the amount of direct foreign investment attracted.
On 1st January 2007 Bulgarian corporation tax was lowered to 10%, which along with Cyprus is the lowest in Europe.
In emerging markets, property prices are notoriously hard to track. Bulgaria is the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to establish a national Real Estate Market Index (REMI). It is considered a serious indicator of the investment activity and business development. It has provided Bulgarian and foreign investors, banks and other financial institutions with a measure of security and the ability to plan ahead.
Tourism
In 2006 the Travel and Tourism economy generated 400 000 jobs, equating to 13.6 % of total employment, roughly 1 in every 7 jobs. The enhancement of Bulgaria’s tourism infrastructure is high priority within the government. The newly established Tourism Agency’s plans go beyond the expansion of Bulgaria’s already established ski and Black Sea beach resorts that are consistently popular with Eastern Europeans.
The Tourism Agency is focused on its city-break appeal and today Bulgaria is beginning to witness a shift in the market away from the current budget package holidays towards more upmarket tourism.
The number of flights into the capital are on the increase, and EasyJet have just announced a direct, thrice weekly London-Gatwick to Sofia service, making Bulgaria’s capital appealing as a weekend break destination as well as an easily accessible second property location.
