Austrian business property investment company ECO Business-Immobilien AG said it was considering investing in Bulgarian property market.

The company was evaluating properties in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania, the company media statement said.

On December 3 2007, ECO Business-Immobilien announced its first investment in Ukraine worth 18.1 million euro. The company would construct a 19-storey office complex, spread on 14 000 sq m. The project was to be completed by the end of 2008.

The company’s CEO Friedrich Scheck said “after establishing our own infrastructure in Eastern Europe with an office in Kiev, we are now working on the operational implementation of our investment pipeline. This Ukrainian development project will generate returns of 12 per cent, and further projects in Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria are currently being assessed.”

ECO Business-Immobilien focused on Germany and Austria and already operated on Czech and Hungarian real estate markets, but was looking to boost growth further with investments in development projects in Eastern Europe. “Projects are currently undergoing appraisal in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania, with investments amounting to some EUR 150 million planned for the region in the medium term,” the media statement said.

The company’s criterion for investment in countries like Bulgaria, Ukraine and Romania was average returns on developed real estate investments of at least eight per cent.