Bulgaria remains real estate hotspot, despite EU criticism over reforms failure, market analysis shows.

Spain and France are losing some popularity, Dnevnik newspaper reported. The majority of property seekers are now turning to Southeastern Europe.

The international property market is slowing down, yet Southeastern Europe would maintain the high number of buyers, analysis shows. Infrastructure improvement projects affect this tendency positively.

Analysts said the popularity of Bulgarian real estate was expected to affect the Romanian market as well, Dnevnik said.

Buyers look for vacation property in Bulgaria and Romania because of the availability of low-cost carrier services, which permit cheap trips for a short vacation.

Yet, international tendencies show an overall property market slowdown. In the past 12 months real estate became 6.1 per cent cheaper on the average. The price growth in 2004 reached 10.9 per cent.

The price growth rate of Bulgarian property is also slowing down. For the first three months of 2006 real estate became 12.5 per cent more expensive. The increase for the same period last year was 36.5 per cent, Dnevnik reported.