Investments in Bulgarian property would increase after Bulgaria enters the EU on January 1 2007, Bulgarian news agency BTA quoted real estate experts as saying.

Investors would be interested in property for offices and for industrial use.

Investments in property in the first six months of 2006 alone amounted to 200 million euro, as much as investments in the whole of 2005.

Currently 80 per cent of investments in Bulgarian property were made in the country’s capital city of Sofia, BTA said.

Investors would turn their interest towards rural areas once Bulgaria enters the EU. Investments in rural areas could reach 35 per cent of the total investments in Bulgarian property, experts said.