The Russian citizens own 300 000 properties in Bulgaria and invested around EUR 18 B, reports Deutsche Welle. 

According to estimates, this is about 10 times more than the officially recognized investments by Russian companies in Bulgaria. Thus Russia becomes the largest foreign investor in Bulgaria's economy. 

According to Deutsche Welle, which quotes information from real estate companies, the Russians are mostly interested in real estate properties in the Black Sea coast cities and in the tourist complexes, with increasing interest in winter resorts and villages. 

Sebastian Petrov of the BGLife real estate company tells the media, that the main reason for the interest are the relative closeness to Russia and the fact that property in Bulgaria is at least two-three times cheaper than in Turkey, Greece or Croatia. 

Petrov said that the actual number of deals with Russians is at least 700 000 – by 200 000 more than the official number. According to him, this was mainly due to the fact that Russian state employees buy three-four properties and put them in the name of their relatives, in order to avoid the limitations of the Russian law. “We consider such a deal as a single one,” he said.

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