Rents and capital values in Bulgaria and Hungary are expected to rise over the next 12 months, the London-headquartered Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has said.

“In Bulgaria a particularly firm increase is expected in the office market,” London-headquartered RICS revealed.

The RICS said in its Commercial Property Monitor for Q2 2014 that most markets in Central and Eastern Europe “slowly but steadily seem to be getting out of the woods.”

Macroeconomic challenges continue to impact real estate sentiment, but expectations are improving with longer term outlook for capital values, the RICS said in its survey "Better perspectives in Central and Eastern European real estate markets".

“In Bulgaria, the government’s resignation and a swift outbreak of vulnerability in the banking sector can cause some challenges and jeopardize a brighter outlook, while the other three countries are facing record low inflation and interest rates,” according to the survey that looks at the markets of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

RICS highlighted that occupier demand had risen in April-June 2014 in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, particularly in the office sector in Bulgaria and in the office and retail sectors in Hungary.

In Bulgaria, RICS said, investor interest is on the rise backed by “brighter outlook for occupier demand and rental growth across all three commercial real estate segments”.

“The fundamentals further improved in the office market with positive spillovers seen beyond the prime segment. And in industrial and logistics real estate the shortage of supply is putting upward pressure on rents whereas demand builds up.”

According to Lila Pateraki, Director of Business Development at Zeus Capital Managers, an international privately held investment management company, “although the number of investments one could make in Bulgaria, and more precisely in Sofia, is rather limited, there are some good quality investments that can generate decent returns and therefore be of interest to the investors.”

RICS commercial property survey is a quarterly guide to the trends in the commercial property investment and occupier markets. RICS is the world's leading professional body for qualifications and standards in land, property and construction.