More than 110 000 Russian citizens own properties on Bulgaria's southern Black Sea coast, according to the Bulgarian National Real Estate Association.

Russian buyers are interested, more than anything else, in gated vacation complexes near the sea, representatives of the Association told reporters in the Black Sea city of Burgas Tuesday, as cited by BTA.

Apartments in Nessebar, Pomorie, Sozopol, and Burgas are also frequent purchases among Russian owners of Bulgarian properties, while some Russians go as far as buying houses with large yards in some Bulgarian towns and villages inland.

The real estate experts forecast a continued interest of the Russians in the Bulgarian real estate properties, especially with respect to the Black Sea resorts.

Property fraud is the main problem for Russian owners in Bulgaria, according to the Realtors, with intermediary firms extracting illegally additional sums of money from the owners of newly acquired properties.

The brokers said there was a similar problem Russia where it was resolved by legalizing the firms entitled to be intermediaries in property purchases.