Brits Left Cold by Bulgaria Winter Property Market

Bulgaria is becoming a less popular country for overseas British buyers even though the number of online searches for real estate rises, according to a new report.

Bulgaria has fallen one spot down to number fourteen in a new ranking of property markets, which remain popular for foreign mortgages among Britons, according to figures from Rightmove Overseas and Moneycorp.

The Bulgarian market attracted 1,24% of the searches for properties abroad at the site of Rightmove Overseas in February, down by 14,4% over January, when their number surged.

Enquiries soared by 53% last month, with Spain continuing to top the league, followed by France, the US and Australia.

Germany, France, Italy and Ireland saw the biggest spikes, as prospective investors looked for bargains or sought to capitalise on the stability in Germany, according to Rightmove's Robin Wilson.

David Kerns, private client dealing manager at Moneycorp, said it is unsurprising that Germany is rising up the ranks of popular countries for Britons to escape to.

"The fact that Germany is seen as a crutch for many of the other eurozone countries, with stable housing and jobs markets, is a strong draw for many people in the UK looking for prospects overseas," he explained.

"At the other end of the scale, the problems facing Ireland's economy are clearly making its property market attractive for people looking for a bargain, with house prices continuing to fall and now at their lowest since 2003," he added.

Owning a second home abroad was once the preserve of the super-wealthy, but in the past decade a heady combination of TV property shows and cheap mortgages has convinced an estimated half a million Britons to buy their own place in the sun.

The value of UK-owned foreign property investments peaked at GBP 58 B in 2008, up from GBP 10 B in 2000.

Recently however British owners of second homes overseas have been selling up due to falling rental income and weakness of sterling.

The number of Britons, who have put up their property in Bulgaria for sale, nearly doubled in 2009 over 2010, data of realtor Bulgarian Properties show.

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