The trend of the past four years of a steady increase in prices of holiday property at the Black Sea coast has started to drop off.

Prices in the past three to four years initially increased by to 20 to 30 per cent and even 50 per cent in a year, but this had not been the case in 2007, investor.bg reported.

The average price of bachelor flats and two-bedroom summer apartments in Sunny Beach dropped by four per cent between July 2006 and July 2007, according to a survey commissioned by investor.bg.

A trend of falling holiday property prices has been evident in other southern Black Sea resorts in Bulgaria, including Ahtopol where prices of bachelor flats went down by five per cent and that of three-bedroom apartments by eight per cent. Other resorts where prices decreased were Primorsko and St Vlas.

Investors have focused their interest on smaller inland villages and towns. Prices of some properties in Lozenets, Chernomorets and Golden Sands have gone up by more than 20 per cent.

Investors in holiday property would benefit from selling rather than renting out, specialists said.