The purchases made by local real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other big players on the market have helped boost Bulgarian land prices to 250-300 leva/decare, said Petar Vasilev from Alfa Asset Management at the Investment in Agricultural Land Forum held yesterday.

The law on REITs was passed 4-5 years ago and there are around 50 such companies currently in Bulgaria. At the beginning of their activity land cost 100-150 leva, Vasilev added.

The ones investing in arable land and traded on the stock exchange are 6. Leasing land is becoming a very popular activity. Return on land lease contracts has grown considerably, but is still considered relatively low. More than 50% of land owned by REITs has been leased out.

There is a total of 37 – 38 mln decare of arable land in Bulgaria.

BSE's Rumen Sokolov added that the six REITs listed in the stock exchange controlled a total of 584,000 decare of land on June 30.

The market capitalization of these companies totals 380 mln leva (194.290 mln euros), or 1.4% of the total BSE capitalization. The shares of the 6 REITs add an average of 30-60% a year.

According to Stoyan Toshev, executive director of TBI Asset Management, investment in a REIT is the perfect combination between good return and relatively low risk.