Many UK buyers have anaive view of European countries as "horse-and-cart economies" according to Offplan Millionaire...

Carl Dear, investment strategist at the firm, said that as more eastern nations enter the EU, the economy of the eastern side of the bloc will eventually come into line with the west.

He added that some of these eastern European countries have a new sense of "dynamism" and act as a magnet for investors because of their low-cost workforce environments.

"UK buyers are beginning to hear rumblings that something's going on in eastern Europe. They still have a fairly naive perception of those countries," Mr Dear said.

"However, as time goes on, as they become more educated, their economies over time will converge with that of the west. And that means only one thing: rising property prices as the local population basically becomes wealthier."

According to Moneycorp's new Foreign Focus Index, 12 per cent of Brits buying abroad are seriously considering Bulgaria and are prepared to spend around 90,000 EUR on a typical property.