Price increases in the lodging property sector worldwide slowed down in the first quarter of 2008 to reach 6.1 per cent on an annual basis. But Bulgaria still heads the price hike, according to the Global House Price Index of UK’s real estate company Knight Frank.

The price increase registered in Bulgaria was 31.5 per cent for the first quarter of 2008, investor.bg said. Bulgaria also occupied first place in the same ranking for the last quarter of 2007 with a 33.7 per cent price increase.

Singapore ranked right after Bulgaria with a price increase of 29.9 per cent year-to-year, followed by Hong Kong with 28.8 per cent.

The other EU member state, which featured highest in the list, was the Netherlands, which occupied 14th place with an increase of 4.5 per cent.

The property market in Latvia registered a 20 per cent decrease in prices after an increase of more than 60 per cent over the same period in 2007, investor.bg said.