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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Golf is not a favorite pastime here. Bulgaria, one of the poorest of the former Soviet bloc countries in Europe, never developed a tradition of playing and has just three golf courses.

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Courtesy of the Thracian Cliffs Golf & Spa Resort
Gary Player, one of the most successful golfers in the history of the sport (holding blueprints), is designing the golf course at the Thracian Cliffs Golf & Spa Resort.
But as the country has become one of the Continent’s hottest second-home markets, all that is about to change.

Six golf resorts are being built with courses by internationally known designers, including two by Gary Player and one by Jack Nicklaus. Three of the courses are on the Black Sea coast, two near the ski resorts of Bansko and Borovets and the sixth near the capital, Sofia.

Ten other courses also are being planned across the country, most with residential components, but more focused on the domestic market.

‘‘Real estate is not just property with a good location,’’ said Tzvety Lazarov, project director for the Ibar Country Golf Club & Spa, which will have a course designed by Mr. Nicklaus. ‘‘You must tie it to some value-added service’’ like golf, he said.

Overall, real estate is one of the fastest growing sectors in the national economy, which grew by 5.2 percent in 2005. Foreigners were involved in 23 percent of the 220,000 property deals registered in Bulgaria in 2005, transactions that totaled more than 4 billion euros, or $5 billion, according to the National Real Property Association of Bulgaria. The year before they generated 18 percent of all sales, or 3.36 billion euros.

Much of the interest is linked to the country’s expected entry into the European Union in January. With sale prices in Sofia still averaging only $66 per square foot, construction costs, sales prices and incomes are all expected to jump after membership, fueling a ‘‘now or never’’’ air of urgency among citizens and foreigners alike.

The first portion of the Ibar project is expected to be finished in January, and 25 percent of the villas already have been sold, with prices ranging from 120,000 to 200,000 euros, or $152,000 to $254,000. As in most golf developments in Bulgaria, Mr. Lazarov said, almost all the buyers are British and Irish. ‘‘They are about 60-40 mixed between investors and golfers. I think in the future it will reverse and there will be more golfers,’’ he said, as golfers are less comfortable than investors with the practice of buying properties before they are completed.

There are no direct flights from New York to Sofia, but the Bulgarian capital is just a short flight London, Paris or Vienna.

Michael Lenihan, publisher of Golf Management Europe magazine, said, ‘‘I think a lot of people are looking at places like Bulgaria and the Czech Republic for a way to make a quick killing and I’m not so sure it’s going to be sustainable long term.’’

With the spread of cheap air travel throughout Europe, these high-profile Bulgarian golf developments will not be competing with each other, but with golf property destinations in the Mediterranean and Europe in general, said Andrea Sartori, head of the Travel, Leisure and Tourism Group for Central and Eastern Europe at KPMG, a global firm that provides tax, audit and advisory services.

One of the largest projects here is the Thracian Cliffs Golf & Spa Resort, a $152 million development on the Black Sea. It will have its own marina village, a mineral spa, 400 hotel units and 717 apartments, villas and townhouses. About 65 of the 300 apartments on sale already were sold, for 1,900 euros per square meter, or about $177 per square foot.

There also is an annual maintenance fee of 1,600 euros, or about $2,000.

Thracian Cliffs will restrict course memberships to residents. Initial buyers receive 20-year memberships at no charge; lifetime memberships, for 40,000 euros, or $50,000, have no greens fees.

Stella Rizova, the marketing director, said buyers have been mainly Britons, as well as Russians and other Europeans.

She said the the marketing strategy will include going after Britons who are selling their properties along the Costa Del Sol in Spain and looking elsewhere for cheaper homes. Overall, prices in Bulgaria are about one-third of those in Spain she said.

Kancho Stoychev, co-owner of Black Sea Rama, another Gary Player course, less than 13 miles from Thracian Cliffs, said his $131 million development is aiming for the international golf traveler, significantly upmarket from the discount package tourist who made Bulgaria famous even during its Communist days.

Of the 30 villas for sale, about 20 have been sold, starting at a little more than 220,000 euros, or $280,000. The standard two-bedroom apartments on the Black Sea that have boosted Bulgaria’s ranking in the second-home market usually sell for around 50,000 euros, or $65,000.

Mr. Stoychev also is vice president of the Bulgarian Golf Association, which is trying to popularize the game. He expects golf to become more popular as Bulgaria becomes a more prosperous country.

‘‘If you don’t have a supply of golf courses, you can’t create a golf market,’’ said Mr. Sartori of KPMG. ‘‘There is not a market because there are no golf courses, it’s a Catch-22 situation.’’

‘‘Nowadays you have more than 52 golf courses and 24,000 golfers in the Czech Republic, while in 1990 I think there were 3 courses,’’ he said. ‘‘Demand helped to grow the supply, but supply also helped to grow the demand.’’
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