The Bulgarian CBI program is definitely the cheapest in the EU, both in the required investment amount and also in the associated fees. As second comes Cyprus, where the investment requirement is already 2.5 times higher than in Bulgaria. Malta is the third (and last) EU country that has CBI and it is extremely expensive. Having said all that and knowing the political climate in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian government will be definitely tightening the conditions of its program and certainly not looking to decrease the required investment amount. The "lack of interest" for the Bulgarian CBI is only due to its (so far) extremely low price tag that didn't enable the Bulgarian government the chance to allocate adequate budget to market and promote the program, as was the case with Cyprus and Malta. All in all, having studied the latest reports of the European Commission, I am pretty certain that the EU (Malta, Bulgaria, Cyprus) CBIs will become much more expensive by the year end. Even more importantly, the eligibility criteria (due diligence, etc.) as well as the capping of the total number of candidates (already introduced in Cyprus and Malta) will make all EU CBIs an extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible target, where money will be the least concern.
