CB Richard Ellis has signed an affiliate agreement with Bulgarian commercial property consultancy MBL EOOD.

MBL, which employs 15 staff, was set up two years ago and provides full commercial services including valuations, investment, agency and property management.

Colin Waddell, CBRE’s managing director of central and eastern Europe, said: ‘Local advice with a strong international perspective has never been so important.

‘Bulgaria is an important country in the central and eastern Europe region with positive long-term growth prospects that will feed into the local real estate market.’

Bulgaria’s economy grew by 5% a year over the past five years. CBRE also said that it had a ‘comparatively less developed commercial real estate market’ mean the country has significant long term growth potential.

The affiliation adds to CBRE’s presence in central and eastern Europe. Last year it bought Eurisko Consulting in Romania and affiliated with Atria Group in Greece.