TALK about coals to Newcastle or selling sand to Egypt, a Worcestershire law firm is expanding its international property division by selling Bulgarian apartments to Russian buyers.

Young and Lee, which has offices in Bromsgrove, has completed the sale of 50 apartments in the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Varna to buyers from Moscow.

The company began working on behalf of UK people looking to buy property in Bulgaria over a year ago and it has completed more than 150 transactions in the past 18 months.

But Young and Lee has also discovered a strong desire among Russians to buy property in Bulgaria.

To meet the demands of this market it has teamed up with a firm of international estate agents based in the Russian capital.

Stuart Price, the Young and Lee partner who has taken the lead in international property, said: "People from Russia are keen to buy property in Bulgaria because this has traditionally been a favourite holiday destination for people from all over Eastern Europe.

"There is also the advantage that an investment of more than 500,000 euros secures Bulgarian citizenship which opens up the opportunities of being a member of the European Union.

"Property in Bulgaria is so inexpensive that many Russians are purchasing several apartments. When we first got involved in the Bulgarian property market we saw it as being attractive to people from this country wanting a home overseas but put off by the high prices in traditional haunts like Spain and France.

"This has proved to be the case but we quickly became aware of the opportunities to help Russian buyers."

Young and Lee is a firm of commercial and family lawyers and as well as having offices at Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, it also has bases in Birmingham city centre and Kingswinford, West Midlands.