Bulgarian companies have invested more than BGN 5.0 billion own funds in real estate for the last two and a half years, according to the calculations prepared by Creditex credit management agency. It emerged that Bulgarian businessmen have allocated their money in expensive buildings which for now show low return-on-investment rate. The move decreased the operating funds of small and medium-sized companies and worsened their competitiveness, experts commented. Instead of selling their immovable property, company owners will prefer to re-finance them through taking mortgage loans, which implies increased demand for such instruments. The short-term financing of long-term investments turned out to be a trap for a multitude of companies. According to data provided by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) the volume of due credit payments of non-financial institutions exceeded BGN 10 billion in April 2005. A total of 60% of that figure is composed of credits with maturity period of less than five years. Since the short-term credits are more expensive in the country, many businessmen are seeking ways to reschedule their debts and transform then in long-term ones.