What Can You Buy in Bulgaria for €40,000–200,000 in 2026?

This is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice, and we have no listings in Bulgaria: nothing here is an offer. Prices are reported or asking-level figures with their source; where we divide a budget by a price per square metre, we call it our own estimate.

The short answer

€40,000–200,000 buys very different things in Bulgaria. At the bottom it is a small resort apartment on the Black Sea or a flat in a regional town. At the top it is a family apartment in Varna or Burgas, or a smaller flat in a good Sofia district. Sofia is the expensive pole of the market; the coast is the cheap one, with costs of its own.

Bulgaria joined the euro on 1 January 2026 at BGN 1.95583 per €1, so prices and new loans are quoted in euro. The latest figure we could confirm from the statistics office (NSI) is Q1 2026: its house price index was 109.39 (2025 = 100), up 6.2% on the quarter and, in one summary, 14.8% on the year. Quarter on quarter Burgas (+5.9%), Sofia (+5.8%), Varna (+4.0%) and Plovdiv (+3.9%) rose most. We did not find NSI's Q2 2026 release. Prices are moving, so check every figure below against live listings.

Price levels we found

• Sofia: Colliers puts the average asking price of new-build flats at about €2,070 per m2 excluding VAT (BTA report, undated). A broker blog gives about €2,680 for transactions and €2,400–2,500 as the median. Mladost is quoted at €1,800–2,400 (2026 blog); Krastova Vada at €2,300 and Manastirski Livadi at €2,600 (Q3 2025 transactions); Lozenets at €3,500–3,900 (one blog).
• Varna: about €1,552 per m2 on average (BTA citing Zimoti.com, a 2025 snapshot).
• Burgas: no reliable average found. One agency's June 2026 listings of 2–4 bedroom flats at €150,000–180,000 work out, by our own arithmetic, to roughly €1,400–2,000 per m2.
• Sunny Beach and Ravda: individual asking prices of about €1,075–1,806 per m2, for example 36 m2 at €65,000 and 97 m2 at €104,300.

Tier by tier

Sizes below are our own estimate: the budget divided by the price per m2 above.

• €40,000–70,000. On the coast this is roughly 22–65 m2: a studio or small one-bedroom in Sunny Beach, Ravda or a smaller town. In Sofia, €70,000 buys only about 29–34 m2 at the levels above. The trade-off is running cost: listings quote service fees of €7–20 per m2 a year, or a flat €500–810 a year per unit, and winter demand is thin.
• €70,000–120,000. About 40–110 m2 on the coast, 45–77 m2 in Varna, 29–67 m2 in Sofia's Mladost. A one- or two-bedroom in Varna or Burgas, or a resort flat in a better complex, is the realistic target. A one-bedroom in an outer Sofia district fits at the top of the tier.
• €120,000–160,000. About 77–103 m2 in Varna, 60–114 m2 in Burgas, 50–89 m2 in Mladost. This is where a family-sized flat in Varna or Burgas or a good Sofia one-bedroom becomes possible.
• €160,000–200,000. About 103–129 m2 in Varna, 67–111 m2 in Mladost, 62–87 m2 in Krastova Vada or Manastirski Livadi, but only 41–57 m2 in Lozenets. The top of the budget buys space in Varna, and location rather than size in Sofia.

Four buyers, four decisions

• Entry buyer, €40,000–70,000: the decision is whether a resort flat is for use or for income. Ask for three years of service-fee invoices and a winter occupancy record before reserving.
• Balanced buyer, €70,000–120,000: compare a resale flat in Varna with a new one on the coast. The Sofia option exists only as a small flat.
• Lifestyle buyer, €120,000–160,000: decide between year-round Varna or Burgas and a smaller Sofia flat. Sofia stays the deepest year-round market, which matters for rent and resale.
• Upper-range buyer, €160,000–200,000: do not pay a Lozenets price for 41–57 m2 if a larger flat in Mladost fits your day.

What a purchase costs in total

Guides put closing costs, excluding the agent, at about 5–6% up to 5–10% of the price. The parts:

• Municipal transfer tax: 0.1–3%, set by the municipality (Sofia is given as 3% in one guide and 2.5% in another), reportedly computed on the higher of the declared price and the municipal valuation.
• Notary: about 0.4–1.2% on a sliding scale capped at BGN 6,000 (about €3,068); other sources give different bands.
• Property Register fee: 0.1%.
• Lawyer: typically €500–1,500. Agent: usually 2–3.6%, often split with the seller.

On €120,000 the 5–10% band is about €6,000–12,000 (our own illustration). One broker suggests adding 8% for a ready flat and 15% for a resale that needs work. New builds can carry 20% VAT within five years of Act 16 (one guide): Colliers quotes new-build prices without VAT, so always ask whether the advertised price includes it.

Running costs: annual property tax is set per municipality at 0.1–4.5 per mille of the municipal tax valuation (0.01–0.45%), usually 2–3 per mille, and the valuation is typically below market price. One source gives about €94 tax plus €80 garbage fee a year on a €50,000 Sofia flat. Add building charges: see the figures per m2 above for resorts.

Who can buy, and how to finance

EU and EEA citizens, including Poles, can buy apartments and, per one guide, land since 2014. Non-EU individuals can buy apartments and buildings but not land in their own name (Constitution, per guides), so a Bulgarian company is the usual route for land; the building does not automatically include the plot. See where foreigners cannot own land and what they can hold instead. Buying does not settle where you may live: for residence see retiring in Bulgaria.

For financing, guides give a loan-to-value of 50–70% (or 50–60%) for foreigners, terms of 15–20 years (some say up to 30), rates of 3–5%, and loans in euro since 2026. DSK, UniCredit Bulbank, United Bulgarian Bank and Eurobank are named as lenders to non-residents; signing in person is generally needed. We did not open any bank's current terms. Compare with mortgages for non-residents and financing from home.

Yield and exit

Global Property Guide gives a national gross yield of about 4.27% (2026), Sofia apartments about 3–5%. Another guide puts Varna near 5.8% and Burgas near 5.3%, and Sunny Beach or Sozopol at 4–6% if let short term. Short-term revenue (BNBCalc, September 2026): Sofia about $27.8k at 51% occupancy, Varna $25.1k at 34%, Burgas $18.5k at 29%: revenue, not profit, and Varna's and Burgas's supply grew by about 44% and 32% in 2025 (Airbtics). A realtor commentary says the coast and regions are cooling faster than Sofia. See rental yield and investment in Bulgaria.

New build or resale

New homes usually cost 25–40% more than comparable older ones (a 2026 guide, as a national rule of thumb). Without Act 16, the commissioning document, a building is not legally finished: make it a condition in the preliminary contract. One source suggests paying in stages tied to Acts 14, 15 and 16, with escrow for releases. Resale gives a visible building but needs the register checks below.

Checks before you reserve

• Property Register certificate of encumbrances, cadastre sketch and municipal tax valuation certificate.
• A title look-back of at least ten years; in older central Sofia buildings, restitution claims can still surface.
• For new builds, Act 16 or a dated completion condition, VAT treatment and the developer's track record.
• Service fees and the owners' association's accounts.
• Everything passes before a notary, who checks the transfer tax and sends the deed for registration. See notary or lawyer, scam patterns and investment risks in Bulgaria.

FAQ

Can I buy land with this budget? Poles and other EU citizens can; non-EU individuals need a company, with its own costs.

Is the price in euro? Yes, since 1 January 2026, at a fixed BGN 1.95583 per €1.

Is a €40,000–70,000 resort flat a good investment? Yields of 4–6% are quoted, but service fees of €7–20 per m2 a year and thin winter demand cut into them: model the net figure.

Does the advertised price include VAT? Ask. New builds can carry 20% VAT, and Colliers' averages exclude it.

Bottom line

The budget sets the city: coast and regional towns at the bottom, Varna and Burgas in the middle, Sofia at the top for small flats. Compare total cost, not only price, and use best areas to buy in Bulgaria, prices and buying costs and cost of living to check the fit.

What this means for a normal buyer:

• Decide first whether the flat is for living, for rent or for resale; the answers point to different cities.
• Check the euro price for VAT and the service fee per m2 before comparing flats.
• Use a lawyer you chose yourself, and do not pay a deposit before the register checks.
• Compare with €100,000 and €200,000 in other countries.

If you want a second pair of eyes on a shortlist, an independent buyer-side adviser can compare options and bring in a local lawyer. D.H. Realting works from Warsaw as an independent consultant; ask us how we are paid, as you would ask anyone.