Empty homes in Bulgaria: expert estimates 230,000 vacant apartments in Sofia alone

Hundreds of thousands of homes stand empty in Bulgaria's biggest cities, according to real estate expert Martin Srebrov. Sofia alone has about 230,000, and Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas together about 500,000, the news site Ruse.news reported on Oct. 8. Srebrov supports a tax on unoccupied properties, arguing that putting them on the market could lower prices. Meanwhile, building permits in Sofia fell from about 21,000 in 2023 to 12,000 in 2025, the report said.

Sales are cooling, but prices barely are. Registry Agency data analyzed by Tavex show the number of deals in the third quarter fell 21.2 percent in Sofia, 26.3 percent in Varna and 37 percent in Nessebar. Even so, according to data from real estate agency ADRES, two-room apartments cost between 3 percent (Sofia) and 23 percent (Plovdiv) more per square meter than a year earlier. Nationwide, the share of purchases financed with a loan rose from 29 percent to 37 percent, Ruse.news reported on Oct. 6.

“While unemployment is low, real estate prices will not fall,” Srebrov said. Investor Ivo Dimovski describes a normalization after exceptionally strong years rather than a crisis. He expects 65,000 to 70,000 residential deals nationwide in 2026, after a peak of 94,000 to 95,000 in 2024. For 2027 and 2028, he foresees financial difficulties for smaller and mid-sized developers that rely on presales.