Property in Bulgaria: more than one in three purchases is now financed by a loan
The number of sales is falling while the share of loan-financed deals has risen to 37 per cent. Experts do not expect a repeat of the price boom of recent years.
Symbolic image · Photo: Svik (bg.wikipedia) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Bulgaria's property market is entering a new phase, according to industry experts. The high returns of the past five to ten years were largely a catch-up with price levels in other Central and Eastern European countries, Fakti.bg reported on 15 October, citing property and investment experts. A repeat of that dynamic in the coming decade cannot therefore be expected. Property is also not an asset that can be quickly turned into cash.
Registry Agency data show the cooling: 45,312 sales were registered nationwide in the third quarter of 2026, 22.1 per cent fewer than a year earlier, Money.bg reported. Double-digit declines were recorded in 107 of 113 registry offices. From January to September there were around 129,000 deals compared with about 159,000 a year earlier, according to an analysis by Tavex cited by bTV Business. At the same time, the share of loan-financed purchases rose from 29 per cent in the third quarter of 2025 to 37 per cent in the third quarter of 2026.
Financial expert Max Baklayan sees the market at levels "well below even 2023", pointing to rising interest rates, shrinking liquidity in the banking system and still-high inflation. According to bTV, among the steepest year-on-year falls were Nesebar (minus 37 per cent), Stara Zagora (minus 27.8 per cent) and Varna (minus 26.3 per cent). At the same time, Baklayan notes that Bulgarian National Bank data show no slowdown in lending. Whether prices will ease is disputed among experts.
This article is for information only and is not legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Figures as of the date stated.