Bulgarian property: Sales now take two to four months – buyers have the upper hand

Bulgaria's property market keeps cooling. According to Registry Agency data, 45,312 property sales of all types were registered nationwide between July and September 2026 – 22.1 percent fewer than in the same quarter of 2025 and 1.4 percent fewer than in the second quarter. According to Ruse.news, it is the third quarterly decline in a row and the weakest third quarter since the agency began publishing data in 2005. Over the first nine months there were 129,431 sales, almost 19 percent below the previous year, Economic.bg reports. Brokers point out, however, that the comparison with 2025 is not meaningful because of the enthusiasm around the euro changeover.

The big cities show a similar picture: Sofia registered 7,282 sales (down 21.2 percent year on year), Plovdiv 3,354 (down 23.9 percent) and Varna 2,853 (down 26.3 percent). Burgas stands out: it recorded 2,047 sales, 14.3 percent fewer than a year earlier but 12.6 percent more than in the second quarter. Prices have not fallen so far: according to the statistics office NSI, homes became about 4.5 percent more expensive within three months in the second quarter of 2026 and about 15.5 percent year on year, the newspaper Sega reported on 27 September.

Strahil Ivanov, founder of the agency Yavlena, told Fakti.bg (21.10.2026) that selling a home now takes two to four months instead of a few weeks as before. Sellers are cutting asking prices by around 2,000, 5,000 or 10,000 euros depending on the starting price. "If the market keeps falling over the next two quarters, then we are definitely heading for a plateau," Ivanov said. He does not expect a rapid crash and forecasts around 180,000 to 185,000 transactions for 2026 as a whole. This article is general information, not investment advice.