Bulgaria

In 2025, Bulgaria’s housing market remains one of the fastest-growing in Europe, with national property prices up 15–18% year-on-year. Home ownership is exceptionally high: about 85–88% of the population own their homes, while around 12–15% are renters—a pattern stable over recent years.

Median apartment purchase prices across the country range from €1,500–2,000 per sqm in Sofia, €1,200–1,600 in Varna, €1,100–1,500 in Burgas, €900–1,300 in Plovdiv, and €700–1,000 in regional cities; rural areas remain lower, at €300–600 per sqm. Median rents in Sofia for standard apartments are generally €8–12 per sqm monthly, with 4–5% annual rental yields reported in major cities.

Publicly owned (municipal) housing represents only about 2–3% of all dwellings, predominantly located in larger urban areas. This housing is primarily targeted at particularly needy households by strict social and financial criteria, and its share and investment are declining due to privatizations and insufficient funding. In Bulgaria, “public housing” usually refers to all municipally owned dwellings, but “social housing” is a narrower subset, meaning municipally administered rental housing provided to vulnerable groups, and not all municipal dwellings serve a social role. As a result, public/social housing plays only a very minor role in Bulgaria’s housing market.

Bulgaria faces a significant housing crisis driven by rapidly rising property prices and stagnant wage growth. Over the past five years, home prices have soared by 125–177%, with annual growth rates of 15–18% in 2025—one of the fastest increases in Europe. This boom is most pronounced in large cities, particularly Sofia, Varna, Burgas, and Plovdiv, where prices and rents now far outpace income growth.

The crisis affects several groups. Middle-income earners, especially younger adults and recent urban migrants, struggle to afford both rental and purchase prices in urban centers—many are forced to allocate over 60% of their income to housing. Vulnerable populations such as low-income households, ethnic minorities (especially Roma communities), and the homeless are disproportionately impacted. Around 41% of citizens live in overcrowded conditions, and nearly 45% of renters are burdened by excessive housing costs. Homelessness remains under-documented, with few social mechanisms in place for support.

Public (municipal) housing comprises only about 2–3% of all dwellings, concentrated mainly in major cities, with supply shrinking due to privatization and minimal new investment. Temporary housing and support centers are extremely limited, and more than 10,000 people in Sofia alone are on waiting lists for social housing that is simply unavailable. For many, especially the most marginalized, the lack of affordable, adequate housing options leads to informal settlements or even homelessness.

Bulgaria’s national government takes a limited, largely indirect approach toward affordable and sustainable housing. Recent national targets and policies in the housing sector mainly focus on updating the National Housing Strategy, with renewed attention to renovation of aging housing stock, improving energy efficiency, and increasing access for disadvantaged groups. Although discussions are underway to align policy with EU requirements and respond to ECHR decisions on housing rights, there are no large, well-funded nationwide programs for new affordable or social housing construction.

Key government activities include revising the National Housing Strategy to address high energy intensity in buildings, a shortage of accessible social housing, and lack of finance for low-income households. There is also official recognition of the need for new funding tools to support both purchase and rental for vulnerable groups and young people.

In practice, almost all concrete support is decentralized: local authorities, primarily municipalities like Sofia, run their own small-scale programs for social and emergency accommodation, relying on very limited central government resources. A new long-term social housing plan for Sofia is underway with support from the Council of Europe, exploring use of unused state properties for crisis accommodation, but this remains in early development and is not yet a national policy.

Overall, Bulgaria’s approach involves incremental strategy updates, collaboration with EU institutions, and ad hoc local measures—not comprehensive national investment in new affordable housing or strong fiscal subsidies.

Housing cooperatives play a negligible role in Bulgaria’s housing sector, both in terms of share and development. Historically, cooperative housing existed mainly during the socialist era, but after large-scale privatizations from the 1990s onward, nearly all such housing was transferred to private ownership. Today, cooperative housing as an organized sector is virtually absent—there are no official figures pinpointing what share it represents of total housing, but estimates indicate it is extremely small, likely under 1%.

Recent years show no significant revival of cooperative housing in Bulgaria. The main focus among housing-related organizations and policymakers is either on energy efficiency improvements or very limited municipal social housing efforts. No dedicated government programs, fiscal incentives, or regulations exist to promote new cooperative housing; most activities target renovation of existing housing stock, and support for vulnerable groups is limited to small-scale municipal rental schemes.

Current dynamics center on high owner-occupancy and a lack of affordable rental and alternative housing models, with the government prioritizing energy renovation and addressing EU commitments rather than new collective or cooperative housing solutions. Thus, Bulgaria does not promote cooperative housing as part of national housing policy and the sector remains nearly invisible in the country’s overall housing landscape.