Land rules by nationality, due diligence, preliminary contracts, notarial deeds, taxes, mortgages, remote purchases and residence
YARD Law Co. · Legal position as at 7 October 2026 · Updated 15 October 2026
Can a foreigner buy property in Bulgaria?
Usually, yes. But the difficult word in that question is "property."
Bulgarian law treats an apartment, a building, the land beneath it, an agricultural plot, a forest, and a right to build as different legal assets. A foreign buyer can therefore be legally entitled to acquire the house while being unable to acquire the garden beneath it. An apartment may be available for direct purchase, but the ideal share of the underlying plot stated in the same title deed may require separate treatment.
The correct answer always starts by identifying:
Article 22 of the Bulgarian Constitution allows foreigners and foreign legal persons to acquire Bulgarian land where this follows from:
The treaty route is deliberately narrow. The relevant ratification law requires a two-thirds parliamentary majority. An old friendship, trade or investment treaty should not be treated as an automatic permission to acquire land.
The Ownership Act makes the practical distinction:
| Asset | EU/EEA individual | Third-country individual |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment | Yes | Generally yes |
| House or other building | Yes | Generally yes |
| Ideal share of the land beneath an apartment | Yes | Must be checked separately |
| Urban plot or garden | Yes | Generally not directly, unless a qualifying treaty or inheritance exception applies |
| Agricultural land | Possible, subject to special legislation | Heavily restricted; treaty and company-ownership rules must be checked |
| Forest territory | Possible, subject to the Forest Act | Generally only under a qualifying treaty or inheritance exception |
| Right to build | Yes | Generally yes |
A foreign national can normally buy an apartment directly.
The buyer should nevertheless read the title description carefully. The transaction may include:
For a third-country buyer, ideal shares in the building's common parts are not the same issue as ideal shares in the land itself. The deed must be checked before anyone concludes that the entire title package can be transferred directly.
A third-country national can generally own the house as a building, but not automatically the land beneath and around it.
This distinction is regularly ignored in advertisements. A listing described as a "house with a 1,000 sq. m garden" may legally consist of:
The buyer's right to use the garden, reach the public road and maintain utilities must be analysed separately from ownership of the building.
Agricultural land requires specialist advice.
The Agricultural Land Ownership and Use Act contains nationality, corporate-ownership and residence-related restrictions. It also restricts certain Bulgarian companies whose ownership includes third-country persons or entities from prohibited jurisdictions. Incorporating an EOOD shortly before the purchase is therefore not a universal solution for agricultural land.
There is also an important 2026 legal inconsistency. Article 3c of the Act still contains a five-year residence or establishment requirement. However, the Court of Justice of the European Union held in Case C-562/22, JD v OB (preliminary ruling of 18 January 2024), that Article 63 TFEU precludes such a residence condition for the acquisition of agricultural land. National authorities may not apply domestic legislation contrary to directly effective EU law. The remaining nationality and corporate restrictions must nevertheless still be examined separately.
A buyer should therefore reject both simplistic claims:
Neither statement is legally reliable.
The Forest Act has its own ownership regime. EU and EEA persons may acquire forest territory subject to the applicable rules. Third-country buyers generally require a qualifying treaty or acquisition by inheritance by operation of law.
Certain third-country heirs who acquire forest land by statutory inheritance may be required to transfer it within three years. The same warning applies to certain inherited agricultural land. This should not be generalised into a rule that every non-EU heir must always sell: the person's nationality, treaty position and the specific statutory exception matter.
For new acquisitions, a British citizen is a third-country national following the end of the Brexit transition period.
A British buyer can generally own an apartment, a house as a building and a right to build. Direct acquisition of the underlying land should be treated under the third-country rules. Property acquired validly before Brexit was not confiscated or automatically lost; the issue concerns the legal basis for new acquisitions.
US citizens are also third-country nationals.
The 1992 Bulgaria-US investment treaty is not a blanket right for US nationals to buy Bulgarian land. In Decision No. 33/2021, the Supreme Court of Cassation formulated only a conditional treaty test (no Bulgarian notification preserving the restriction, and an acquisition qualifying as a treaty investment) and remitted the case; it did not declare the US citizen an owner. The Constitutional Court has separately stated that the Article 22 treaty exception does not apply to pre-2007 treaties, so an ordinary transaction should proceed on the basis that the treaty alone is insufficient.
A Russian citizen falls under the third-country land rules.
Russian nationality is not, by itself, a universal statutory prohibition on buying a Bulgarian apartment or building. A separate sanctions analysis is nevertheless mandatory. The buyer, beneficial owner, payment bank, source of funds and any person controlling the transaction must be screened. EU asset-freeze rules prohibit making funds or economic resources available to listed persons, and restrictions affecting particular Russian banks can make an otherwise lawful purchase impossible to complete.
A Ukrainian national is also a third-country national for Bulgarian land-ownership purposes.
Temporary protection, prolonged residence or another Bulgarian immigration status does not convert the person into an EU or EEA national. It may affect immigration and identification documents, but not the constitutional classification of land ownership.
Turkish citizens are third-country buyers. They may normally acquire apartments, buildings and limited real rights, but direct land ownership requires a specific treaty or other constitutional ground.
For US, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish buyers, the practical starting position should be:
The apartment or building may be acquired directly. The land must be analysed separately. Do not assume a treaty exception until it has been identified and checked.
Often, yes, but this should be a deliberate ownership structure, not a last-minute workaround.
A Bulgarian EOOD or OOD is a Bulgarian legal person even where all of its capital is owned by a foreigner. It can generally own ordinary urban land.
That structure is commonly used where a third-country buyer wishes to acquire:
It is usually unnecessary for an ordinary apartment purchase.
A company structure is commercially coherent where the property is genuinely being acquired as a business or investment asset, particularly where the company will:
The company, not the shareholder, owns the property.
That has practical consequences:
For agricultural land, the ownership of the Bulgarian company itself must be checked against Article 3(7) of the Agricultural Land Ownership and Use Act. A company controlled by an ineligible third-country person may itself be prohibited from acquiring the land.
A right to build (право на строеж, or superficies) is a limited real right allowing a person to construct and own a building on land owned by somebody else.
The Ownership Act also permits an existing building to be transferred separately from the land where the legal title supports separate ownership. A third-country national may generally acquire this limited real right even where direct land ownership is unavailable.
It can be useful where:
It is not equivalent to owning the garden.
The deed must define access, utilities, construction parameters, common areas, maintenance and any rights over the remaining land. An unexercised right to build generally lapses after five years, so the construction stage and any interruption must be checked.
A properly organised cash purchase of a resale apartment can often be completed in approximately two to four weeks. A mortgage, foreign documents, inheritance issues, company incorporation or title defects can extend the process to four to eight weeks or longer.
Those are practical planning ranges, not statutory deadlines.
Before making a binding offer, establish:
This first stage prevents the common mistake of negotiating the price before discovering that the buyer cannot directly acquire part of the asset package.
At a minimum, request:
The Property Register certificate alone is not sufficient.
Reservation agreements are not a mandatory stage.
They are usually drafted by the agent or developer and may protect the agent's commission more effectively than the buyer's position. A reservation payment should be made only after the document states:
Legal due diligence should be completed before the buyer commits a substantial non-refundable amount.
For land, a new build, a converted building or a commercial project, the legal review should run alongside technical and planning review by an architect, surveyor or engineer. A lawyer can verify the legal status of a permit; an architect must usually confirm whether the intended reconstruction is technically and planning-compliant.
The preliminary contract should contain the essential terms of the final sale and the transaction safeguards discussed below.
It is not merely an agent's administrative form. It is usually the document that allocates the principal financial and title risks between signing and completion.
Before fixing the final notary date, confirm:
The deed is executed before a notary whose area of practice covers the location of the property.
The notary verifies the formal transaction requirements, identity, authority, title documents and statutory declarations. The notary is neutral. The notary does not act as the buyer's independent lawyer and does not negotiate the buyer's commercial protections.
Following execution, the deed is presented for registration in the Property Register.
Post-closing work may include:
Bulgarian law requires the preliminary contract for a real-estate transaction to be in writing. It should contain the essential terms of the intended final transaction. A party may, in appropriate circumstances, ask the court to declare the preliminary contract final under Article 19(3) of the Obligations and Contracts Act.
The final transfer itself requires a notarial deed.
There is no statutory percentage.
For residential transactions, 5-10% of the price, often 10%, is common market practice. Higher staged payments are common in off-plan transactions, but they create materially greater insolvency and title risk.
No. The answer depends on what the agreement actually says.
A payment may be:
Where a payment is validly agreed as earnest money under Article 93:
Merely writing "deposit" in English does not necessarily produce those consequences.
A buyer's contract should normally address:
The exact package depends on whether the buyer is an individual or company and whether a mortgage is involved.
An individual buyer commonly needs:
An LNC (личен номер на чужденец) is not a legal precondition for buying property.
It is issued in connection with Bulgarian immigration and residence records. A nonresident foreign owner who has no Bulgarian EGN or LNC may instead be subject to registration in the BULSTAT Register after acquiring Bulgarian real estate.
Not as a general condition for acquiring ownership.
It is nevertheless often useful for:
A mortgage bank will normally require an account with that bank.
It depends on the country, the document and any applicable treaty.
A foreign public or notarised document will commonly require:
A bilateral legal-assistance treaty or an EU instrument may remove authentication for particular documents. This should not be generalised to every power of attorney or company document. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms that documents from states without an applicable waiver require Apostille or consular legalisation and Bulgarian translation.
A cash purchase can often be completed remotely by power of attorney.
The power of attorney must comply with the form of the authorised transaction. For a real-estate deed, the signature and content must generally be notarised simultaneously.
It may be signed:
Bulgarian consular guidance expressly requires simultaneous certification of signature and content for real-estate powers of attorney.
It should be transaction-specific and address:
Authority to receive the purchase money in cash, transfer it to another person or contract with oneself should not be included casually. Article 38 of the Obligations and Contracts Act restricts self-contracting and representation of both parties unless expressly authorised.
A scanned power of attorney or ordinary electronic signature is not a substitute for the required notarial form.
A second practical limit is banking. The deed may be signed remotely, while the mortgage bank or the bank opening a company account may still require the borrower, manager or beneficial owner to attend personally for KYC.
In an ordinary sale, ownership passes when the valid final transfer agreement is concluded in the legally required notarial form, provided that the seller owns the property and the transaction is valid.
It does not pass merely because:
Article 24 of the Obligations and Contracts Act provides the underlying consensual transfer rule, subject to the required form.
Registration protects the buyer's title against competing third parties and establishes registry priority. An unregistered deed cannot normally be relied on against a third party who acquired and registered a competing right from the same owner in the legally protected circumstances.
Registration is therefore critical, even though it is not ordinarily the constitutive moment of the sale itself.
The registered deed should be obtained and checked after completion. Payment-release arrangements should also account for the interval between signing and confirmation of registration.
The review should establish how the seller acquired title and whether every transfer in the relevant chain was valid.
There is no safe universal rule that reviewing only the last deed or only the last ten years is sufficient. Restitution, inheritance, matrimonial property, company transformations, acquisitive prescription and historical state or municipal ownership may require a longer review.
The cadastral map identifies the property but does not itself prove ownership.
Searches should cover:
The underlying registered acts must be read. A certificate stating that entries exist is not enough to determine their scope, priority or release mechanism.
For an individual seller, verify:
For a company seller, verify:
Every owner whose right is being transferred must participate or be validly represented.
Where only an ideal share is being sold to an outsider, Article 33 of the Ownership Act may require the seller first to offer the share to the other co-owners on the same terms.
Inheritance due diligence should establish:
A certificate of heirs identifies persons entered as heirs. It is not, by itself, proof that the deceased owned everything described by the seller.
Do not assume that the name in the deed tells the entire matrimonial position.
Where Bulgarian matrimonial law applies:
The ownership position, the borrower's personal liability and the property's mortgage exposure are three separate questions. A spouse who is not named as borrower may still be affected, while a spouse who contributes to the price does not automatically obtain a defined 50% share.
For foreign spouses, the applicable matrimonial-property law and any foreign marital agreement or property regime must also be checked.
These terms are often used inaccurately in advertisements.
Act 14 concerns acceptance of the completed building structure. It is associated with the "rough construction" stage.
It does not mean that the apartment is finished, legally occupiable or free of title defects.
Act 15 records completion of the construction and readiness for the commissioning process, including handover between the construction participants.
It does not itself authorise occupation.
"Act 16" is commonly used as shorthand for the final commissioning stage, but not every building receives a document literally called Act 16.
Depending on the construction category, the final document may be:
Article 178 of the Spatial Development Act prohibits using a construction before it has been commissioned in accordance with the law.
Act 16 or a commissioning certificate proves neither clean ownership nor absence of mortgages. Older lawful buildings may also have older-form documents rather than the current Act 16 terminology.
For new or reconstructed property:
A buyer acquiring a former school, factory, office or large house for conversion should not stop at title due diligence.
Ownership does not prove that the proposed hotel, clinic, office, restaurant or residential development is legally feasible.
The review should examine:
A cadastral line touching a road does not necessarily establish usable legal access.
This is where legal due diligence must be coordinated with an architect, surveyor or engineer. A lawyer should not purport to certify structural integrity or development capacity without the relevant technical professional.
For an apartment, request information from the condominium manager concerning:
The Condominium Ownership Management Act requires the manager to keep information about owners' obligations and provides a basis for issuing relevant information or certification.
Accrued arrears are not automatically transformed into the buyer's personal debt merely because the apartment is sold. They should nevertheless be cleared contractually before completion. Approved future works, enforcement measures and disputes can create real practical exposure.
The seller's enforceable public liabilities are also relevant. Article 264 of the Tax and Social Security Procedure Code provides for an electronic notarial check, with mechanisms for clearing liabilities from the transaction price where applicable. That statutory check does not replace verification of condominium, utility and property-specific issues.
An off-plan buyer usually pays substantial amounts before acquiring ownership of a completed apartment.
A preliminary contract is a contractual claim. It is not ownership and does not, by itself, give the buyer priority over the developer's secured creditors.
The contract should combine several safeguards:
A large contractual penalty is not real security if the developer is insolvent. The strongest protection is limiting the amount paid before the buyer receives a registrable right, a mortgage release or equivalent effective security.
Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026 at the fixed conversion rate of EUR 1 = BGN 1.95583. Property prices and transaction costs should now be budgeted in euro, although some statutes and historic documents still display legacy lev amounts.
The acquirer is normally the taxpayer.
Each municipality sets its rate within the statutory range of 0.1% to 3%. The tax base is generally the higher of:
Sofia applies the maximum 3% rate.
The notary fee is calculated progressively under Item 8 of the Tariff to the Notaries and Notarial Activities Act, based on the material interest, normally the higher relevant value used for the transaction.
VAT is added to the notary's taxable fee.
A written preliminary calculation should be requested because additional certifications, copies, declarations, escrow arrangements and mortgage work may affect the total.
The state registration fee is generally 0.1% of the material interest under the Registry Agency tariff.
There is no statutory commission.
For resale transactions, a buyer-side commission of approximately 2.5-3% plus VAT is common market practice, although the rate and payer are entirely contractual. In some new developments the developer pays the agent.
The buyer should establish before viewing or reserving:
The advertised price must state whether VAT is included.
A private resale is often outside or exempt from VAT, while sales by developers, new buildings, building land and company sellers require a transaction-specific VAT analysis. It is unsafe to assume either that VAT is always payable or that it is never payable.
Municipal councils set the annual real-estate tax within the statutory range of 0.1 to 4.5 per mille of the applicable tax base.
For an individual owner, the base will commonly be the municipal tax valuation. Company-owned and non-residential properties may follow different valuation rules.
The municipal-waste fee is not a single national percentage.
It funds statutory service components such as:
The assessment method and rate depend on the municipality and the applicable local ordinance. The 2026 waste-fee reforms and transitional provisions make it particularly unsafe to copy a formula from another municipality.
After completion, the buyer should confirm that:
Citizenship does not determine Bulgarian tax residence.
Bulgarian tax residents are generally taxed on worldwide income, subject to domestic exemptions and applicable treaties.
Under Article 13(1)(1) of the Personal Income Tax Act, the following disposals may be exempt where the statutory holding periods are met:
Where the gain is taxable, the taxable income is generally the positive difference between the sale price and acquisition price, reduced by the statutory 10% expenses. The personal income-tax rate is 10%.
A gain from Bulgarian real estate is Bulgarian-source income.
Nonresidents may be subject to Bulgarian final tax. EU and EEA residents have statutory routes for equivalent treatment or annual recalculation in specified circumstances, including access to applicable exemptions where the evidentiary requirements are met. Third-country nonresidents require separate domestic-law and treaty analysis.
Most double-tax treaties permit Bulgaria to tax gains from Bulgarian immovable property.
The treaty may then require the seller's state of residence to provide a foreign-tax credit or exemption. A treaty should not be described as automatically removing Bulgarian tax.
Where a Bulgarian company owns the property, the personal exemptions above do not apply. Corporate-income-tax and possible VAT consequences must be calculated separately.
A clean title does not guarantee that the money will pass the bank's compliance review.
Bulgarian banks, notaries, real-estate agents and lawyers acting in specified transactional roles are subject to anti-money-laundering obligations. They may need to establish:
Where the required due diligence cannot be completed, the obliged institution may refuse the transaction or business relationship.
Depending on the source, prepare:
Article 66 of the Measures Against Money Laundering Act regulates clarification of the origin of funds and normally requires corroboration through the statutory methods rather than an unsupported declaration alone.
A third-party payer should be disclosed before completion. An unexplained transfer from a relative, shareholder or unrelated company may delay or block the payment.
A property price should be paid by bank transfer.
Bulgarian cash-payment law requires account-based payment where the amount reaches the statutory threshold and also captures linked instalments made on the same legal basis. In 2026 the practical threshold corresponding to the statutory BGN 10,000 amount is EUR 5,112.92. Splitting one purchase obligation into smaller cash instalments does not avoid the rule.
A Bulgarian notary may operate a special bank account for money connected with a notarial transaction under Article 25a of the Notaries and Notarial Activities Act.
The release conditions should be set out in a written agreement. They may include:
The special account segregates the transaction money from the notary's own assets and creditors. It does not compensate for defective title or inadequate due diligence.
A commercial-bank escrow account may also be available, but availability, price and KYC timing differ between banks.
There is no general legal prohibition on lending to a foreign buyer.
Bulgarian banks do grant mortgages to some nonresident and foreign-income borrowers. Approval is nevertheless considerably more selective than for a locally employed resident.
The bank may assess:
Some Bulgarian banks currently advertise products for nonresidents or persons receiving income abroad, confirming that mortgage lending is possible but institution-specific.
The buyer should obtain meaningful pre-approval before signing a preliminary contract with a non-refundable payment.
The bank's valuation and internal legal review are performed for the bank's protection. They are not a substitute for independent buyer due diligence.
Ordinary ownership does not give a residence right.
An EU or EEA citizen relies on the applicable free-movement regime. A third-country national requires a separate legal ground under the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act. Ownership may help prove accommodation, but accommodation is not itself an immigration basis.
Yes, but it is not an ordinary "buy a home and receive residence" scheme.
Article 24(1)(19) of the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act provides a prolonged-residence route for a real-estate investment of at least EUR 306,775.13 for each principal applicant. The statutory text still refers to BGN 600,000, but that amount converts automatically to EUR 306,775.13 under Bulgaria's euro-conversion legislation.
The investment must be fully paid, with the funds received through an account at a Bulgarian licensed credit institution. If loan funding is used, the outstanding part of the loan may not exceed 25%. The investment may be made directly or through a Bulgarian company in which the applicant owns more than 50%, provided the same amount is invested in its capital and the company acquires Bulgarian real estate of the required value.
A person who obtained prolonged residence under Article 24(1)(19) and maintained the investment for five years may apply for permanent residence under Article 25(1)(17). The provision does not itself require five years of continuous physical presence, but permanent residence remains subject to the application, certification and general statutory requirements.
The former investment-citizenship route has been repealed. Buying Bulgarian property does not directly produce citizenship.
The scenarios below are general illustrations of common risks, not accounts of particular cases.
The buyer negotiates a "house with land", pays 10%, and only afterwards discovers that part of the plot is agricultural, the access road belongs to somebody else or the buyer cannot directly own the land.
Better approach: obtain the title, cadastral documents and buyer-eligibility analysis before making a non-refundable payment.
A married couple assumes that a deed stating both names means ordinary 50/50 ownership and that only the named borrower can be pursued by the bank.
Both assumptions may be wrong.
Better approach: analyse separately:
The buyer releases most of the price when the structure is complete, although the developer's land mortgage remains and there is no binding unit-release undertaking.
Better approach: connect payments to independently verified construction milestones, mortgage release and a credible route to commissioning.
A building may have clean title yet be unsuitable for the buyer's intended hotel, clinic, office or redevelopment because of zoning, access, parking, fire-safety or change-of-use restrictions.
Better approach: combine legal title work with planning and technical due diligence.
The buyer gives broad authority to sign and pay, then learns that the bank still requires personal KYC or that the attorney can receive and redirect the price.
Better approach: use a narrow transaction-specific power of attorney and coordinate the notary, payment bank and mortgage bank before it is signed abroad.
YARD Law assists foreign buyers with ownership-structure analysis, property due diligence, preliminary contracts and powers of attorney. See our real estate practice, how we act for foreign clients, and our guides to company formation in Bulgaria, foreign documents and Apostilles, inheritance in Bulgaria for foreigners and whether a Bulgarian company gives you residence. Reading Bulgarian? See also Покупка на имот в България: правна проверка и рискове.
Yes. A British citizen can generally own an apartment directly. The deed should be checked for any ideal share in the underlying land, because the UK is now a third country for new land acquisitions.
An American may directly own the house or other buildings, but should not assume that they can also take title to the garden or plot. For an ordinary urban property, the land is commonly acquired through a Bulgarian company or another legally eligible owner. Agricultural and forest land require separate advice and may not be suitable for the standard company structure.
Neither is a universal legal precondition for a cash purchase. An LNC exists in connection with residence status. A foreign owner without an EGN or LNC may require BULSTAT registration. A Bulgarian bank account becomes practically important for mortgages, local payments and transaction administration.
Often yes, through a properly notarised power of attorney. The power must satisfy the special form requirements and may require Apostille or legalisation and Bulgarian translation. A mortgage bank or company bank may still require personal attendance for KYC.
Not automatically. It depends on whether the payment is a reservation fee, advance, earnest money or penalty and on the agreed termination conditions. The word "deposit" does not answer the question.
No. Ordinary ownership of Bulgarian property does not by itself confer residence. A qualifying third-country national may apply under the real-estate investment route only where the investment reaches EUR 306,775.13 per principal applicant and the statutory payment, funding, visa and immigration conditions are satisfied. Eligible family members may normally use the separate family-reunification route without making the same investment themselves.
Legal notice: This guide states the general Bulgarian-law position as at 7 October 2026. Property eligibility, title, tax, sanctions, matrimonial property, immigration and treaty treatment depend on the buyer and the specific asset. It is not a substitute for transaction-specific legal and technical due diligence. Prepared by the legal team at YARD Law Co., a law firm based in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Buying property in Bulgaria from abroad?
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