24 articles
The Sofia property journal
Research pieces built on the same two datasets as the rest of this site: 18,058 for-sale listings and 6,176 long-let listings, sampled in Sofia on 16 September 2026. Money, neighbourhoods, moving and the practical mechanics of owning a flat here.
Money & the market
The cost of living in Sofia, honestly
Rent from our own sample of Sofia listings, utility bills from real flats, and three monthly budgets that show where the money act…
The euro and Bulgarian property prices
The exchange rate never moved. What moved was behaviour — and the effect on prices arrived well before the banknotes did.…
Rental yields in Sofia, neighbourhood by neighbourhood
We paired our sale-listing sample with our rental sample for the same neighbourhoods. The result is the yield table nobody publish…
Rent or buy in Sofia? Run the numbers first
A median one-bedroom rents for €635 and sells for a good deal more than people expect. Here is where the two lines cross.…
The Bulgarian property market in 2026
Less narrative, more measurement: what 18,058 live Sofia listings say about supply, pricing and where the market has moved.…
Is property in Bulgaria a good investment?
The honest answer is: sometimes, for specific people, in specific neighbourhoods — and much less often than the marketing suggests…
Choosing a neighbourhood
The best neighbourhoods in Sofia, by the numbers
Every "best areas" list is somebody’s opinion. Ours is a formula applied identically to 136 neighbourhoods, and you can see exactl…
Best Sofia neighbourhoods for families
Counted schools, kindergartens, playgrounds and parks — not adjectives — set against what a two-bedroom flat actually costs there.…
The cheapest places to buy in Sofia
Cheap is easy to find. Cheap without a hidden cost is the actual problem — so here is both halves of the answer.…
Buying in Sofia with €150,000
A real budget, matched against real medians: 35 neighbourhoods where the typical one-bedroom still fits.…
Where expats and remote workers live in Sofia
The default answer is three neighbourhoods. The better answer arrives after six months — so here is both.…
Sofia neighbourhoods, explained
Four belts, 136 names and a set of abbreviations nobody translates for you. This is the map in words.…
Moving to Bulgaria
Bulgaria’s digital nomad route, in practice
A long-stay visa followed by a residence card, a 10% flat tax and rents around €635 a month. Here is the sequence, and the traps.…
Residence permits in Bulgaria for non-EU citizens
Buying a flat does not give you residence. Here is what does, in the order it actually happens.…
Moving to Bulgaria from the UK
Brexit turned this from a formality into a process. The process is manageable — if you do it in the right order.…
Moving to Bulgaria from the United States
A 10% flat tax is not the whole story when the IRS follows you. Here is the version with the American complications included.…
Retiring in Bulgaria
Cheap, safe and in the EU — with two caveats that decide whether it works: healthcare access and liquidity of whatever you buy.…
Living in Sofia as a foreigner
The good parts are cheaper than you expect and the difficult parts are not the ones the brochures warn about.…
Owning and running a flat
What it costs to run a Sofia apartment
Heating is the whole game. Two identical flats in different buildings can differ by €500 a year on that line alone.…
What it costs to renovate a flat in Sofia
Fitting out a new build runs €250–400 per square metre. A full renovation of an old flat runs more — and adds more.…
Opening a Bulgarian bank account
Not legally required to buy a flat. Genuinely required to own one without irritation.…
Schools in Sofia, and where to live for them
For families, the school decides the neighbourhood — not the other way round. Here is how the options actually differ.…
Short lets in Sofia: the rules and the returns
Gross yields look better than a long let. Net of categorisation, cleaning, management and empty Februaries, the gap narrows fast.…
Selling a Bulgarian apartment
The three-year exemption is the single most valuable rule in Bulgarian property tax — and the one most foreign owners discover too…
Want a shortlist for Sofia?
Tell us the budget and the size, and we will come back by email with what is actually available in the neighbourhoods that fit — including the listings that never make it onto the English-language portals.