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BUYING APARTMENT IN BULGARIA
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If you are a foreigner interested in buying apartment in Bulgaria there are a few things that you have to pay attention to:
- To buy an apartment in Bulgaria, you don’t need to register a Ltd company as this is valid only when you are buying land or a house. For the apartments you are actually buying the right to build (not the land) that’s why company formation is not required. There is no reason to worry about that, as once you have bought the apartment you will have legal document for ownership – Notary deed which is not limited in the time and is issued by legal Notary, practicing in the area where is the property.
- Once you have chosen the apartment that you like, the standard way to reserve it is by putting 1000 EUR reservation fee which takes the property off the market. The reservation fee is not refundable, but is deductible from the first payment.
- Once the apartment has been reserved, your passport details and home address is required so that a preliminary contract can be made. In this contract is described everything regarding your purchase – apartment number and price, amounts and dates of payments and also penalties – for you, if you are late with the payment or for the developer if there is delay with the building process. Our solicitor will help you in this process by checking all the papers for the building, documents of ownership and also check the preliminary contract and advise you whether everything is in order or something needs to be changed.
- Usually 1 month after the reservation you will need to transfer the first payment for the apartment into a bank account in Bulgaria.
- As all the property prices in Bulgaria are in EUR (as the rate is fixed with the LEV and it is 1.95583 BGN for 1 EUR), a EUR payment will be required for your apartment. We can advise you about how to get the best rate if you have GBP and need to change them into EUR and send to Bulgaria.
- Once the building where is the apartment is finished (if you are buying off-plan) and all the payments are made, the property will be transferred into your name in the local Notary. For this also you will need a solicitor to prepare all the papers needed and the Notary deed. DO NOT agree to a percent of the purchase price when the solicitor is acting on your behalf in order to purchase apartment.
- After the deal you will need to register the property in the Local Tax department so that you are registered as the new legal owner. Also according to the Bulgarian Law you will need to register in the Bulgarian Statistics Institute (BULSTAT) and take a BULSTAT card. You need to do this within 7 days after the purchase. This service also is included in the cost that our solicitor is charging.
IMPORTANT!
Please, also note than in Bulgaria there is a Tax estimation price /similar to ratable value in UK/ which is usually several times lower than the purchase price. Because of various reasons (saving on taxes and VAT) most vendors prefer that this lower price rather than the real sale price is written in title deeds. Due to this practice, it is good to ask on each individual offer how it’s being transferred.
See also:
Bulgarian Property Legal Services
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