Bulgaria Property Market - Buyers Guide

BULGARIAN PROPERTY - BUYING PROCESS

Buying on the Bulgarian primary market (offplan)

Choose your apartment
Engage lawyer (who will arrange the contracts and perform checks)
Pay legal fees
Sign reservation contract and pay reservation monies (sometimes this step is missed out goes straight to step 5)
Sign Future Purchase contract and pay deposit monies (minus reservation monies)
Around 6-8 months before completion (Act 15) arrange a mortgage (if required)
There is likely to be a stage payment to make on Act 15 (completion)
Act 15 (completion) is followed by Act 16 (handover) often 3 months when the final monies will need to be paid
Sign Purchase contract (with lawyers help) and pay remaining monies (perhaps with mortgage help)

Buying on the Bulgarian secondary market (resale)

The process is broadly similar to the above, except that there is usually only a reservation contract and no future purchase contract and no Act 15 or 16 to worry about.
Also, if you require a mortgage you may need to perform the process more quickly (eg within 3 months).

BULGARIAN PROPERTY - BUYING COSTS

Bulgaria has relatively low buying costs.

Some costs to consider are:

Legal fees - typically 1,200 Euro
Purchase taxes and notary costs typically come to around 2% of the purchase cost