Buying a house in Bulgaria: free for EU citizens, and since 2024 the land too

A village house with an orchard for the price of a garage at home: that's why many Dutch people look at Bulgaria. It's possible, and since 2024 with the orchard too.

A home: no permit

As an EU citizen you buy a home, a flat or a building plot in Bulgaria on the same footing as a Bulgarian. The restrictions from the first years after accession ended for built-up and building land in 2012.

The land: the 2024 judgment

Agricultural land was the exception. Since 2014 Bulgarian law said that only whoever had lived or been established in Bulgaria for more than five years could buy agricultural land — and a village house with an orchard behind it is often partly agricultural land.

The Court of Justice of the EU declared that rule contrary to the free movement of capital of article 63 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU on 18 January 2024 in case C-562/22. The judgment applies directly: the five-year rule no longer applies to EU citizens. But the law itself wasn't amended in a day, and not every notary applies the judgment equally smoothly yet. Ask beforehand, and have the zoning of the plot checked in the land registry before you sign.

The purchase runs through the notary, and the land registry decides

The purchase is recorded in a notarial deed, in Bulgarian; the notary has the deed entered in the land registry, and you're the owner on that entry, not on signing. Take your own lawyer who reads Bulgarian, not the seller's or the estate agent's, and have the extract checked for mortgages, attachments and easements.

Two things that surprise Dutch people: the deed sometimes names a lower price than you pay, to save tax — don't go along with that, because the revenue agency checks and the liability is yours — and the tax value of the property is often much lower than the purchase price, which keeps your annual tax low.

The costs

On purchase the municipality charges a transfer tax it sets itself, between a tenth and three percent of the purchase price or the tax value if that is higher. In 2025 Sofia was at three percent, Varna at 2.96, Burgas at 2.91 and Plovdiv at 2.88. On top come the notary, per a statutory tariff, the entry in the land registry of a tenth of a percent, and possibly the estate agent, who in Bulgaria asks the buyer for a commission. Count on four to seven percent on top of the purchase price.

And the tax on what you buy

With property the tax treaty doesn't follow your place of residence but the bricks: income from immovable property may be taxed in the state where that property is situated. That's in article 6. A property in Bulgaria is taxed there, with the annual municipal property tax on top, and a home you keep in the Netherlands stays taxed in the Netherlands — Bulgaria credits the Dutch tax, and with the flat tax of ten percent there is rarely anything left of that.