Bulgaria Home Prices Rise 15.5 Percent in the Second Quarter as Burgas Prices Fall

Bulgarian house prices rose 15.5 percent in the year to the second quarter of 2026, the National Statistical Institute reported on 23 September, with a 4.5 percent gain over the first quarter alone. The national figure conceals a split: Burgas, on the Black Sea coast, was the only surveyed city where prices fell.

What it means for a foreign buyer

The national number and the number for the markets foreign buyers actually shop in are not the same this quarter. Burgas prices fell 1.5 percent against the first quarter. Varna, the other coastal centre, rose 2.8 percent and Sofia rose 2.4 percent, both below the 4.5 percent national quarterly average. The 15.5 percent annual headline is being carried by inland cities, Plovdiv above all, at 5.8 percent for the quarter alone. If you are holding a coastal apartment and reading the national figure as a mark on your own asset, you are using the wrong benchmark, and an agent quoting you 15.5 percent on a Burgas resale is quoting a number that does not describe that market.

If you are buying, the quarterly series is the one to watch rather than the annual one. Quarterly momentum eased from 6.2 percent in the first quarter to 4.5 percent in the second, so the annual rate rose while the pace of increase slowed. That gives a coastal buyer more room to negotiate than the annual print suggests, and an inland buyer in Plovdiv less. There is also a tax consequence attached to these figures. Bulgaria is raising the tax assessment base on property from 2027, and assessed values track market prices, so a year of double-digit gains feeds directly into what owners will be charged later.

Price the city, not the country.

What changed

The second-quarter reading of 15.5 percent year on year follows 14.8 percent in the first quarter of 2026. On a quarterly basis the direction reversed: prices rose 6.2 percent in the first quarter against the last quarter of 2025, then 4.5 percent in the second quarter against the first. The annual rate accelerated by 0.7 percentage points while the quarterly rate decelerated by 1.7 points.

The city-level figures, all measured quarter on quarter for the second quarter, were:

- Plovdiv, up 5.8 percent

- Stara Zagora, up 2.9 percent

- Varna, up 2.8 percent

- Sofia, up 2.4 percent

- Burgas, down 1.5 percent

Only Plovdiv beat the 4.5 percent national quarterly average. Sofia, which dominates transaction volume, ran at roughly half the national pace. Burgas was the sole decline.

Two things the release did not contain are worth naming, because their absence limits what can be concluded. The National Statistical Institute did not publish a split between newly built and existing dwellings in this release, so it is not possible to tell from it whether the inland gains are concentrated in new supply. It also did not publish an average price per square metre, so the percentages cannot be converted into levels.