The housing market in Bulgaria at the start of 2025 - summary and forecast

Hello and Happy New Year!
Let's start it with a summary and some thoughts on what lies ahead for the housing market.

2024 started as the year with a lot of question marks and turned into another successful year for the property market in Bulgaria - says Polina Stoykova MRICS, Managing Director of BULGARIAN PROPERTIES.

There was uncertainty and ambiguity on many issues - whether mortgage interest rates will be raised, when Bulgaria will be accepted into the eurozone, whether the inflation rate will calm down, what will happen to the property supply and whether it will increase.

In the end, many of the negative expectations for the market did not come true. Interest rates remained at historic lows and bank lending continued to grow in volume. This naturally led to an acceleration in the rate of price growth, particularly in the second half of the year, and by the end of 2024 we were seeing year-on-year increases of 10-15% in different areas of the country.

Demand remained strong and was not met by available supply, which kept property prices high. New construction is trying but failing to meet all demand. Still, we can say that new construction has been the most preferred by buyers over the last 10 years and this trend remains persistent.

What can we expect in the property market in 2025?

The new year also brings its unknowns, but overall it will not be significantly different from the boom years after 2020. Supply will remain limited, at least until there is clarity on our entry into the eurozone, and demand will remain high due to available bank funding. The labour market will continue to support demand with low unemployment and rising incomes, although the pace of growth may slow down.

Based on empirical research on market drivers, the strongest influences are housing loan volumes and price growth momentum. That is, even these two factors alone suggest that at least the first half of 2025 will not bring significant changes to the housing market in Bulgaria.

"Overall, I expect another strong year, in which I hope the market will achieve better balance and stability to maintain buyers' confidence and willingness to invest in property," Stoykova sums up.

How much is your property worth at the start of 2025? 👇