Investments and projects in the Burgas region, page 2

On 9 September 2026 Burgas municipality published the approval of a plan excerpt. It concerns order No 2378 of 27 July 2026. The order was issued by the deputy mayor for construction, investment and regional development. It covers regulated plot UPI VII-265 in quarter 55 of the Kraymorie district, cadastral number 07079.30.460. A plan excerpt brings a single plot forward before the overarching development plan has become final. The order may be challenged under Article 215(4) of the Spatial Planning Act, within 14 days before the Administrative Court in Burgas. The documents are on display in room 409 of the municipality from 8.30 to 17.15. The notice ends on 23 September at 17.00.

Assessment: The plan excerpt is an accelerator. It explains why individual sites in Kraymorie start earlier than the plan for the quarter would suggest. For the buyer this means two things: building on this plot can proceed quickly, and the excerpt depends on the overarching plan. When buying off plan I therefore ask what the building permit rests on. A plan excerpt and a development plan that has become final are two very different levels of security.

On 9 September 2026 Burgas municipality put on display a draft amendment to the development plan for plot UPI XIII-188 in block 13 of the Sarafovo district, cadastral identifier 07079.820.469. The zoning moves from low-rise residential «Zhm» to medium-rise residential «2/Zhs». The draft provides for free-standing medium-rise construction at heights of 9.00 and 12.00 metres plus a single-storey section, a building density of up to 70 per cent, a floor area ratio of up to 2.0, a minimum of 30 per cent green space and parking within the plot; a distance of 3.00 metres from the street regulation line must be kept. Objections may be filed until 17:00 on 23 September 2026, and the documents are available at the Izgrev citizens' centre daily from 08:30 to 12:30.

On 8 September 2026 Burgas municipality published a list of 20 persons. The legal basis is Article 32 of the Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code. It concerns letters about established arrears. The dues involved are property tax, vehicle tax and the waste collection fee. Those named have 14 days to collect the documents in person. The counter is the responsible municipal department on the fourth floor, daily from 9.00 to 12.00. If nobody appears, the documents and the notice are placed on file and count as duly served. The notice remains posted until 23 September.

On 8 September 2026 Burgas municipality published a notification. It comes from the companies Skarabey Build EOOD and Zoleks EOOD. They plan one- and two-family houses together with buildings for public needs. This includes an amendment of the development plan for regulated plot UPI XXVIII-199 in quarter 16 of the Kraymorie district. The cadastral number is 07079.30.62. The procedure follows the Environmental Protection Act and the ordinance on environmental impact assessment. The municipality accepts comments. The full notification is available as a file.

On 8 September 2026 Burgas municipality published the notification of the company Andredi Luks Stroy OOD. The proposal covers six single-family houses. The site is plot 07079.30.480 in the Kafka locality, land area of the city of Burgas. The procedure follows the Environmental Protection Act. The municipality accepts comments and makes the full notification available for download. The Kafka locality lies in the southern belt of the Burgas land area. Individual villa plots have been emerging there from former farmland for years.

Assessment: Six houses are not a large scheme. Yet this is exactly how most new-build supply on the southern coast is created. For a buyer that says more than any market forecast. It shows where finished houses will stand in twelve to eighteen months and what supply the buyer will then face. Anyone planning to sell should know the moment when six new properties in the same locality reach the market.

On 31 August 2026 Burgas municipality published order No 2730 of 26 August 2026. It was issued by the deputy mayor for construction, investment and regional development. It approves the draft amendment of the development plan in its regulation part. The subject is regulated plot UPI I in quarter 11 under the plan of the Mineralni Bani villa zone. The plots concerned are 07079.701.83, 07079.701.84, 07079.701.85 and 07079.701.86. The order may be challenged under Article 215(4) of the Spatial Planning Act, within 14 days before the Administrative Court in Burgas. The documents are on display in room 409 of the municipality daily from 8.30 to 12.30. The notice remains posted until 14 September.

Assessment: The Mineralni Bani villa zone lies next to the thermal area the municipality is investing in. Every regulation there is therefore a question of value. Recutting four cadastral plots is the usual first step before a larger building project. Interested buyers should inspect the regulation before the preliminary contract. Access and building rights are decided by the boundary in the plan, not by the fence standing there today.

Burgas municipality lists the issuing of a certificate of tax valuation for real property as service 2396. The fee is 5.11 euro, with 1.02 euro for each further property and 1.53 euro for each unfinished building. The standard deadline is five days, three days at double the fee and 24 hours at triple; an application filed before noon is served the same working day under the express procedure. Required are the application, copies of the title documents, for farmland additionally a certificate of current characteristics and a sketch, plus a power of attorney if the owner does not appear in person. One point matters for timing: a certificate issued up to 30 June is valid only until that date, one issued afterwards until the end of the year.

At its session of 4 September 2026 Nesebar municipal council approved four detailed development plans in the Sunny Beach West resort complex; minutes No. 28 were published on 11 September. Plot UPI IV-290 in block 4402, cadastral identifier 51500.506.542, moves from resort construction to residential and resort construction with retail and services. UPI VI-483 in block 3305, identifier 51500.507.264, becomes residential construction with public services and on-site parking, while UPI XI-617 in block 401, identifier 51500.508.70, becomes purely residential. The parameters stay the same in all three cases: density 30 per cent, floor area ratio 1.50, height up to 15 metres, minimum green space 50 per cent. The fourth decision splits UPI XIII-268 in block 4901, measuring 2,000 square metres, into three parcels of 667 square metres each, identifiers 51500.506.594, 51500.506.595 and 51500.506.596; there the resort designation remains, with a height limit of 12 metres.

Assessment: The shift from resort to residential use changes who buys in Sunny Beach. Residential land can be used all year and sold to people who live there rather than only to holiday guests, which keeps service charges funded and makes resale easier. Density and green share stay unchanged, so the neighbourhood is not built up more tightly. Before any preliminary contract I ask to see the plan in force for the specific plot, because the parameters differ from block to block.

On 4 September Nesebar municipal council resolved on two public tenders. The first awards building rights on two municipal non-residential plots: UPI I-obsht in block 53a in Ravda with a starting price of 30,000 euro and UPI VIII-182,183 in Sunny Beach West at 24,446 euro, intended for a leisure and sports facility and an office building respectively. The second leases six shop units in the building with identifier 53045.502.593.2 in Obzor for five years, with annual rents from 1,290.24 to 2,856.96 euro including VAT and a participation deposit of 10 per cent. The same session approved two smaller sales of co-ownership shares: 230 square metres of plot 51500.58.3 for 1,877 euro and 80 of 680 square metres of plot 39164.502.686 for 3,458 euro.

On 4 September 2026 Nesebar municipal council, by decision No. 789, permitted the drafting of a detailed development plan for plot 39164.13.63 in the Drakta locality near Kosharitsa. The 22,876 square metres move from agricultural use into urbanised territory, the purpose being a 50 megawatt electricity storage facility. The legal basis is Art. 21 (1) 11 of the Local Self-Government Act and Art. 124a (1) of the Spatial Development Act. At the same session, decision No. 783 approved the acquisition of a ten-year easement for reconstructing the water main from the Kosharitsa-Kuchkarnika pumping station to the Hanska Shatra reservoir: 4,047 euro for plot 51500.200.8, 2,061 euro for 51500.201.227 and 833 euro for 51500.201.164, 6,941 euro in total. Nineteen councillors attended.

By notice No. N2-UT-6695 of 10 September 2026 Nesebar municipality announced a draft amendment to the development plan for plot UPI IX-493 in block 2601 of Sunny Beach West; its cadastral identifier is 51500.507.291. The zone changes from «Ok» for resort construction to «Zhs» for residential construction, with the designated use following suit. The parameters remain unchanged: height up to 15.00 metres over at most five storeys, density 30 per cent, floor area ratio 1.50, minimum green space 50 per cent. The documents are available for inspection at the municipality's spatial planning department, 10 Edelweiss Street, third floor, room 35.

Assessment: The draft is the preliminary stage of what the council has already decided for three neighbouring plots, and it shows that the conversion in Sunny Beach West is not an isolated case. For owners in block 2601 the inspection period is the moment when an objection still achieves something; after that only litigation remains. I see this as an opportunity rather than a risk for buyers, because residential use widens demand. Anyone affected should inspect the draft in person, since the notice states neither a deadline nor a procedure for objections.

On 8 September Pomorie municipality announced that two development plans for technical infrastructure had been published in State Gazette No. 80 of 1 September 2026. They rest on decisions No. 885 and No. 886 of Pomorie municipal council, minutes No. 53 of 23 July 2026. The first plan brings mineral water from borehole No. B-73 of the Medovo deposit to a hotel complex with outdoor pools, underground parking, a transformer station and its own treatment plant in the village of Medovo; the route crosses plots 47651.7.25 and 47651.7.127 over a combined 99.50 metres and encumbers 0.129 decares. The second plan secures the supply line over 205.97 metres on plot 47651.7.127 alone, encumbering 0.266 decares. Objections may be lodged within 30 days of publication, through the municipality, with the Burgas Administrative Court.

For the second quarter of 2026 the National Statistical Institute reports output of 8,272.6 euro per person employed and 21.2 euro per hour worked, a real increase of 3.1 per cent on the same quarter of the previous year. Employment stood at 3,661.8 thousand people and 1,428.3 million hours were worked. By sector, gross value added per person employed is 7,898.2 euro in industry, 7,298.4 euro in services and 1,305.8 euro in agriculture. The data are preliminary and were published on 7 September 2026.

The foreign ministry's briefing note on the long-stay visa states that the application is submitted solely at the diplomatic or consular mission at the applicant's permanent place of residence, or at the mission accredited for that state. Anyone legally staying in a third country may apply there by way of exception, must set out the reasons and must guarantee return to the state of permanent residence. No exception is made from the personal interview. Under Article 15(1) of the Foreigners Act the visa is valid for up to six months with a right to stay of up to 180 days. For the residence permit that follows, the same note requires accommodation, compulsory health insurance and own means for the entire stay, at least at the level of the statutory minimum monthly wage or the minimum pension.

Assessment: This rule regularly costs buyers a trip. Anyone still in the country after the notary appointment who wants to file on the spot is turned away, because jurisdiction follows the place of residence, not the location of the property. In practice: the purchase can be completed on site, the visa application belongs at home and needs an appointment booked in advance, since the personal interview is mandatory. For buyers with two residences I check beforehand which mission is accredited, because waiting time and the document list depend on it. For an assessment of the individual case Svetlana draws on her local network of notaries, tax advisers and lawyers.

At the end of June 2026 Bulgaria had roughly 766,000 square metres of retail park space against roughly 811,000 square metres of shopping centre space, 1.58 million square metres in total, a split of 49 to 51 per cent. All 16,700 square metres of retail space completed in the second quarter were retail parks, and eleven further schemes across eight cities are under construction, totalling 131,000 square metres. Vacancy runs at 1.9 per cent in retail parks against 3.6 per cent in the capital's shopping centres, where rents stand at 48.50 euros per square metre and month compared with 13 euros. The figures come from the quarterly report by Cushman and Wakefield Forton.

Assessment: For coastal owners the finding is less exotic than it sounds. Retail parks are built where year-round purchasing power exists, and they are the most reliable early signal of local shopping provision in a residential area. Anyone assessing a flat in Burgas or along the Pomorie to Sveti Vlas corridor should look at what is being built within two kilometres: a retail park in walking distance changes winter lettability noticeably. With rents of 13 against 48.50 euros per square metre, it is also clear which format keeps growing over the next few years.

Sozopol municipality published list number 3 of debtors under the Local Taxes and Fees Act on 10 September. It names 21 individuals and companies whose outstanding amounts concern property tax and the waste collection fee. Those listed have 14 days from publication to report to the local taxes and fees department at Han Krum Square 2, between 08:30 and 17:15. If no one appears, the document is placed on file under Article 32(6) of the Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code and counts as duly served. The list is posted from 10 to 24 September.

Assessment: This deemed-service rule is where foreign owners are regularly caught out. Anyone who does not live in Bulgaria and has given no address for service in the country often learns of a case only once interest and enforcement costs are already running. Two things help: register a permanent address for service with the municipality, and settle property tax and the waste fee in one spring payment rather than four instalments. For flats used only in summer I also check whether an exemption from the waste fee applies and whether the declaration was filed on time.

The National Assembly is debating and voting at second reading on amendments to the Consumer Protection Act; the report was only partly read out in the chamber the day before. The amendments introduce a minimum level of protection for consumers using financial services: they govern pre-contractual information requirements, the right of withdrawal from financial services contracts concluded at a distance, and the cases in which that right does not apply. The draft also sets out what traders must disclose before a distance financial services contract is concluded and imposes specific requirements on the online interfaces of firms offering such services electronically. For every distance contract, including those for financial services, a dedicated function for exercising the right of withdrawal will have to be provided. The same agenda includes ratification of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters as amended by the protocol in force since 1 June 2011.

Assessment: For buyers who open an account, take out insurance or sign a loan online from abroad, this is the rule that matters: a withdrawal button you can actually find beats a complaint nobody reads. The ratification of the assistance convention in turn concerns anyone holding accounts in two countries, because it widens the exchange of data between tax administrations. Read together, the two lead to the same conclusion I draw: check contracts calmly, note the deadlines and keep the tax return clean in both countries.

Anyone holding property through a Bulgarian company should know Article 204 (1) point 4 of the Corporate Income Tax Act: it taxes in-kind expenses on owned, rented or otherwise available assets that are made available for private use by a managing director, an employee or a person providing personal labour. The rate under Article 216 (2) is three per cent, while corporate income tax under Article 20 is ten per cent. Under Article 206 (2) this expense tax is final; the expense and the tax are recognised in the year they are booked and create no timing difference. It is declared under Article 217 (1) with the annual corporate tax return and paid under Article 217 (2) by 30 June of the following year. The practical order is: fix the share of private use in writing before the first invoice, have electricity, water and internet invoiced to the company name with its identification number, document the mileage log or the floor area split, and set aside the reserve for 30 June month by month.

On 9 September the European Commission tabled its Affordable Housing Act. It has two parts: a regulation creating a common framework for assessing and justifying housing-related measures, with requirements on proportionality, transparency and review, and a recommendation supporting an expansion of supply. It targets areas where demand significantly exceeds supply, and the Commission counts islands and tourist destinations among them alongside cities and metropolitan areas. The draft now enters the ordinary legislative procedure.

The EU act tabled on 9 September allows restrictions on short-term rentals under four conditions only. The activity must demonstrably reduce the long-term housing stock, the adverse effect on affordability and availability must have persisted for at least three years, less restrictive alternatives must have proved ineffective, and the requirements of the EU Short-Term Rental Regulation must be applied. Authorities identify areas under housing stress using a standardised methodology and show that any restriction is targeted, necessary and proportionate. Eurobarometer data cited in the proposal puts the share of city dwellers who see housing as an immediate and urgent problem at more than 50 per cent.

Amendments to the Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code were adopted at second reading on 9 September, transposing Directive (EU) 2023/2226. Providers of crypto-asset services must register and report electronically once a year who trades with them: name, address, date and place of birth, state of tax residence, tax number, and the values and unit numbers of transactions, split into purchases, sales, exchanges, payments for goods and services, and transfers. The deadline is 30 June of the following year, and the exchange with the tax administrations of member states and partner jurisdictions takes place within nine months of the year end. Anyone who fails to supply the required details after two requests and a 60-day period has their transactions restricted by the provider.

Article 24 (1) of the Aliens Act sets out an exhaustive list of the grounds on which long-term residence is granted, and in every case a visa under Article 15 (1), applied for at the consulate in the country of residence, comes first. Property ownership qualifies only under point 19, and only from an investment of no less than 306,775.13 euros per person, with the sum paid in full by the date of application, credited to an account at a bank licensed in Bulgaria, and any outstanding loan balance not exceeding 25 per cent. The route through one's own company under point 2 requires at least ten full-time jobs for Bulgarian citizens, maintained for the duration of residence, and that requirement applies to each shareholder and each managing director separately. Point 20 lowers the threshold to a capital contribution of 127,822.97 euros together with new fixed assets of the same value and five jobs, but applies only in economically disadvantaged regions; whatever the ground, paragraph 2 additionally requires secured housing, compulsory health insurance and sufficient own means without recourse to the social system.

In gated residential complexes, Article 2 of the Condominium Management Act provides that management of the common parts is governed by a written contract with notarised signatures between the developer and the owners. The developer registers that contract with the Registry Agency on the file of each individual unit, and it is expressly enforceable against later acquirers; an electronic search of that file costs 0.51 euros and requires an account on the agency portal, or the notary obtains it. For obligations towards the owners' association that fell due before the transfer of ownership, Article 30 (1) makes the former owner liable unless something else is agreed at the transfer, which is why this clause belongs in the purchase contract and not in a side conversation. Anyone staying no more than 30 days in the calendar year pays, under Article 51 (1), only the amount set for one person towards management and maintenance costs, but a diverging contract under Article 2 can override that relief, so it is read word for word before any deposit.

Assessment: The annual fee in a coastal complex is not a minor item; it changes the return over the whole holding period and passes to the buyer, because the contract attaches to the unit rather than to the person. Two perspectives help: an owner-occupier who comes for a few weeks benefits from the statutory 30-day rule and loses it if the developer's contract uses floor area as the yardstick, while a landlord should build the fee into the price per square metre before comparing two offers at all. My advice is to obtain the register page before the preliminary contract, not after, because once it is signed the clause on old debts is no longer negotiable.

Anyone importing furniture, fittings or trade goods from a country outside the Union through their own Bulgarian company needs an EORI number first. It is issued by the Customs Agency, costs nothing and, according to the official service entry, is available within three working days of application; submission runs through the agency's electronic portal, the secure electronic delivery system, e-mail to the competent customs office, or on paper at any customs office, for the southern coast at the Burgas territorial directorate. The legal basis is Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 952/2013 together with Bulgarian Ordinance H-9 of 2018, and operators established outside the Union may use a number issued in another member state. In practice: EORI and VAT registration come before the order, not after it, and the forwarding instruction states the company number, the VAT number and the EORI in writing, so that the customs declaration names the company as importer rather than the forwarder.

The national register of administrative services gives the fee for exchanging a foreign driving licence as 14.00 euros for applicants under 58, 5.62 euros from 58 to 70, 1.53 euros for a degree of disability of 50 per cent or more, and no fee from 70; processing takes up to 30 days, or up to ten under the expedited procedure. The tariff version available on the traffic police site still lists the same items in the currency that applied before 2026, and converting it produces a different figure from the official entry, so anyone who brings the register entry in print does not argue at the counter but simply presents it. The same register clears up a common misunderstanding: a psychological fitness certificate is required only for categories C1, C, D1, D and T, whereas the general practitioner's medical card is required generally. Three steps before any administrative act: open the entry in the service register, note the amount and the currency, and ask at the till for a receipt showing the sum.

On 17 September 2026 from 15:00, Burgas Free University acts as host and strategic partner of the Lider.BG Regional Business Conference, held under the patronage of Dimitar Nikolov, mayor of Burgas Municipality. The programme is structured around three discussion strands: investment and growth, the digital future of business, and economic security and resilience. Partners include the Bulgarian Investment Agency (BIA), the Burgas Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Burgas Industrial and Logistics Park; attendance is free after mandatory registration and places are limited.

The Foreign Ministry lists two options as proof of accommodation for the long-stay D visa: a notarised rental contract or a notarial title deed. With a rental contract the document list also asks for a notarised declaration by the owner that he provides the registration address. That declaration depends on the landlord being willing and reachable, and it is needed again at every renewal; with your own deed it falls away entirely. The same list requires a passport with at least 18 months of remaining validity, medical insurance of at least 30,000 euros and, for a first application, a certificate of good conduct. Checklist: anyone buying on the southern coast anyway should place the notary appointment before the visa application, have the deed entered in the property register, check that the address of the property and the address in the application match character for character, and file two certified copies for later renewals.

The Registry Agency has converted the capital shown in the commercial register for all limited liability companies, joint stock companies and cooperatives into euro, ex officio and free of charge. Owners need file nothing and pay nothing for it. The founding documents themselves, that is the articles and the partnership agreement, are only adapted with the next filing that is due anyway. Publication of the annual accounts is expressly unaffected: it must be filed by 30 September, regardless of whether the capital conversion paperwork has been brought up to date.

The Registry Agency reports that processing in the commercial register and in the register of non-profit legal entities is currently taking longer than usual. The reason is the increased volume of filings arising from the duties of merchants under the Law on the Introduction of the Euro in the Republic of Bulgaria. The agency advises all merchants and non-profit legal entities planning a general meeting to submit their filings as early as possible. The notice gives no figure for the actual duration.

The Local Taxes and Fees Act exempts the surviving spouse and the heirs in the direct line from inheritance tax without limit (Art. 31 para 2). Siblings and their children pay 0.4 to 0.8 per cent, all other heirs 3.3 to 6.6 per cent, and only on the part of the share above 127,822.97 euros; the council sets the exact rate within that band (Art. 36). The declaration goes within six months to the municipality of the deceased person's last residence, or, where that residence was abroad, to the municipality holding the larger part of the estate (Art. 32). Since 1 January 2026 the estate is valued in euros, property according to the tax valuation under Annex 2, and funeral costs of 511.29 euros are deductible (Art. 33, Art. 34). Balances on accounts of a deceased person and payments under a life policy are released by the bank only against a municipal certificate; where the tax is unpaid, the bank withholds it and transfers it to the municipality within one month (Art. 41). The thresholds still appear in the statute in the former currency and are converted here at the official rate 1 EUR = 1,95583 BGN.