A year has passed since the publication of the article How much does it cost to live in Bulgaria . During this time, prices have changed. Regardless of whether you are going to move to Bulgaria for permanent residence or are simply interested in Bulgaria, a natural question arises: how much does it cost to live in Bulgaria? In this article, I have collected the most up-to-date information for 2022 and will show from personal experience how much we spend per month living in Bulgaria. And I will tell you how you can save money.
How much does it cost to live in Bulgaria. Housing costs
The most important part of the budget is rent, unless of course you have your own. The price for renting an apartment depends on the city and the area within the city.
We found such a 1-room apartment in Sofia for 215 euros.
And the price of such a 2-room apartment is 375 euros.
In Varna the price of such a 1-room apartment is 140 euros,
and here is a 2-room apartment in a new building for 300 euros.
In Sofia, the rental prices for a 1-room apartment start from 200 euros, for a 2-room apartment from 250 euros, and for a 3-room apartment from 300 euros. In Varna, the rental prices for a 1-room apartment start from 125 euros, although you can find an option for less than 100 euros. The rental price for a 2-room apartment starts from 150 euros and for a 3-room apartment from 200 euros.
Real estate in Bulgaria. Features
The cost of renting a house in Bulgaria usually includes only the rent itself. Electricity, water and the so-called support fee, similar to rent, are paid separately. In the case of long-term rental housing, the contract is usually concluded for 1 year with automatic renewal. When concluding the contract, in addition to the rent, a deposit in the amount of a month’s rent is paid. If you use the services of a realtor, you will have to pay extra. In Sofia, this amount will be 100% of the monthly rent, and in Varna 50%. Thus, if renting an apartment costs 300 euros, you will have to immediately pay 900 euros if this apartment is in Sofia or 750 euros in Varna.
The cost of apartments in Sofia now starts from 36,000 euros for a 1-room apartment and 45,000 for a 2-room apartment.
On specialized websites, you can find housing options that suit you. Where you can choose by various parameters, right down to the year the house was built.
Features of communal apartments in Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the good news, from a budget point of view, is that there is practically no central heating and, accordingly, no payment for it. Heating is usually done with electricity. These are air conditioners, convectors, heaters, etc.
In the last winter month, our family of 4 consumed 450 kW of electricity, which is about 50 euros. And this is despite the fact that a two-tariff meter “day/night”, energy-saving lamps were installed, and we almost never used the heater. The main consumers of electricity are: boiler, microwave, electric kettle, computer, and heating the apartment with electrical appliances. To save electricity, you can turn on the boiler only during the night tariff. If the boiler is of sufficient volume, it should last the whole day. The price in Bulgaria for 1 kW during the day is 12 cents, at night – 7 cents. The price for water supply in Bulgaria varies depending on the city. In Sofia 1.50 euros, in Varna the price is 1.65 euros per 1 cubic meter. Also, utilities in Bulgaria sometimes include a so-called support fee, which includes house maintenance, elevator if there is one. The price varies depending on the house management company, as a rule, there is none at all, but here it is 10 euros per month.
300 euros rent for an average 2-room apartment + 50 euros electricity (450 kW) + 20 euros water (12 m3) + 10 euros maintenance fee.
Total all together: 380 euros.
Transportation costs
The next significant expenses that cannot be avoided are transportation. A car in Bulgaria is needed primarily by people who do not live in the center of large cities, but in the neighborhoods, as well as in small towns or villages. You can rent a car. But this is not very profitable, especially in the summer, when rental prices rise almost 2 times. You can buy a used car in Bulgaria inexpensively, because there is no customs clearance. The car must be insured. The price for annual insurance starts from 135 euros.
You also need to pass a paid mandatory technical inspection (20 euros) and pay an annual car tax (from 35 euros), the amount of which depends on the city of registration and other data. Also, to drive on roads outside of populated areas, you must buy a vignette. It is most profitable to take it for a year – 50 euros. You also need to take into account that living in the center of a large city will probably have a problem with parking, and paid parking can cost 25-50 euros per month.
The price of fuel in Bulgaria is now about 1.25 euros per 1 liter of gasoline or diesel. And if you use public transport. The price of a 30-minute ticket in Sofia is 82 cents in the city, and for 1 hour – 1.12 euros. In Varna 1 hour is 50 cents. Buses run on schedule, most often it is observed. On a special website you can track the movement of buses on routes in real time. If you go to work and back every day, it comes to 32 euros per month per person. I do not recommend traveling without a ticket, you can be fined.
A taxi within the city center costs about 2.50 euros. All taxis are equipped with taximeters, and the driver is required to issue a receipt after the trip. If you are traveling in a company of 3 or 4 people, the price of a taxi is comparable to the price of bus tickets.
Expenses for food and household goods
And of course, you can’t do without food and household goods.
This package of toilet paper from 8 rolls costs 2 euros. Toothpaste, which can be bought for 1 euro. Shower gel (95 cents). Head&Shoulders shampoo (3.70 euros). Savex laundry detergent for 28 washes (2.45 euros). If you have pets, then these are additional expenses. A can of such cat food costs 45 cents. For dogs – 60 cents.
In addition to these expenses there are detergents, sponges, rags, garbage bags. It is impossible to calculate exactly how much is spent per month. We spend approximately 20 euros on household goods.
Prices for equipment
TVs. Samsung 55 inches (610 euros).
Laptops. Lenovo with a discrete graphics card (510 euros).
Phone iPhone 13 Pro Max (1295 euros).
Potatoes (50 cents per 1 kg). A kilogram of onions (50 cents per 1 kg). A pack of ten eggs (1.20 euros). A liter of 3% fat milk (1.05 euros).
Fresh meat, pork, bacon (5.25 euros per 1 kg), fresh chicken (5.25 euros per 1 kg).
Bread (65 cents). Irish butter, 250 grams (2.80 euros).
Shrimps in this wooden package (14.99 euros).
In total, our family spends 450 euros per month on food.
There is a chain of grocery stores in Bulgaria called “Berezka” where they sell products supposedly from the former USSR, although there are also products made in Germany.
Medical insurance
Another expense item in Bulgaria is compulsory medical insurance. What it is depends on your official status in Bulgaria. If you have a residence permit, then this will be insurance only for emergency cases, usually purchased for 1 year. The price is from 75 euros per year per person, the price depends on the insurance company and age.
If you have permanent residence status or Bulgarian citizenship, then this is the mandatory NZOK insurance. Which covers all basic medical services, even several visits to the dentist. It is paid monthly, 13 euros for people without any income or 8% of the income received per person. The good news is that for children, if they go to school, such insurance is paid for by the school.
And the prices for imported medicines in Bulgaria are cheaper.
(The cost of a PCR test starts from 40 euros).
Internet and television in Bulgaria.
We don’t have cable TV at home. We pay 6.50 euros per month for the Internet for 75 Mbit of optical Internet. A little hint, if you rent an apartment, then often there is already Internet and it is included in the rent of the apartment. If not, then you will have to make an application for Internet connection. As a rule, the Internet connection itself is free. And here the most important thing is to look for an Internet provider that will connect the Internet without concluding an annual contract. For example, like ours – the provider Bulsatcom, in order to avoid problems in the future. Prices for cable TV start from 5 euros for the most minimal package of channels, but there is almost no point in it, since Russian-language channels will be at best the bare minimum. But if having television is important to you, then IP television will be the best option for you.
Mobile communications in Bulgaria
As for mobile communications, annual or biennial contracts with a monthly subscription fee are popular in Bulgaria. Prices for contracts start from 12 euros per month per person. And a contract with unlimited minutes and megabytes costs from 20 euros, which also includes a large number of minutes and megabytes in EU roaming.
But in case of delay of monthly payment under the contract, the phone number is disconnected, penalties and fines are charged. The debt will increase almost exponentially. Breaking the contract is difficult, time-consuming and expensive. But there is a way out.
These are prepaid SIM cards without a contract and without any obligations on your part. This is an economical and safe option. You buy a prepaid SIM card. In our case, this is the Telenor operator. Our expenses for 1 phone are 5 euros per month, which includes 1 GB of Internet, 500 minutes for calls within the operator and 50 minutes for calls to all numbers within the EU. Unused minutes and megabytes in the package do not burn out, they are added to the new month if you top up your number as if overlapping.
If something is not enough, you can always buy what you need. With this method, you pay only for what you want. The validity period of such a SIM card is 1 year, with each replenishment the validity period is extended by 1 year. The only thing I will warn you is that such prepaid SIM cards are in short supply, they are hard to find in mobile phone stores, and sellers are not particularly enthusiastic about selling them.
Mobile Communication for 4 phone numbers plus home Internet and television.
Total: 26.50 euros
Additional Costs of Living in Bulgaria
Prices for men’s haircuts in Bulgarian hairdressers start from 5 euros, although we found some for 4.
If you visit a gym, add another 30 euros per month per person.
Well, if you add up all the expenses that I listed, you get this amount. Perhaps someone manages to spend less, someone more. Everything very much depends on the expenses of a particular person and family, maybe someone saves on food. By the way, about saving on food. Each chain store has such weekly booklets where discounted goods are posted, all this information is duplicated on the Internet. And in this way you can really save up to 20-30% of the family budget. What is typical for Bulgaria is that there is no single store with the lowest prices or with a full range of goods. One store has some goods, and another store has others. For example, we make purchases in different stores, we buy something in one store, something in another. Because some types of goods or brands are sold only in one chain, and others in another.
And how much does it cost to live in Bulgaria?
This is the amount we got: 950 euros.
These are the expenses that we spend on a family of 4 people for 1 month.
Of course, these are not all the expenses, I did not take into account trips to cafes, school supplies, various small things, clothing costs, I will not take these expenses into account, because this is very individual. But we have calculated the main expenses for living in Bulgaria. And here you can find out the expenses in Bulgaria in 2024.
