Almost every second conversation about the coast sooner or later turns the same way: what if not an apartment, but a house. Your own yard, your own gate, nobody behind the wall.
You can. But a house works differently, and not only on the outside — it is better to understand the difference before the deposit, not after.
What follows is not general talk. We took every house and villa currently in our database on the Burgas coast, worked out their prices and distances to the sea, and compared them with apartments in the same villages. Every figure in this article comes from our own live listings, not from someone else's review.
In short: how a house differs from an apartment
In three things: land, the money it takes to run, and how fast you can get out.
Under an apartment the land is not yours, and it never concerns you. Under a house the land is yours — and this is where a separate story with paperwork begins for a buyer from outside the European Union.
An apartment pays a maintenance fee and almost nothing else. A house may pay no fee at all, but the roof, the fence, the septic tank and the garden are fixed out of your own pocket.
An apartment by the sea sells in months. A house sells in seasons. There are far fewer buyers for a house.
Below we go through each point separately, with prices.
Three different things that ads pile into one heap
Before counting money, we need to separate three things that sellers all call a «house».
Apartment
You buy a unit inside a shared building. The land under the building is common, your share of it comes with the apartment automatically and is not registered separately. The roof, lift, facade and pool are maintained by the complex, and you pay a fee for that.
Townhouse
A section in a row. Its own entrance from the street, usually two floors, a small yard, one or two walls shared with neighbours. Most often it sits inside a complex — with a pool, security and the same maintenance fee as the apartments.
Legally, a townhouse in a complex is closer to an apartment than to a house: the land normally stays a common part of the complex. That makes buying much simpler for a foreigner.
An example from our database: a 145 m² townhouse in Kosharitsa — 190 000 €, which is 1 310 € per metre.
Detached house
It stands on its own plot, more often outside a complex — in a village near the sea or on the edge of a resort town. No shared fee, no management company, everything is on you.
These are three different purchases with different costs and different documents, even though ads usually put them on the same line.
Table: what differs from what
| Parameter | Apartment | Townhouse in a complex | Detached house |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land under the property | Common share, not registered separately | Usually a common part of the complex | Your own plot, registered separately |
| Does a non-EU citizen need a Bulgarian company | No | Usually no | As a rule yes, for the land |
| Maintenance fee | Yes, per m² per year | Yes, per m² per year | No |
| Who repairs the roof and facade | The complex | The complex | You |
| Pool and security | Provided by the complex | Provided by the complex | Only your own, at your own cost |
| Median area | 79 m² | 145 m² | 164 m² |
| Median price per m² | 1 652 € | 1 310 € | 1 303 € |
| Short-term rental | Good | Average | Poor |
| Developer payment plan | Often | Sometimes | Almost never |
| Time to sell | Months | Months to a year | A year and longer |
The median is the figure with exactly half of the properties above it and half below. Calculated on our own houses and apartments on the Burgas coast, measured in September 2026.
Land is the main difference, and it is not about comfort but about the law
This is the point that breaks house deals halfway through. Let us go through it calmly.
What the law says
Under Article 22 of the Bulgarian Constitution, foreigners acquire ownership of land only on the terms arising from Bulgaria's membership of the European Union, or under an international treaty. Plus by inheritance.
In plain language: a citizen of an EU country buys a plot in their own name with no questions asked. A citizen of Ukraine, Russia, Britain or Kazakhstan cannot register land in their own name.
This is not a ban on buying a house
A foreigner can buy the building itself. In Bulgaria the building and the land beneath it are two separate objects of law, and they live apart quite happily.
From there, two workable routes exist. First: the land is registered to a Bulgarian company that the buyer sets up in their own name. Second: only the building is bought, and a right of use or a right to build is registered on the land.
The first route is more common, because banks, notaries and sellers are used to it.
A company is not scary, but it costs money every year
Registering a Bulgarian EOOD is a one-off and it is not expensive. Then comes the part the ads never mention: the company acquires annual reporting obligations, which means an accountant who has to be paid every month or every year.
The exact amount for your case is quoted by an accountant, because it depends on whether the company trades or simply holds the plot. This has to be counted in advance and added to the price of the house, not discovered after the notary.
When you do not need a company
If you are an EU citizen, you do not need a company at all. If you are buying a townhouse in a complex where the land remained a common part, you generally do not need one either.
So for a non-EU buyer the question «house or townhouse» is also the question «one deal, or a deal plus a company for many years».
What a house on our coast actually costs
The direct answer: the median house price with us is around 193 500 €. Half the houses are cheaper, half are more expensive. The spread is wide: from 88 000 € to 532 696 €. The median area is 164 m². The figures below were measured in September 2026, and we put a live list of what is on the market right now at the end of this section.
Let us break it down by budget.
Up to 150 000 € — the most affordable shelf
This budget buys houses in villages, with a drive to the sea. The cheapest is a 56 m² house in Dyulevo for 88 000 €, 24,8 km from the sea. Next to it, a 135 m² house in the same village for 130 000 € — that is 963 € per metre, one of the cheapest metres in the database.
Closer to the sea this budget also buys something: a 179 m² house in the Floral Meadows complex in Aheloy for 110 000 € — 615 € per metre, 4,2 km from the sea. And a 101 m² house in Banya for 121 000 €, 719 metres from the sea.
More options on this shelf: 75 m² in Kableshkovo for 105 000 €, 112 m² in Prosenik for 122 000 €, 127 m² in Goritsa for 142 000 €, 116 m² in a gated complex in Aleksandrovo for 145 000 €, 120 m² in Kableshkovo for 149 000 €.
From 150 000 to 250 000 € — the main choice
Here the villages start where the sea is a walk away, or ten minutes by car.
Villa Montemar, 152 m² in Kosharitsa — 160 000 €, 1 053 € per metre. A 164 m² house in the Rusalka complex in Sveti Vlas — 168 000 €, 541 metres from the sea. A 145 m² house in Kosharitsa — 180 000 €. A two-storey 132 m² house in a gated complex in Kosharitsa — 190 000 €. A 155 m² house in Goritsa — 189 000 €. Villa Elegant, 192 m² in Pomorie Luxury Village — 240 000 €.
From 250 000 € — houses right by the water
This is already the front row of the resort towns and villas in completed complexes. Villa Victoria Hill in Pomorie, 166,5 m², 388 500 € — 100 metres from the sea, and the metre here costs 2 333 €. A 116 m² house in the Majestic Sea Village complex — 273 000 €, the same 100 metres from the sea, 2 353 € per metre.
A 250 m² house in Sveti Vlas — 378 000 €, 156 metres from the sea. A 270 m² house with a sea panorama in the same town — 399 000 €. A 250 m² house in Ravda with a 540 m² plot — 324 000 €. Houses in the Nessebar Houses complex — from 340 000 € at 315 metres from the sea.
The main conclusion about money
A metre in a house is cheaper than a metre in an apartment: 1 303 € against 1 652 €, taking the medians. But the total cheque is higher: 193 500 € against 125 100 €.
The reason is simple — a house is twice the size. 164 square metres against 79. You are not paying for a more expensive metre, you are paying because there are twice as many metres, and in winter you will be heating twice as many too.
If you want the whole deal broken down to the bone, we have a separate breakdown: the real cost of an apartment in Bulgaria — the expenses you cannot see in the listing.
What is on the market right now
Сейчас в продаже: 45 домов и вилл, от 88 000 € до 1 259 580 €. Список собирается автоматически в момент, когда вы открыли страницу (14 October 2026). Проданные объекты пропадают отсюда сами, поэтому цены здесь всегда сегодняшние. Ниже — десять самых доступных.
- Дом с 3 комнатами в с. Дюлево — 88 000 €, 56 м², до моря 24,8 км
- Дом с 2 спальнями в г. Каблешково — 105 000 €, 75 м², до моря 8,6 км
- Дом с 2 спальнями в с. Баня — 115 000 €, 101 м², до моря 719 м
- Дом с 2 спальнями в с. Дюлево — 130 000 €, 135 м², до моря 16,3 км
- Дом с 2 спальнями в с. Горица — 142 000 €, 127 м², до моря 20,1 км
- Дом с 1 спальней в с. Тънково — 145 000 €, 65 м², до моря 5,3 км
- Дом с 3 спальнями в г. Каблешково — 149 000 €, 120 м², до моря 8,6 км
- Дом с 3 спальнями в с. Кошарица — 160 000 €, 120 м²
- Вилла Монтемар — 160 000 €, 152 м², до моря 5,1 км
- Дом с 2 спальнями в с. Кошарица — 163 000 €, 85 м², до моря 4,1 км
Where people actually buy houses on the Burgas coast
According to our database, the geography breaks down like this.
Kosharitsa
The most popular direction. It is a village above Sunny Beach: 4 kilometres down the road to the sea, but higher, quieter and greener than down below. From here our database has both the townhouse at 190 000 € and a 340 m² house with a 950 m² plot for 366 500 €.
It is bought by people who want to come for the whole summer and do not want to live in a crowd.
Sveti Vlas
The most expensive and the closest to the sea. Here a house already means 378–399 thousand, and the metre costs around 1 500 €. In return you get 150–650 metres to the beach and a town that lives all year round.
On the difference between Sunny Beach and Sveti Vlas we have a detailed comparison: where to buy in 2026.
Pomorie and Aheloy
Pomorie is a town, not a resort village: a clinic, schools, salt and mud treatment, life in winter. Houses here come in completed complexes, and the metre is the most expensive in our database — 2 333–2 353 €.
Aheloy is next door and noticeably cheaper, but from its houses the sea is already 4 kilometres away.
Ravda and the inland villages
Ravda is the quiet option next to Nessebar, and we have a separate breakdown on it: apartment prices, beaches and drawbacks.
Then come Goritsa, Dyulevo, Prosenik, Kableshkovo, Aleksandrovo and Banya. That is where the cheapest houses and the most honest metres are — but the sea is between 700 metres and 25 kilometres away, and that has to be taken seriously, not as a line in an advert.
What it costs to run: house against apartment
This is where the surprise usually happens.
Maintenance fee
An apartment and a townhouse in a complex pay a fee — a fixed sum per square metre per year. It covers the pool, security, grounds cleaning, the lift and the facade.
The spread along the coast is wide, and we covered it separately: the maintenance fee in Bulgaria — from 3 to 25 € per m².
A detached house pays no fee at all. That is the main line of savings.
Property tax and waste collection
Both a house and an apartment pay these. The rate is set by the municipality and is calculated from the tax valuation of the property, not from the purchase price. A house is usually valued higher simply because it is bigger.
How this works and what else a foreign owner pays is in our breakdown of property taxes in Bulgaria.
Utilities and heating
Heating 164 square metres costs more than heating 79. That is simple arithmetic, yet for some reason nobody does it before buying. If you plan to winter here, ask the seller for the real January and February bills — not «roughly», but the actual receipts.
What winter on the coast really looks like we described here: winter in Sveti Vlas.
Repairs, the garden and everything else
Roof, fence, septic tank, pump, gates, trees. In a complex the management company does all of it for the fee. In a detached house you do it, with your own money, and preferably with your own hands, because a tradesman who comes out for a single call-out is expensive.
From a distance it does not always work. If the house stands empty for nine months, somebody has to go in.
Count it like this
Apartment: fee + tax + utilities + rental management.
House: tax + utilities (more of them) + garden and repairs (unpredictable) + the company's accountant (every year) + a person who looks after the house in winter.
The company line and the caretaker line are exactly what newcomers never budget for.
What to inspect in a house that nobody inspects in an apartment
In an apartment you look at the layout and the view. In a house you look at the engineering, and it is boring right up to the first breakdown.
Water
Mains water or a borehole. A borehole means a pump, a filter and responsibility. Ask directly and ask to see the water bill.
Sewerage
Mains or a septic tank. A septic tank has to be emptied, and in season that does not happen immediately. In villages a septic tank is the norm, so do not panic, but find out who services it and for how much.
Heating
Air conditioners, an electric boiler, pellets or firewood. Your winter bill depends on this, and the difference between the options is not measured in percentages but in multiples.
Roof and damp
Look at the top-floor ceilings and the corners. Stains and blistered paint are not «cosmetics», they are a future roof.
Who is selling
A developer, an owner or an intermediary — this determines who you will be talking to when something goes wrong.
Documents: what the seller should have in hand
For a house the package is wider than for an apartment.
Act 16
The permit for use. Without it the house is legally still a construction site and you cannot live in it. How to check it we covered here: Act 16 in Bulgaria.
Skitsa of the plot
The land plan with boundaries and area. Compare the area on the skitsa with the area in the listing: discrepancies happen, and not in your favour.
Danachna otsenka
The tax valuation. The tax and part of the transaction duties are calculated from it.
Checking for debts and encumbrances
For a house you check both the building and the land — two separate objects, and a mortgage can be hanging on either one. The general mechanics of buying are described here: how a foreigner buys property in Bulgaria.
Renting out: why a house rents worse
Holidaymakers look for a place by the sea with a pool and cleaning, not a house in a village seven kilometres from the beach. There is short-term demand for houses, but it is many times narrower and almost all of it falls on large groups and on two or three weeks a year.
On top of that, a house is harder to service between guests: the lawn, the pool, the barbecue, the whole yard.
If you are buying for income, do the maths on an apartment, not on a house. We have an honest calculation: rental yields on Sunny Beach. And separately on how this works from a distance: managing an apartment in Bulgaria.
Reselling: a house takes longer to exit
There are far fewer buyers for a house at 200–400 thousand than for a studio at 60. It does not mean a house cannot be sold — it means you have to exit calmly and not in a week.
Why a property can sit for years and what to do about it we covered here: the story of a family from Krakow.
Payment plans: houses usually do not have them
A developer payment plan is a story about apartments in a complex under construction. It suits the developer to sell floor by floor and receive money on the construction schedule.
A house is most often sold by its owner, and the owner needs the whole sum at once. The exceptions are houses in new complexes run by a developer. How payment plans work in general: developer payment plans in Bulgaria.
Who a house suits, and who it does not
If the purchase is for renting out and for a quick resale — that is an apartment, and there is nothing to discuss.
If the purchase is for yourself, to come for long stays with the family, the dog and the car — then a house or a townhouse is honestly better, and the drawbacks above should not frighten you.
The middle option that often settles the question is a townhouse in a complex. You get the yard and your own front door, while the complex maintains the roof and the pool, and there is nothing to invent about the land.
The main thing is to decide this before the viewings. Otherwise a week goes on swinging between a studio by the sea and a house in a village, and those really are two different lives.
How we inspect houses ourselves
We do not take a property into our database on the strength of photos from an intermediary. For every house we separately check with the owner or the developer the plot size, the condition, how the water is supplied and what the heating is, and we measure the distance to the sea on the map rather than «by eye».
That is why our listings say not «close to the sea» but 61 metres, 541 metres or 4 080 metres. The difference between those three figures is the difference in price and in how you will live.
If a property does not pass the check, it does not appear on the site. Because of that our database is smaller than the big portals', but it has no «already sold» and no borrowed photos.
Frequently asked questions
Can a foreigner buy a house in Bulgaria?
Yes. Any foreigner can buy the building itself without restrictions. The restriction applies only to land: a citizen of a non-EU country cannot register a plot in their own name, so the land is registered to a Bulgarian company or taken as a right of use.
Is opening a company compulsory?
Only if you are not an EU citizen and you are buying a detached house with a plot. For an apartment, and as a rule for a townhouse in a complex, no company is needed.
What is cheaper — a house or an apartment?
A metre in a house is cheaper: in our database 1 303 € against 1 652 € for apartments. But a house is twice the area, so the total cheque is higher — a median 193 500 € against 125 100 €.
How much is the cheapest house in your database?
88 000 € — a 56 m² house in Dyulevo, 24,8 km from the sea. Closer to the water the most affordable option is 110 000 € for 179 m² in Aheloy, 4,2 km from the sea.
Are there houses 100 metres from the sea?
Yes, in completed complexes in Pomorie: 100 metres to the water at 273 000–388 500 €. The metre there is the most expensive on the coast.
Does a detached house pay a maintenance fee?
No. The fee is a complex thing. But everything the complex does for that fee, in a detached house you do and pay for yourself.
Can you buy a house remotely, without coming over?
You can, by power of attorney, but for a house we recommend it less often than for an apartment: too much in a house is only visible in person. The mechanics are described here: buying remotely.
A house or a new build — what to choose for renting out?
For renting out, an apartment in a complex. The difference in money between a new build and a resale we covered separately: resale or new build.
What next
If after all of this you still want a house, have a look at what we have right now: houses and villas on the Bulgarian coast. Thirty-four properties, each with an honest price, a measured distance to the sea and our own photos.
And if you are torn between a house and an apartment, write to us — we will cost out both options for your budget and tell you which one works out more expensive per year.
