Yes, although we cannot recommend it. The procedure is very simple. We will prepare a full set of documents and will e-mail them to you. You will print and sign them in blue ink — part of them at home, the rest in front of the council in the closest Bulgarian embassy. Once we receive the documents, we will have full rights to represent you legally in Bulgaria — with the right to set up a company for you, to buy property on your behalf, etc.

You will have to sign the documents in the closest to you notary public office. Then you will need an apostille. Such is acquired from your country's Foreign Office.

The Hague Convention, abolishing the requirement for Legalisation of Foreign Public Documents ("Hague Legalisation Convention") has been in force in Bulgaria since 2001. If you need to use official documents in Bulgaria, be it for business purposes (registration of companies, trade marks, patents) or personal and family reasons such as getting married in Bulgaria, they have to be legalised at the Legalisation Office of the Foreign Office. Once legalised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, such documents do not need further legalisation by the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria. Legalisation simply means confirming that a signature, seal or stamp appearing on a document is genuine. It does not mean that the content of a document is accurate or that the Foreign office approves of the content.

Most likely, yes. According to Bulgarian legislation, non-Bulgarian citizens are not allowed to buy land. If the property you want to buy includes land — be it the yard of a house, the several square metres of land which sometimes come with an apartment, or an entire plot of land — you will have to register a Bulgarian company.

Maybe. Bulgarian sellers are usually pretty reasonable about the starting price. Negotiations are a very sensitive part of the deal, and their success depends mainly on the skills and the experience of the negotiator. We advise you to let our experts take care of this.

Yes, you are welcome to be part of the negotiation process if you would like to.

It depends. There are several main things which determine how long before you can own the property of your choice. Company registration takes up to several days, and it can take about a week for the owner to prepare all the necessary documents. If you have already registered a Bulgarian company, and the buyer has all the paperwork already prepared, you can become an owner the very same day.

A preliminary contract serves to make sure that the conditions negotiated between the buyer and the seller will not change. These conditions include the price, the method of payment and the date of payment.

Once the negotiations have been finalized, the preliminary contract is signed by both the buyer and the seller. In case one of them does not fulfill their obligations (i.e. the buyer does not pay, or the seller pulls out), the guilty party is obliged by law to pay a penalty.

The standard conditions of a preliminary contract are:

• 10% downpayment; final payment due in one month
• property is handed over upon signing the notary deed
• the buyer covers the notary fees for the purchase
• the seller pays all prior utility bills, as well as the taxes and fees for up-to-date documents for the sale

It's not required by law, but we strongly recommend it. The preliminary contract is the most effective way to secure the conditions of a sale that have been negotiated so far. In brief, this is the most important contract — its signing is the best guarantee you can ever get the deal will go as planned.

No. Our agent fees include making all necessary legal checks.

Yes. You are welcome to use the services of your lawyer together with ours, in order to to protect your best interest.

Mortgaged properties are thoroughly checked by the bank before any loans are released. This, together with the legal checks we do, makes buying mortgaged property the safest deal on the market.

Few things are obligatory. They include declaring the property in the relevant tax authorities within two months, and paying property and garbage taxes annually. Several others are strongly recommended by us: changing the water and electricity accounts to your name; signing contracts for cable TV, and Internet access, security, insurance. Our basic service includes taking care of many of these things, free of charge.

Submit annual tax declatarions to the National Revenue Agency and National Statistic Institute until March 31, and to the Electronic Register of Commerce till June 30. See our page on registering a company in Bulgaria for this and other services we can do on your behalf.

This is a kind of evaluation which is specified by the Bulgarian government. The value it amounts to depends on the property type, location and quality. This includes the construction materials used; the kind of windows, doors and floorings; how long ago was the property last renovated; as well as amenities such as a swimming pool. The property and garbage taxes in Bulgaria are calculated from this price.

0.3% of the tax evaluation, of which property tax is 0.2%, and garbage tax is 0.1%.

The taxes for a sale will cover profit tax (if applicable; currently 10%), all the fees to issue an up-to-date plan (usually between 20 and 90 BGN), tax evaluation of the property (usually between 10 and 20 BGN) and any other documents that might be needed.

If the property is owned by a company, the company has to pay taxes on its profits at the end of the fiscal year. For example, if you have bought a property at 30 000 € and have sold it for 50 000 €, you've made a profit 20 000 €, and will have to pay a 10% (2000 €) profit tax. Of course, if your company has had other expenses (for example, buying a car), its net profit will be less, and so will the tax owed.

If the property is owned by a person with Bulgarian citizenship, and the property has been their main residence for more than three years, or it has been bought bought more than five years ago, you will not have to pay the profit tax.

For all other occasions, natural persons are obliged to pay tax.

Currently, it's 10%. This is decided every year by the government.