On March 9, Bulgarian Parliament allowed foreign citizens to buy land in Bulgaria. Now foreigners and foreign legal persons may acquire land, plots, forests, forest stock land tracks and agricultural land. This law also regards the adjoining land of apartments, flats, houses, etc. Now it can be bought as easily as the building itself.
Foreigners, who are not permanently resident in Bulgaria will be able to own land for a second home after the expiry of the terms set in Bulgaria's EU accession treaty.
Non-Bulgarian citizens will also be allowed to have forests and land in preserved areas, unless these areas are not exclusive state property. A buyer of a piece of land in Bulgaria should make sure whether the property he is about to buy is a part of a protected area or not, because if he buys a property in a protected area he will have to follow the rules for using a land in a protected area.
Citizens of the EU who want to buy agricultural land in Bulgaria for farming and/or agriculture in Bulgaria are also allowed to do so.
So far, foreign citizens who want to acquire land in Bulgaria had to establish a local company and buy the land on their company's behalf. This was a routine, legal procedure, used by the thousands foreign buyers of Bulgarian properties. Now, after joining the European Union, Bulgria harmonized this law with the EU legislation. And foreigners who want to have land in Bulgaria no longer have to settle a company to buy it. This made acquiring land from non-Bulgarian citizens a much easier and less expensive procedure.
Land and plots attract the attention of foreign investors. Their price has been continuously increasing in the last years. The new coming obstacle for those investors is the project “Natura 2000″ declaring a number of plots in different parts of Bulgaria as preserved nature areas. This is a new project for Bulgaria, triggering a number of debates and discussions and if somebody is about to buy a plot or agricultural land he should be sure that it's not a part of “Natura 2000″.
Penka Atanasova
Morada real estates Bulgaria
http://www.moradabg.com