€6,012.
What is behind the number.
The law does not say who pays. The contract says it, and the court looks at who actually brought the parties together. Between the two stand 17 documents and about 10 viewings.
The reader has already done the sum in their head anyway. The average home price in Varna for the first quarter of 2026 is €200,386 (Zimoti.com via infoz.bg, 2 April 2026), and the usual 3% from one side makes about €6,012. That is the sum on the table.
The question is not whether it is a lot. The question is what stands behind it and when it is owed at all. Who pays is decided not by the law but by the agreement, under Article 51 of the Commerce Act (ТЗ).
Rarely the biggest line. Almost always the only one discussed.
The usual rate is 3% from one side, and the range on the portals is 2 to 3% (address.bg). When one agency acts for both sides, it can take 3% from each, which is 6% in total. For rentals the most common rate is 50% of the monthly rent, and public tariffs go up to 70% or a full month’s rent; for seasonal rentals it is 50% (TOPIMMO, address.bg).
To take the commission out of a vacuum, the other costs of the same deal stand next to it: the local acquisition tax (местен данък при придобиване), which for Varna Municipality is 3% of the higher of the price and the tax assessment (the Local Taxes and Fees Act, ЗМДТ, gives municipalities a range of 0.1 to 3 per cent), a notary fee capped at €3,068 plus 20% VAT, and registration of 0.1% (notary294.bg, updated 2 September 2026).
The commission is rarely the biggest line in the deal. It is almost always the only one that gets discussed.
The number is not 17.
The number is 6 months.
The set for one notarial transaction is at least 17 documents (ibrokers.bg handbook, 2026): nine from the seller, three from the buyer, three more with a mortgage loan and two for new construction.
The count, however, is not the hard part. The hard part is the validity. The cadastral sketch from the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Agency (АГКК) is valid for 6 months, the certificate of encumbrances (удостоверение за тежести) for 6 months, the certificate of marital status for 6 months, and the tax assessment (данъчна оценка) dies on a calendar date, 30 June or 31 December. The whole set has to fall within the same window.
With a mortgage loan, the certificate of encumbrances is issued for a ten-year period, not for the usual one.
If the deal drags on, some of the documents have to be obtained again. That is the normal case, not the exception.
What happens on the day of the deed itself is covered separately: the notarial deal.
The market is cooling. The work is growing.
The average buyer makes about 10 viewings over 2.5 to 3 months before buying, compared with about 8 a year earlier (Address Real Estate via the Bulgarian News Agency, БТА, 26 May 2026). The process from first enquiry to signed contract has lengthened by 15 to 25% (New Estates via Forbes Bulgaria, 18 May 2026).
The portal metric for average time to a deal in Varna is 33 days (Zimoti.com via infoz.bg, 2 April 2026). It is given as it is, because its methodology has not been published.
The background to these numbers: 84,119 home sales in the first half of 2026 against 101,154 in the same period of 2025, a fall of 17% (the Registry Agency, Агенция по вписванията, via the newspaper Sega, 11 July 2026). There are 26% more sellers and 10% fewer buyers, and for the first time since 2014 supply is outpacing demand (Address via the Bulgarian News Agency).
The conclusion is the opposite of what is expected. An agent’s work does not shrink when the market cools; it grows, while there are 17% fewer deals. The discounts that get negotiated at all are between €2,000 and €4,000. Why a property otherwise sits unsold: the unsold property.
Nobody issues
a separate invoice for these.
The Measures Against Money Laundering Act (ЗМИП). Agencies are obliged entities under Article 4: identification of the client and a copy of an identity document (Article 53(1)), a declaration of the origin of the funds (Article 66(2)), written internal rules, and training at least once a year. Brokerage of rentals falls within scope for a monthly rent of €10,000 or more.
Article 50 of the Commerce Act. The agent’s journal: entries made daily, dated and signed at the end of the day, and extracts provided at the parties’ request.
Article 147a(5) of the Consumer Protection Act (ЗЗП). General terms and conditions are binding only if they have actually been handed over and signed, and the burden of proof is on the agent, not on the client (Article 146(4)). Separately, the agent is a controller of personal data under the GDPR and processes full names, personal identification number, address, email and phone number.
The context explains why practices differ so much: more than 5,000 agencies work in the country, and the members of the National Real Estate Association (НСНИ) number 337, which is about 6%. The sector counts 28,546 companies, about 99% of them micro-enterprises, with more than 30,000 employees (the newspaper Trud, 14 February 2025). There is no special law and no mandatory licensing: two bills (There Is Such a People, December 2024; GERB, April 2025) and not one adopted as of May 2026.
What the commission costs the client
The commission is a real cost. It reduces the seller’s net from the deal or raises the buyer’s cost of getting in, and that is said in words, not talked around. An exclusive agreement also has a price: it ties the client to a term and to a way of working, and the type of agreement also changes when the fee becomes payable.
The clauses that courts actually strike down are out there in the industry, and they are worth naming. Extending the obligation to relatives and related persons (the Commission for Consumer Protection, КЗП, upheld by the Supreme Administrative Court, ВАС, and the Sofia City Court, СГС, in a case where the property was bought by the client’s partner through another agent). A penalty with no cap: a public form with 0.5% per day, against a clause of 1% per day with a 10% cap that held up before the Supreme Court of Cassation (ВКС). And an arbitration clause with a consumer, even though consumer disputes cannot be arbitrated (Article 143(2)(17) of the Consumer Protection Act, Article 19(1) of the Civil Procedure Code, ГПК).
Two sentences from a public form that are rarely read: the commission is owed even if, within 24 months after termination, the principal sells to a buyer introduced by the agent; and “The brokerage fee is non-refundable.”
And the mechanics of reading another agency’s offer. The VAT registration threshold is €51,130 from 1 January 2026, under Article 96 of the VAT Act (ЗДДС). An offer of “3.6% including VAT” is the same 3% plus tax. On €200,386 the difference is about €1,202. When most forms make the commission payable: the preliminary contract.
No such study
exists for Bulgaria.
There is no Bulgarian study showing how much faster, or for how much more, a property sells with an agent compared with a sale by the owner. The American NAR percentages also circulate in Bulgarian texts, but they were measured in a different market, with an MLS system, a different commission structure and a different type of data. They are not transferable, and so they are not included here.
Nor is there a public figure with a methodology for the average number of deals per agent per year, so claims such as “one deal covers X months of advertising” are not made either.
What is known is the volume: the documents, the deadlines and the viewings. That can be counted. The conclusion is left to the reader.
Frequently asked questions
Who pays the agent’s commission, the seller or the buyer?
The law does not decide this for the parties. Under Article 51 of the Commerce Act, the fee is owed by one or both parties according to their agreement, and if there is no agreement, the customary fee for this type of activity is owed by both parties. In practice the seller pays for having the property sold, and the buyer pays for having a property found and being assisted up to the notarial deed. With rentals all three models occur: the landlord pays, the tenant pays, or both pay.
Do I owe commission if I find the buyer myself?
It depends on who actually brought the parties together, not on what the clause says. In 2019 two district courts decided the same type of dispute in opposite directions. In Shumen the seller sold without the agent’s help despite an exclusive agreement that expressly said a fee was owed even for a sale without the agent’s knowledge, and the claim was dismissed in full. In Burgas the seller also closed the deal without the agency, but the buyer had been brought by the agency and the seller was ordered to pay. The evidence there was a viewing record initialled by the buyer.
When is the commission owed, at the preliminary contract or at the notarial deed?
There is no statutory moment, only a contractual one. In publicly available forms and tariffs, the most common model is payment on the day the preliminary contract is signed with a buyer brought by the agent, and if no preliminary contract is concluded, on the day of the notarial deed. This is also the question worth asking before signing, because it is the most common source of disputes.
Why does one agency ask for 3% and another for 3.6%?
Most often the difference is not in the price of the service but in the tax. The threshold for mandatory VAT registration from 1 January 2026 is €51,130 of taxable turnover, and an agency above the threshold charges 20% VAT on its fee. So 3.6% including VAT is the same 3% plus tax. On an average Varna price of €200,386, the difference between 3% and 3.6% is about €1,202. When you compare two offers, compare percentages on the same basis, not as they are written.
Can a clause in an agreement with an agent be invalid if I signed it?
Yes. When the client is an individual acting outside a commercial or professional activity, they are a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act, and unfair terms are void even if they have been signed. Courts have refused to uphold a penalty that significantly exceeds the price of the service itself, clauses extending the obligation to relatives and related persons, and arbitration clauses in consumer contracts, because consumer disputes cannot be referred to arbitration.
Four things before you sign
The law does not say who pays, the contract does, and the court looks at the causal link, not the signature. Behind the percentage stands a set of 17 documents with six-month validity periods and about 10 viewings over 2.5 to 3 months, in a market with 17% fewer deals.
Before you sign anything, check four things in the text: when exactly the fee is owed, whether it includes VAT or not, whether the penalty has a cap, and for how long after termination the agreement continues to apply. Send us the offer or the agreement you have been given, and we will tell you what this price includes and where the text is silent.
This material is not legal advice. A specific agreement should be checked by a lawyer.
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