On 16 September 2026 Bulgaria's Ombudsman, Velislava Delcheva, filed an opinion on the bill amending the Agricultural Land Ownership and Use Act. Her position is one of support in principle — with one serious objection.
The bill, tabled on 15 July 2026 and approved at first reading by the parliamentary Agriculture Committee with 13 votes in favour, 2 abstentions and none against, aims to close a process that began more than three decades ago. The figures and provisions below were verified in September 2026; the bill has not yet been finally adopted.
The Ombudsman's opinion cites one example — Sofia Municipality:
| Sofia Municipality | Area |
|---|---|
| Land compensation owed | 50,852.518 decares (valued at BGN 30,733,910) |
| Land actually provided from the municipal land fund | 9,553.172 decares |
In other words, the land provided covers less than a fifth of what is owed. At the fixed conversion rate of 1.95583, the stated value equals roughly €15.71 million (our calculation). One decare is 1,000 m², so the shortfall runs to over 41 km² in the capital alone.
Sofia is not an exception. The opinion also names Varna, the Rodopi municipality near Plovdiv and a number of others where owners hold recognised rights but have received neither land nor equivalent compensation. The same applies to properties in the so-called paragraph 4 territories — former user zones where the plans of newly formed properties have still not been drawn up.
The Ombudsman recalls that the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly characterised Bulgaria's failure to complete land restitution as a disproportionate interference with the right to property and a violation of a systemic nature. The recommendation has been to write into national law both deadlines for enforcing the administrative and judicial decisions that restore ownership of agricultural land, and a remedy allowing those affected to obtain compensation when those deadlines are missed.
In other words, closing restitution stopped being a purely domestic administrative question a long time ago.
The main changes that cleared first reading in committee:
A working group will refine the contested texts before the second reading.
The objection is concentrated on compensation.
Once the options for providing land are exhausted, a reduction coefficient applies and claimants may instead receive registered compensation bonds. The problem the Ombudsman raises is that the real market value of those bonds is considerably lower than their face value. An owner who has waited decades for land ends up with paper worth less than the number printed on it.
Her three proposals:
She concludes by pressing for a comprehensive solution — a dedicated statute governing the completion of land restitution, which also accounts for the effects of the excessive delay.
The subject looks agricultural, but it reaches people who have never farmed anything.
1. If you hold a recognised but unfulfilled restitution right. The period to 31 December 2027 is the window in which Article 19 lands are reserved for exactly these cases. The first step is to check the status of your file at the municipal agriculture office. A decision on paper is not ownership — the right is proven by a final decision, a cadastral sketch and registration.
2. If you are inheriting. Recognised restitution rights pass to heirs, and many heirs simply do not know they hold them, particularly where the property sits in a home village no one has looked after for years. Where there are several heirs, the regime is the same as for any co-owned property: how a share is sold and when it ends in partition.
3. If you are buying farmland or a plot in a villa zone. The origin of the property matters. An Article 19 plot, a property in a paragraph 4 territory with no approved plan of newly formed properties, and a plot inside a former farm yard are three different legal regimes carrying three different risks. None of them is visible from the listing.
4. If you are relying on adverse possession. The bill closes that route for former farm yards. It is the second legislative step this year in the same direction — the package against property fraud also tightens the adverse-possession procedure before a notary. The direction of travel is clear: ownership will be proven with documents, not with possession.
The bill has not been adopted. A working group and a second reading lie ahead, and the opinions filed by the Ombudsman, the national association of municipalities and the Ministry of Agriculture already indicate which texts will move. Until publication in the State Gazette, none of the above is binding law — but the direction is clear enough to plan around.
Checking the origin of a property is part of our standard work on every transaction, not a separate service. For farmland and plots that means looking at what the municipal agriculture office, the cadastre and the property register actually show before price is discussed — including whether the plot is an Article 19 property, whether it falls within a paragraph 4 territory, and whether the plan of newly formed properties has been drawn up and has entered into force. The full list of what we verify before signing is in our guide on legal checks before buying a property.
If you hold inherited land with unfinished restitution, or are considering a plot with an unclear origin, call us or drop by the office. We will look at the specific property and tell you what the registers say about it.
Sources: the Ombudsman's opinion of 16 September 2026, as reported by the Focus news agency; coverage of the bill's first reading in the parliamentary agriculture committee on 22 July 2026. Verified as of September 2026. The bill has not been finally adopted and its texts may change at second reading.
