On 24 July 2026 the Ministry of Energy published draft amendments to the Energy Efficiency Act for public consultation. The deadline for comments and proposals is 23 August 2026.
For homeowners, one sentence in the draft matters more than the rest: on a sale or a letting, the building's energy class would have to be stated in the listing itself and provided to the prospective buyer or tenant.
This article is current as at August 2026. The draft is still in consultation — the final text may differ.
The amendments transpose Directive (EU) 2023/1791 (energy efficiency) and Directive (EU) 2024/1275 (energy performance of buildings) into Bulgarian law.
The submitting ministry's summary shows a wide scope that goes well beyond housing:
The part that affects property listings is the one ordinary sellers and landlords will feel.
The energy performance certificate is not a new idea. It has been mandatory for buildings over 250 sq m for years, and on a sale or letting the owner already owes it to the buyer or tenant.
Validity runs up to 10 years and depends on the energy class — the higher the class, the longer the certificate lasts. After a major refurbishment that changes the building's energy performance, the certificate is updated ahead of expiry.
Practice, however, lags behind the law. Dr Dragomir Tsanev, executive director of the EnEffect Center for Energy Efficiency, noted in early August that notaries ought to require the certificate on any transaction but in practice do not, and that very few buildings in Bulgaria hold one at all.
This is the practical sticking point for anyone who owns an apartment in a block. A certificate cannot be issued for an individual apartment — it is issued for the entire building.
That means the seller of a single flat cannot obtain the document alone. It requires a decision by the building association and the cost shared between owners. Every owner is entitled to a copy of the finished certificate.
Dr Tsanev estimates the survey takes no less than three weeks and costs an indicative €2,000 – €3,000 per building, with the price driven more by the building's complexity than its size. These are indicative figures as at August 2026, not a tariff.
If your building does not yet have a functioning management body, start there — we covered the new public register in detail in our piece on building managers.
The Local Taxes and Fees Act offers relief that few owners know about. Buildings and parts of buildings certified at energy class "A" are exempt from building tax for 6 years, and nearly zero-energy buildings for 10 years, counting from the year following the issue of the certificate (Art. 24(1), items 18 and 19 of the Act).
For a refurbished building with a good class, that turns the cost of a certificate from a formality into a calculation worth running.
If you are selling or letting in the coming months, three things are worth checking:
There is no cause for alarm. The draft is in consultation until 23 August, and even if adopted, such texts normally allow a lead time before they bite. But the direction is clear and follows established European practice — in most EU listings, the energy scale is already there.
On the properties we take on, checking what documentation a building holds is part of the ordinary work — including whether an energy performance certificate exists, when it expires and who keeps it. If it is missing, we tell the seller in good time rather than the day before the notary, and we prepare the listing so the buyer has the full picture.
We are also following the draft text. Once the final rules are adopted, we will summarise them here, with the specific deadlines and what each one requires.
If a sale or a letting is coming up and you are not sure what state your building's paperwork is in — call us or come by the office. We will check it together and tell you plainly what is missing and what is worth doing.
