The Parallel Reality of Housing and Wages in Kardzhali, Bulgaria

The average salary in Kardzhali is about BGN 1,000. In some sectors, it does not even reach this amount. However, a quick look at the accommodation listings is startling. There is no rent in any normal apartment below BGN 450-500. Some people live in a parallel reality.

“Before the pandemic, I lived in an apartment in Plovdiv. Near Saedinenie Square. One-room apartment, first floor, BGN 350 per month. At the moment, rents in the city have jumped by one hundred BGN. But we are still talking about Plovdiv, a city with opportunities”.

This is the opinion of a reader of 24rodopi.com.

“I invest 65,000 euros in a new home, then rent it out for BGN 500 per month.”

A new scheme for gurbetchii near Arda, and similar offers are full in the regional city, a check by our team found some time ago.

The offers are for fully furnished homes, new construction.

“We are talking about apartments in which even the owner has not lived yet. With brand new furniture, appliances, built-in kitchen appliances. However, the rental prices do not correspond to reality. The logic of the owner is to invest and then go abroad again , because he will work for much more money. I wonder how he will find a tenant who has decided to make a living here and will be able to set aside such a sum of money just for a roof over his head at the rate of remuneration?” commented a real estate broker .

Apartments are rented in the center for BGN 250 per month. However, they are in old buildings, and the apartments themselves are “crying for renovation”.

However, a two-room apartment for five hundred thousand a month is not the most shocking thing. The price of a square meter in the center of Kardzhali is already 900 euros. At 500-550 euros per sq./m in “Vazrozhdentsi”.

“If you invested about BGN 130,000 for a home and you rent it out, it would take 21 years to break even on such an investment at BGN 500 per month. And that under many conditions,” reasoned the broker.

At the same time, there is a huge labor shortage in Kardzhali. Low wages leave company offers to languish in labor bureau statistics. Importing workers from the periphery of the region is also not a solution.

“You have to work in two places – one for food, the other for rent,” says a man from Krumovgradsko.

“A large percentage of the home buyers are from villages in the region. The unifying thing is that they all make a living abroad. They buy one, then a second home. Whether someone will live in them cannot be answered,” commented a realtor.