Why we built Strehana

The arithmetic

Rents in Sofia rose about 20% in 2025. A two-room flat now costs around €600 a month, and €600 to €1,000 in the centre, Lozenets and Iztok. The minimum wage since 1 January 2026 is €620 gross, about €481 net: less than the rent of one two-room flat. The average salary in Sofia is €2,061 gross (NSI, March 2026), and even for it the rent is over a third.

Two people with €300 each rent that same flat. Sharing rent is not a new idea; people have always done it. What is new is that nobody helps you do it well, and if you have just arrived, nobody helps you do it at all.

The groups

We watched the flat-share groups for months. Profiles you cannot place. A first message that asks for your phone number and your profile before you have said hello. No matching: your post is one more in the stream, sinks within hours, and two days later you post it again in several groups so somebody sees it. Everyone is on their own, and many give up on the way. If you do not read Bulgarian, you never get that far.

What we did differently

• A card instead of a post. You state your budget, areas, move-in date and how you live: smoking, pets, schedule, guests, languages. The deck orders people and rooms by that, not by the hour they were posted, and your card does not sink.
• Phone and address are not shown. The conversation opens when two people like each other. The exact location of a room is shown only if the host decides to tell you.
• Identity verification. We encourage it: a «Verified» badge through Evrotrust, a filter to see verified profiles only, and hosts who accept verified applicants only.
• No commission. Posting, liking and chatting are free. Strehana earns only from a promoted place in the feed, labelled «Promoted». The order of the cards is explained openly, and reports are decided by a person.

The name

Стреха (streha) is the eave: the edge of the roof that reaches past the wall and keeps the rain off the doorstep. When it rains, people who did not choose each other gather under it, friends and strangers, and wait it out together; nobody asks who you are. That is how we think of Strehana: a roof under which people who do not know each other yet find a home to share. The word is old and lives in many Bulgarian poems; we chose it because it says exactly that without explaining it.

Who we are

Strehana is made by a small team in Sofia. We started building it at the beginning of 2026 and spent the spring and summer testing the waters; what you see has been live since the beginning of September. We fund it ourselves and take no commission, so that we write the rules rather than sell them. We start with Sofia because the problem is sharpest here; the rest will come with the people.

Strehana is provided by Vizium OOD (Визиум ООД), company number 208647543, Sofia, Bulgaria. The full details are in the imprint. Write to us at info@strehana.com, in English or Bulgarian; we answer every email.

Today

143 people are currently looking for a room in Sofia on Strehana (updated 2 October 2026).

Strehana currently lists 17 rooms for rent in Sofia (updated 2 October 2026).