Renting a room in Sofia as a foreigner: deposits, fees, contracts and the scams

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

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

What things cost

• Rent is quoted per month, in euro (Bulgaria has used the euro since 1 January 2026). Most rooms are «без консумативи», meaning bills are not included.
• Bills: electricity, water, heating (district heating or gas, mainly November to March), internet, and a small monthly building fee («вход»). Ask which are included and what last winter's heating bill was.
• Deposit: one month's rent, returned when you leave minus damages. Two months is unusual for a room and should be in the contract.
• Agency fee: only when the room comes through an agency, customarily half a month's rent and sometimes a full month, paid by the tenant at signing. Rooms from the owner or from a tenant looking for a flatmate have no fee. Strehana charges no commission.

Where the rooms are, and why it is hard

Bulgarians look in three places: Facebook groups for flats and flatmates (Bulgarian only, dozens of posts an hour), the classifieds sites OLX and Bazar, and the property portals like imot.bg, where most rooms come from agencies. None has an English interface or a way to filter by who you would live with, and a post that says you do not speak Bulgarian often gets no answer.

On Strehana every room is listed by the person renting it out, and every seeker has a card with budget, areas, move-in date and languages. The «Speaks» filter shows people who confirmed they speak English, and your own card can say what you speak, so the host knows before the first message. The site is in English and Bulgarian; the listings are written by their authors, so many are in Bulgarian, and the chat is where you find out whether the host is comfortable in English.

The contract

• Ask for a written contract, even a short one (a bilingual template is here): rent, deposit, bills, start date, term and notice period. Verbal agreements are common and are what goes wrong.
• Ask for a bilingual version or have someone translate it before you sign. Never sign what you cannot read.
• If the person renting to you is a tenant looking for a flatmate, ask whether their own contract allows subletting.
• The contract is also what you need for address registration at the Migration Directorate; see the next section.

Address registration

Two things happen with your address. Within three days of your moving in, the person who houses you files an address card with the Migration service (Дирекция «Миграция») or the local police; that is their legal duty and needs no notary. For a residence permit the Migration Directorate wants proof of housing, and for a rented room that means the contract plus a declaration from the owner with a notarised signature; many landlords refuse the declaration because it means declaring the rental income. Ask about it before you pay the deposit, not after.

What the Migration Directorate asks for with the permit

• A rental contract in your name, with the address.
• A declaration by the owner of the property agreeing that you live at that address, with the signature certified by a notary («нотариално заверена декларация за съгласие»).
• A copy of the document showing the person who signs is the owner (the notarial deed, «нотариален акт»).

The regulation says only «evidence of secured housing»; in practice the offices ask for these three documents, and for some cases (family members of Bulgarian citizens, permanent residence) the notarised declaration is written into the regulation itself. If the person renting to you is a tenant rather than the owner, the declaration still has to come from the owner, one more person who has to agree. What your landlord is asked to sign, from their side, is in the guide for hosts.

Why landlords say no, and how to ask

• Tax. A declaration on record with a state authority means the rent is visible to the tax administration, and many rooms are rented informally. Expect the rent to be slightly higher from a landlord who declares the income; it is still cheaper than an agency fee.
• Effort. A trip to the notary, on their time. Offer to pay the fee and to go together.
• Myths. Some believe a registered tenant gains rights over the flat or is hard to evict. Registration gives you no rights over the property; the contract governs the tenancy.
• Put it in your card on Strehana: «I need address registration». Hosts who cannot offer it will not waste your time, and hosts who can will say so.
• Ask in the chat before the viewing, in plain words: «Can you sign the notarised declaration for the Migration Directorate?»
• Get it written into the contract as the landlord's obligation, with a date. Never pay a deposit on a promise to «sort out the registration later».

The scams

• «I am abroad, pay the deposit and a courier brings the keys.» Nobody legitimate rents a room this way. Never pay before you have seen the room and met the person, in person or on a live video call.
• A price well below the neighbourhood, with pressure to decide today.
• A request to pay through a money-transfer service or in cryptocurrency. Bulgarian landlords take cash or a bank transfer, against a signed contract.
• A «booking fee» to hold the room before a viewing.
• On Strehana the exact address is never shown; a host who refuses to meet or to show the room live is a host to walk away from. Report the listing and we review it.

If your budget is short: team up

Two newcomers with €350 each rent a two-room flat for €700 that neither could alone, each with a room of their own. On Strehana you mark your card «open to team up», see the other seekers in your areas who are open too, and if you like each other the conversation opens. Then you look for a flat as two. The guide on finding a flatmate before the flat has the details, including how to split the deposit and the contract.