How much did panel houses increase in price in 2025

Nearly 30% of housing transactions are with this type of housing

Jan 14, 2026 17:05 58

How much did panel houses increase in price in 2025 - 1

The intensive construction of housing in the last 3-4 years in Sofia and the creation of literally new neighborhoods on the outskirts of the capital leave the impression that the emphasis of buyers is on apartments that are under construction or have just been newly built. However, data from the Agency for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre (AGKK) show a different trend. Over the past year, nearly 35% of purchases and sales were with panel houses. Despite experts' warnings that most buildings of this type are expiring or have even expired their service life, they not only continue to be in the sights of buyers, but are also traded quite successfully. There are two reasons for this. First of all, lower prices, despite the fact that over the past 12 months there has been an increase of nearly %, according to data from the largest real estate website in our country imot.bg. Second, good interior layout. Architecturally, apartments in most cases turn out to be more functional than new construction, analysts comment.

The data shows that two-bedroom apartments in panel neighborhoods have increased in price more than three-bedroom apartments, which largely reflects the consumer logic of the market. Their advantage is twofold: lower final purchase price and high liquidity when renting.

Small apartments are becoming more expensive because they serve three types of demand - first home, investment and rental product.

The average increase in prices for 2-room apartments in the capital's districts with the largest number of panel houses is 16%, according to data from imot.bg. The average price at the beginning of last year in the indicated districts was 1950 EUR/sq m, and at the beginning of the current one it is already 2270 EUR/sq m. In areas such as Mladost 4, Nadezhda 3 and Ovcha kupel 1, the percentage of appreciation reaches 30%. The prices of this type of property in Druzhba 2, Mladost 2 and Nadezhda 1 remained almost unchanged. The increase is no more than 4%. The reason is that in all three of these areas there is a metro, and the supply is very limited - two factors that have led to a kind of “ceiling” in the price per square meter of living space.

For 3-room apartments, the growth is from 1811 EUR/sq m. in January 2025 to 2133 EUR/sq m. in the first month of 2026, or an average increase of 17%. Strong segmentation is also present here. For example, in Lyulin there has been a decrease in price of about 4% over the past 12 months and only a 3% increase in Lyulin 3 and 10. In the fourth, seventh and eighth parts, however, an increase of between 23% and 27% has been observed, according to data from imot.bg.

The strongest increase in price for 3-room apartments in panel complexes is observed in Mladost 3 - 36% and Nadezhda 3 - 30%.

For years, panel apartments have been considered a “reserve budget segment“ on the market. However, the picture has changed in the past year. Data from 2025-2026 show that in some places they already function as a liquid and investment product.

The conclusions that analysts draw are several:

Panel neighborhoods are the new driver of price growth — percentage ahead of the central areas and new construction in many subzones.
Two-bedroom apartments are the most sought-after housing on the panel market, thanks to the combination of affordability and liquidity.
Mladost, Nadezhda and Ovcha Kupel are becoming the most dynamic panel hubs, and can no longer be considered as “cheap periphery“.
Lyulin demonstrates internal segmentation, which is a sign of market maturation and micro-location pricing.
The panel is no longer seen as a compromise, but as a choice for investment, for a first home and for rental.

In reality, it turns out that the advantages of panel housing are not to be underestimated - starting from the environment and available infrastructure and ending with the degree of earthquake. It turns out that in an earthquake they are more resistant than buildings built at the dawn of democracy in the 1990s. Yes - it is often said that the life of panel houses is over or is coming to an end. According to experts, this type of construction has a residual resource of 20-30 years, and buyers do not share concerns about this when purchasing them.

Prices of 2- and 3-room apartments in neighborhoods of Sofia with
most panel construction (in EUR/sq.m.)

	2-стайни			3-стайни			общо
квартал	яну.25	яну.26	изм. %	яну.25	яну.26	изм. %	яну.25	яну.26	изм. %
Дружба 1	2 077	2 588	24	1 725	2 004	16	1 977	2 383	20
Дружба 2	2 201	2 228	1	2 144	2 424	13	2 175	2 304	5
Люлин 1	1 703	1 927	13	1 941	1 867	-4	1 930	2 010	4
Люлин 2	1 811	1 995	10	1 615	1 885	16	1 651	1 873	13
Люлин 3	1 948	2 181	11	2 022	2 087	3	1 985	2 158	8
Люлин 4	1 842	2 250	22	1 506	1 896	25	1 677	2 050	22
Люлин 5	1 563	1 782	14	1 555	1 718	10	1 556	1 751	12
Люлин 6	1 649	1 974	19	1 454	1 682	15	1 572	1 907	21
Люлин 7	2 077	2 312	11	1 622	1 998	23	2 070	2 233	7
Люлин 8	1 750	2 074	18	1 608	2 056	27	1 711	2 058	20
Люлин 9	1 777	2 223	25	1 504	1 832	21	1 677	2 060	22
Люлин 10	2 277	1 746	-24	1 730	1 798	3	1 902	1 754	-8
Люлин - център	1 815	1 992	9	1 682	1 979	17	1 678	1 952	16
Младост 1	2 262	2 775	22	2 254	2 527	12	2 249	2 564	14
Младост 1А	2 094	2 813	34	2 269	2 645	16	2 192	2 592	18
Младост 2	2 447	2 566	4	2 254	2 558	13	2 268	2 569	13
Младост 3	2 379	2 687	12	2 277	3 108	36	2 314	2 931	26
Младост 4	2 064	2 698	30	1 913	2 257	17	1 986	2 276	14
Надежда 1	2 211	2 308	4	1 827	2 143	17	2 138	2 293	7
Надежда 2	1 901	2 546	33	1 741	2 218	23	1 877	2 390	27
Надежда 3	1 786	2 314	29	1 777	2 313	30	1 777	2 313	30
Надежда 4	1 869	2 168	15	1 754	2 086	18	1 854	2 168	16
Овча купел	1 837	2 264	23	1 759	2 183	24	1 802	2 186	21
Овча купел 1	1 674	2 195	31	1 656	2 099	26	1 656	2 109	27
Овча купел 2	1 757	2 148	22	1 699	1 964	15	1 700	2 019	18