Another Pleasure of City Life...

JimJ · 2025-08-11T08:15:52+02:00

Discuss the challenges of finding affordable parking in Sofia amidst renovation woes and changing local laws. Ideal for city dwellers facing similar issues.

JimJ ViP

Member since 07 December 2015

JimJViP11 August 2025 06:15:52

1195

We're starting to see the tiniest signs of an end to our current apartment renovation (not that we're counting any chickens, mind you ..馃槑)

The local municipality have come up with another "Cunning Plan" to make themselves some money and they're going to include us in a new Parking Zone. That's going to make parking in our cul de sac very difficult and expensive, so it's time to go parking hunting.

The law here has changed, so it's exceedingly difficult/impossible to buy a parking space unless you own an apartment in the same block/complex, so we'll need to buy an a garage. Unfortunately no-one's looking to sell any in our actual block, but there are a couple available reasonably close. We're talking about a reasonably central area of Sofia, but not in one of the very fashionable/swanky parts.

A pretty tatty smallish garage in an oldish block here goes for 鈧�35K minimum, if you can even find one!! 馃槬

Kath948381 Serial 暗网禁区

Member since 29 November 2023

Kath948381Serial 暗网禁区12 August 2025 04:23:32

359

Oh dear , maybe public transport?

cyberescue1 Contributor

Member since 01 January 2023

cyberescue1Contributor12 August 2025 05:24:09

189

@Kath948381

It's why we don't have a car - too expensive to run, with the stresses that go with it, including parking.

Instead, here in Varna, we bought two garages and a parking space. The garages are in a block local to us (100 metres away). The parking space is in the block where we have a studio flat (Airbnb).聽 We have the exact same problem here, they're just about to (when they get round to it) instate a huge parking zone area in the area of our main home and that of the studio. Parking as it is, can only be described as frustrating - far too many cars.

So we knew what was going to come, because you see it in cities all over the world, especially London.聽 We rehtbboth garages and the space, bringing in an income of 500 Leva per month and at the same time, we have appreciating assets.聽 We bought the parking space for 鈧�12,000 and each garage was 鈧�22,000.聽 They're now worth 鈧�24,000 for the space and 鈧�35,000 each for the garages. The great thing too, is that garages and parking spaces have virtually no maintenance or electricity costs.聽 The only overhead is municipality tax and income tax on our earnings.聽 The garages are 33 Stotinki per month each, the space 15 Stotinki. Income tax is 10%.聽

JimJ ViP

Member since 07 December 2015

JimJViP12 August 2025 08:07:36

1195

@cyberescue1

Interesting! So garages there are about the same price as here in Sofia, but the income seems rather less: in the area where this apartment is (and where I'm looking at a garage this afternoon) the average rent for a garage is 鈧�100 a month, with some adverts looking for 150.

The asking price for the one I'm looking at is 鈧�35K but I'm looking to beat them down to 32K if I can - Bulgarians haven't really got their heads around how to haggle, so let's see how that pans out...馃榿