Where Sofia is building: 1,183 new-housing permits since the start of 2025
The full tables from the public construction-permit register: which district leads, exactly where the apartment pipeline concentrates, and how it splits into two investor camps by yield.
- Since the start of 2025 Sofia's districts have issued 1,183 permits for new residential buildings. Vitosha district leads with 258, more than Triaditsa and Lozenets combined (107).
- Multi-family construction concentrates along the southern arc: Malinova Dolina, Manastirski Livadi - Iztok and Simeonovo are the most active localities, and apartments are climbing into the mountain villa zones.
- The city splits into two building profiles: in Studentski district only 1 of 61 new residential permits is for a single-family house, while in Novi Iskar not a single one is for a multi-family building.
- Crossed with asking prices and rents, the apartment pipeline splits into two investor camps: around 20 years' payback (Malinova Dolina) versus 25 to 34 years (Simeonovo, the Centre, Lozenets).
New residential permits by district (since January 2025)
| District | Total | Single-family | Multi-family | Residential, unspecified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vitosha | 258 | 83 | 67 | 108 |
| Ovcha Kupel | 116 | 43 | 34 | 39 |
| Novi Iskar | 103 | 67 | 0 | 36 |
| Pancharevo | 91 | 48 | 7 | 36 |
| Vrabnitsa | 62 | 28 | 7 | 27 |
| Studentski | 61 | 1 | 30 | 30 |
| Triaditsa | 57 | 1 | 12 | 44 |
| Poduyane | 51 | 2 | 22 | 27 |
| Lozenets | 50 | 1 | 20 | 29 |
| Kremikovtsi | 42 | 20 | 4 | 18 |
| Mladost | 41 | 4 | 13 | 24 |
| Lyulin | 40 | 2 | 14 | 24 |
| Serdika | 37 | 14 | 16 | 7 |
| Iskar | 29 | 8 | 3 | 18 |
| Nadezhda | 29 | 6 | 11 | 12 |
Top 15 districts by new residential permits, 01.2025 to 22.08.2026. Classification follows the register's own wording, see methodology.
By year
| Year | New residential | All permits |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 883 | 1,919 |
| 2025 | 832 | 1,822 |
| 2026 (through 22 August) | 351 | 720 |
The register lags on recent entries, so the latest months' figures will still rise. Reading a "2026 slowdown" into this data would be misleading.
By neighbourhood: where exactly the building happens (since January 2025)
The register's locality field gives neighbourhood-level detail and covers 98% of new residential permits (1,155 of 1,183). Top 15:
| Locality (as in the register) | Total | Single-family | Multi-family | Unspecified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malinova Dolina 1 | 34 | 0 | 19 | 15 |
| Manastirski Livadi - Iztok | 32 | 0 | 6 | 26 |
| Simeonovo | 28 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| Vitosha VETs Simeonovo | 19 | 0 | 8 | 11 |
| Gardova Glava | 15 | 3 | 11 | 1 |
| Voluyak - Garata | 15 | 8 | 0 | 7 |
| Ovcha Kupel (updated plan) | 14 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| Dragalevtsi - northern extension | 14 | 9 | 3 | 2 |
| Malinova Dolina, ring-road service zone | 14 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Gorna Banya | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| Chepintsi village | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 |
| Lyulin villa zone | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 |
| Pavlovo - Buxton | 9 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Krastova Vada | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Krastova Vada and Yuzhen Park part 4 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
Two things stand out at neighbourhood level. First, apartments are climbing the mountain: Simeonovo, the Dragalevtsi extension and Gardova Glava, until recently house territory, are now getting permits for multi-family and unspecified residential buildings. Second, the pressure is not only southern: Voluyak - Garata, Gorna Banya and Suhodol form a quiet western wave, while Chepintsi and the villages along the northern arc absorb the demand for houses.
Construction versus yield: the two camps
We crossed the apartment pipeline (multi-family plus unspecified residential, since January 2025) with asking prices and rents per neighbourhood. Payback = price per m² over 12 monthly rents per m², gross, following the method of our rent-yield analysis. Matched by locality name: 580 of 848 apartment permits (68%).
As a whole the pipeline is yield-neutral: weighted by permit count, average payback is 23.9 years against a city median of 23.8. The interesting part is the split inside it: ten percent of apartment permits sit in neighbourhoods with payback under 20 years, and a third in neighbourhoods at 25 or more.
| Neighbourhood (merged localities) | Apartment permits | Payback (years) |
|---|---|---|
| Simeonovo | 84 | 25.1 |
| Malinova Dolina | 72 | 20.1 |
| Ovcha Kupel | 45 | 21.1 |
| Manastirski Livadi | 42 | 23.7 |
| Dragalevtsi | 30 | 23.8 |
| Krastova Vada | 24 | 24.0 |
| Centre | 23 | 29.1 |
| Gorublyane | 14 | 16.5 |
| Gorna Banya | 11 | 18.8 |
| Lozenets | 11 | 33.6 |
Sofia's new apartment construction splits into two camps: faster payback at or around 20 years (Gorublyane at 16.5, Gorna Banya at 18.8, Malinova Dolina at 20.1, Ovcha Kupel at 21.1) versus the premium bet at 25-plus (Simeonovo at 25.1, the Centre at 29.1, Lozenets at 33.6). The city's two biggest apartment zones sit in opposite camps: investors in Malinova Dolina are buying cash flow, while those in Simeonovo are buying the expectation that the mountain belt will appreciate faster than its rents. Five years of payback difference, visible in one and the same register.
Completed projects
822 of 4,461 permits (2024 to date) are marked completed in the register; the rest are under construction or not yet started.
Methodology & caveats
- Source: the public construction-permit register of Sofia Municipality, 4,461 records since the start of 2024, refreshed weekly. Every figure is verifiable against specific register entries.
- Classification follows the permit's own wording: single-family markers (ЕДНОФАМИЛНА/КЪЩА/ВИЛНА) → single-family; МНОГОФАМИЛНА → multi-family; remaining "residential building" entries → residential, unspecified (in urban districts these are mostly multi-family, but the register does not say so explicitly). Renovations, conversions, extensions and non-residential projects are excluded.
- We count permits, not housing units: a multi-family building with 60 apartments is one record, and so is one house.
- Payback is gross, from asking prices and rents, before taxes, furnishing and vacancy; the real figure runs longer (see the finishing-cost analysis).
- The register reflects intent to build; some permits never reach construction.
Active construction and development pressure are visible on the interactive map, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. The map, the scores and the rankings are free.
Explore the mapPress: the full dataset and methodology are available on request via sofiahoods.com. Please credit and link SofiaHoods when citing these figures.