Bulgaria's National Audit Office has published more than 16,000 annual asset and interest declarations filed by people holding public office, and the cabinet entries run from an interior minister sitting on 400,000 euros in cash to a culture minister declaring 28 properties. A separate list names 637 people who did not file by the legal deadline at all.
The register covers annual declarations submitted by 15 May 2026, plus the introductory and final declarations filed by people taking up or leaving office during the year. Each one sets out real estate, bank deposits, cash, vehicles, investments, company holdings, debts and income. The Bulgarian News Agency reported the batch went online on 14 August.
It is a peculiar kind of transparency, and worth pausing on before the numbers. The state will show you a sitting minister's bank balance for free, from your sofa. Getting a certificate about your own address out of a municipal counter still involves a queue, a form and a stamp.
Cash, Twenty-Eight Properties and a Boat
Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev stands out on liquidity rather than bricks: 400,000 euros in cash, more than 260,000 euros in bank accounts, roughly 140,000 euros in receivables, a mortgage of over 68,000 euros and three credit cards. His property list runs to three apartments in Plovdiv, a share in a house with a yard at Simeonovgrad, plots near Markovo and Brestovitsa, and agricultural land. He also declares a boat with a motor, cars, and stakes in six companies, the largest of them an interest in Plovdiv Investor valued above 306,000 euros.
Culture Minister Evtim Miloshev declares the heaviest property portfolio in the cabinet, at 28 properties and property rights, including a 134 square metre apartment in Saint-Genis-Pouilly in France and several Sofia addresses. One of the Sofia homes was bought in 2021 for 929,000 euros. He reports 480,219 euros in a bank account, no liabilities above 5,000 euros, and full ownership of the production company Dream Team Group.
Regional Minister Ivan Shishkov and his wife between them declare 10 apartments, eight in Sofia and two in Bansko, alongside a house and yard, an office, a shop, a studio, land, two garages and a parking space, spread across Sofia, Bansko, Pomorie and Pleven. Some came by inheritance, gift or exchange. The family reports about 430,000 euros in bank accounts and three cars.
Elsewhere in the cabinet the picture is quieter. Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov declares roughly 740,000 euros in savings, listed as coming from employment income. Prime Minister Rumen Radev lists no property in his own name at all, reporting 286,100 euros in bank accounts, a credit card with a 5,000 euro limit, investments of about 2,922 euros and a Skoda Octavia bought in 2025 for 8,274 euros. Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov takes the portfolio route instead, with shares in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Netflix, Rheinmetall and Manchester United, plus Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana holdings worth about 2,600 to 2,700 euros.
The Party Leaders Are a Different Ledger
Delyan Peevski of the DPS declares a dividend of 8,944,969 euros, cash of 370,085 euros and 99,000 US dollars, and accounts holding 402,607 euros and a further 6,222 dollars. He declares no ownership of the properties he uses: five houses, an apartment, a studio and garage space are all listed as rented, and five cars sit under contracts rather than in his name.
GERB leader Boyko Borissov reports 200,560 euros in cash and 373,800 euros in the bank against declared income of 162,987 euros. We Continue the Change leader Asen Vassilev declares an apartment, about 20,800 euros in accounts and income near 72,800 euros. Revival's Kostadin Kostadinov lists an apartment, roughly 409 euros in available funds and 11,400 euros in the bank against annual income of about 95,000 euros. Progressive Bulgaria's parliamentary group chairman Petar Vitanov reports no cash and no deposits whatsoever, but a 100,000 euro holding in shares of KBC Bank Belgium.
Some of the Figures Are Still in Leva
Bulgaria switched to the euro on 1 January 2026, and the declarations sit awkwardly across that line: amounts appear in euros or in leva depending on the period and the type of filing. Transport Minister Georgi Peev and his wife are recorded with around one million leva in savings, which at the fixed rate of 1.95583 is about 511,000 euros. Youth and Sports Minister Encho Keryazov declares a BMW 740D bought for 234,673 leva, or roughly 120,000 euros, financed by loans.
Anyone who has had a Bulgarian bank statement, an insurance renewal or an estate agent's valuation land in the wrong currency this year will recognise the problem. Convert before you compare, always at the fixed rate, and never at whatever a shop or a currency desk offers you. Our guide to money in Bulgaria covers the changeover rules and the conversion traps in detail.
The Same Register Covers Your Mayor
This is the part the coverage of ministerial boats and BMWs tends to skip. The declarations are not a one off political spectacle: they are a permanent, free, searchable public register, and the obligation reaches a long way down. Under the Anti-Corruption Act the people who must file include members of parliament, magistrates, deputy ministers, directors of state agencies and mayors.
For a British expat, that is a genuinely useful tool. The mayor of the municipality where you own property, the municipal officials handling a change of land status on your village plot, the magistrate hearing your case: all of them are in the same register, at register.cacbg.bg, reachable from the National Audit Office site. It costs nothing. If you are still finding your way around Bulgaria's online public services, our e-government guide explains how the portals fit together.
What has to be declared is broad: real estate, vehicles, aircraft and watercraft, securities, company shares, financial instruments, cryptocurrency, and any receivables, liabilities or income above 5,000 euros, including those of a spouse, a partner and minor children. Publication is not the end of it either. The Audit Office then checks the declared facts against the tax agency, the property register, the commercial register, the traffic police and the central credit register at the Bulgarian National Bank. A declarant who is found to have a discrepancy gets 14 days to correct it. Discrepancies from 5,000 euros go to the National Revenue Agency, and those of 12,500 euros or more are referred to the commission that pursues illegal asset forfeiture. Missing the deadline outright carries a fine of 500 to 1,500 euros, rising to 1,750 to 3,000 euros for a repeat.
What the Declared Prices Say About Buying Here
There is a second use for all this, and it has nothing to do with politics. Declarations record what was actually paid, which makes them one of the few public sources of Bulgarian transaction prices rather than asking prices.
They do not flatter the idea of a bargain. A Sofia home changed hands in 2021 for 929,000 euros. A 58 square metre Sofia apartment cost 90,000 euros. Tourism Minister Ilin Dimitrov declares a home, parking space and warehouse in the capital acquired in 2025 for about 386,000 euros, and Finance Minister Galab Donev an apartment in Chernomorets bought in 2023 for 90,000 euros. Against those, the 80 square metre Sofia apartment recorded at 38,363 euros in 2024 looks anomalous, and the source gives no explanation for the gap. Declared acquisition values can reflect inheritance, family transfers or long completed contracts as much as the open market, so treat any single line as a data point rather than a valuation. Our guide to buying property in Bulgaria sets out how prices and deeds actually work here.
The wider point holds regardless. Sofia prices in these filings are not the numbers that circulate in British conversations about moving to Bulgaria, and they have not been for some years.
Taken together the register shows nothing improper on its face: several of the wealthier officials also declare substantial mortgages and other liabilities. What it shows is a system that publishes first and checks afterwards, in public, where anyone can read it. That is more than most of us get from the equivalent exercise at home.