Without land
In Bulgaria, foreigners and foreign companies can directly acquire buildings, premises within a building and limited property rights (a construction right, right of use), but not property on land.

With land
In Bulgaria, foreigners and foreign companies can acquire any type of real estate, including land, by registering a Bulgarian company to act as acquire. It is possible for such a company to be 100% owned by the foreign investor.

The types of commercial companies are  provided for in the Commerce Act and an investor may only choose among the list. In particular, the types of commercial companies are:
- general partnership (SD)
- limited partnership(KD)
- partnership limited by shares (KDA);
- limited liability company (OOD) or sole-owner limited liability company (EOOD);
- joint-stock company (AD) or sole-owner joint stock company (EAD).

In addition to the 5 types of commercial companies under the Commerce Act as enumerated above, other forms of business organizations recognized under Bulgarian law are:
- sole trader (ET);
- joint-venture (may be in the form of any type of commercial company under the Commerce Act);
- holding;
- branch;
- trade representative office;
- public company and co-operative.

Under Bulgarian law, the sole trader is not a legal entity separate from its owner, who is fully liable to the creditors of the sole trader with all his/her personal assets. The general partnership is a legal entity separate from its owners, but the latter have unlimited liability and are exposed to the creditors of the company with all of their personal assets. The limited liability company and the joint stock company are legal entities separate from their shareholders, and the liability exposure is limited to the company’s assets, not extending to the assets owned by the shareholders. The shareholders may be held liable only to the amount of their contribution to the company’s capital. In the third place, the limited partnership and the partnership limited by shares comprise of general partners, to which unlimited liability applies, and limited partners, to which the separation of company’s and personal liability applies.

The regime for establishing a business organization is one and the same for local and foreign investors and foreign investors do not have to register with any governmental authority prior to establishment of a company. There are no restrictions as to the percentage of foreign capital in a company.

Under Bulgarian law, commercial companies are incorporated by way of registration into the commercial register with the respective district court according to the place where the company’s seat is to be located. The registration procedure takes normally one to two weeks following the date of filing of the required documents.

As a general rule, the subject matter of activity of a company is registered with the court, but a company may conduct all types of business activities not prohibited by law and as long as the company has acquired any licenses, permits or registrations, which may be required for a particular type of business activity under special laws and regulations. For example, such activities include banking, insurance, gambling, brokerage, hospital services, trade in medicines, production and trade in tobacco etc.

A branch is incorporated also by way of registration into the commercial register with the respective district court according to the place where its seat is to be located. A trade representative office is incorporated by way of registration into the commercial register with the BCCI.

Following registration in court or, in the BCCI respectively, commercial companies, as well as branches and trade representative offices, shall be registered with the National Statistics Institute, BULSTAT Register (within 3 days), the National Social Security Institute (within 7 days) and the local tax authorities (within 14 days).

The most common form of company used are :
- limited liability company (OOD) or sole-owner limited liability company (EOOD)