It's the Fulbright time of year. I've been getting emails from incoming Fulbrighters for this next year and they are asking a range of different questions.  Most of which are pretty straightforward but then there's the question about housing.  How do I find an apartment? Well, I got lucky, lucky and inherited one from a former Fulbrighter and then passed it on after my year to a current Fulbrighter.  But not everyone can be lucky.

It got me thinking, finding an apartment has got to be one of the big challenges for Fulbrighters. You don't speak the language, you don't know the city and you don't have any familiarity with the housing market. That's a recipe for, well, expensive expat housing. I'd say that this is housing mainly in the city center that looks good--but is low quality--and you get to pay top dollar for it. Or I guess top leva, if you're a stickler for those kinds of things. <!--more-->

I ended up writing this in response to a curious Fulbrighter this morning:
<blockquote>Honestly, good housing for a good price is notoriously hard to find in Sofia. I'd email current Fulbrighters and see if they would offer to connect you with their current landlords. If not, come to Sofia, stay in a hostel for a few days (or maybe even something more like a week) and look, look, look! You'll find something but standards in housing are not the same as in the states and when you move into the ex-pat housing market the prices go up but the quality doesn't necessarily go up at an equal rate. This said, you wont be homeless but the process is a trade off.</blockquote>
But frankly, it felt like a totally un-helpful response. Sure, I got across the idea that finding housing is a balancing act and that you've got to consider what's the most important to you like central heating vs space heaters, location vs price or vintage circa 1980's Bulgaria-chic vs stark modern chic. However, these are all abstractions unless you can get your food into the housing market.

So, dear Bulgarian readers, knowing what you know of the rental market in Sofia and pretending to be a foreigner, like me, what steps would you take to secure a furnished apartment in the general city center area (not Mladost for example) at a price between 400 and 600 leva a month?