96 % of Bulgarians own a home

Summary data of NSI for housing in the country shows that in Bulgaria, with a population of about 7.2 million people there are over 5.3 million homes. Around 3.9 million of the dwellings are in cities and around 1.4 million - in villages.

According to the data of the national statistics-in the cities in Bulgaria live around 5.3 million bulgarians and about 1.9 million in the villages.

Almost 9 of every 10 bulgarians live in their own home, while 48 % of them live in apartments, nearly the same percentage-in houses, and the remaining 4 % are rent.

The Eurostat analysis reports that in Bulgaria, nearly 96 percent of the population lives in their own home, but half of the homes are crowded.

The highest proportions of people who inhabit their own homes is registered in Romania-nearly 97 percent of the country's population lives in their own homes.

Followed by Bulgaria-96 percent, Lithuania and Slovakia by 95 percent, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia-about 90 percent .

In Switzerland, about 5 percent of the people live in their own home, while nearly 60 percent living as tenants. A very low percentage of people who have their own home are registered in the Netherlands, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark--between 8 and 10 percent.

Eurostat data indicate that about 20 percent of EU residents inhabit the homes with very low rent or for free.

In some countries such as Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Austria more than a quarter of the population lives in homes for rent at market prices, while in Switzerland the rate exceeds 51 percent. As a key element in the quality of housing is sufficient space in the dwelling.