The new tax could have serious consequences for real estate market.
The real estate market has been stagnant for several years now, and the Croatian Chamber of Economy (HGK) believes that the introduction of the property tax in the country should be conducted very carefully, it was said at the Forum of the Real Estate Business which was held in Zadar and organized by HGK, reports liderpress.hr on May 14, 2016.
According to HGK, the drafting process should include the real estate experts in order to see and also foresee all the positive and negative consequences of this type of tax. “The negative consequences of the introduction of the property tax could influence the majority of Croatian citizens, and thus reflect on the entire economy”, said Josip Zaher, HGK vice president for tourism, trade and finances.
According to Marijana Vuraić Kudeljan, the deputy director of Tax Adminitration, „the property tax will be a substitute for current utility fees”. She also emphasized that the Tax Administration has established a working group which is analyzing the tax system, and the result of their work is expected towards the end of June.
In the meantime, according to the data presented by Zaher, the average real estate prices in Croatia have fallen almost three percent in the last year, while the prices for the same type of properties in the European Union are rising. It was therefore concluded that the real estate market is stagnating.
“There was a slight increase in the number of foreign owners of the real estate in Croatia. Overall, Slovenians and Germans are the foreigners with the greatest number of the Croatian real estate units. However, the biggest increase during last year has been recorded among the Russian citizens, and it amounted to 438 percent when compared to 2014”, HGK said.
According to HGK, in the last nine years the number of professionals in this industry has been on the rise. Almost 3,000 people have successfully passed the professional realtor exams, and 829 legal and physical entities have been actively participating in the market, acting as mediators in the real estate trading.
