Bad news for house owners, unless they live in coastal towns.
Crozilla.com statistics show that house prices have fallen in February both month-to-month and year-to-year. An increase in house prices has been recorded only in coastal towns. The biggest increase was recorded in Umag (2.4 percent) and Dubrovnik (1.4 percent). The most expensive houses found in classified ads were again those on the coast. Besides the highest house prices, Dubrovnik also had the biggest annual jump in prices of 6.7 percent. One square metre there costs 3,764 euros on average, reports Poslovni.hr on March 11, 2016.
Compared to the previous month, house prices around the country were 0.9 percent lower in February, and the biggest difference was seen in Sisak (7 percent lower) and Bjelovar (4.1 percent). According to Crozilla.com data, the average asking price for a house in Zagreb was 1,246 euros per square metre or about 2.7 percent less than in January and 1.7 percent less than in February 2015.
Ante Gašpar from the Opereta real state agency confirmed the trend and said the price stabilization is expected to happen by the end of the year, as well as the growth in demand.
Houses that were on sale in February had an asking price that was more than 13 percent lower than the average price for an apartment. Houses were cheaper in most cities, except for some towns on the coast, such as Zadar, Poreč, Pula, Dubrovnik. One of the cities where apartment prices were significantly higher than house prices, some even more than 20 percent, is Opatija. In Zagreb, houses were cheaper by as much as 367 euros per square metre – a difference of almost 23 percent.
A house offers more freedom and privacy, and more options when it comes to decisions like remodelling, maintenance and adaptation. Nevertheless, apartments are still more attractive as they have some other advantages. Gašpar explained that apartments were more popular because houses were mostly too big, located at somewhat less attractive locations and were still pretty pricey. "They are cheaper if you look by the square metre, but there is a small number of houses in the zone covered by trams which can be adapted and have an asking price of less than 100,000 euros, or 250,000 euros when it comes to newer houses, which are the most popular."
