Cheap, modern apartment, located in a green area and just ten minutes by bus from the city centre. The ad for the 60-square-metre apartment available for rent in the Remete district for only 350 euros has been viewed more than 2100 times since Monday. For a good reason, since it is one of few such apartments available in Zagreb. However, it is not available for everybody, reports Večernji List on April 5, 2019.

When a journalist called the owner pretending to be a mother of a two-year-old child, she was immediately rejected. Children are not welcome in this apartment. The same thing happened with about twenty other internet ads that the journalist came across. When asked why they did not want kids, owners gave different answers. The apartment is allegedly more suitable for students and workers, schools and kindergartens are not close enough, neighbours are mostly without kids so they would be bored.

Owner Jakov Buljević does not want children because they could damage his apartment. “Of course, you should not admit a family with children in a newly-renovated apartment, perhaps only if it is a modest and not renovated flat,” he said, which has been confirmed by other apartment owners, as well as parents who have spent months searching for apartments for themselves and their families.

Romana Tahirović has been trying to find accommodation for herself and her child since June but without success. “My child is about to start school, and I want to find an apartment close to a school, but as soon as I mention having a child, the person on the other side starts explaining that the apartment is too small or not adapted for the kids. And if I mention I am a single mother, they start asking how I am going to pay for the apartment, despite having a regular income,” she explained.

The most common reason for the rejection is the owners’ fear that they would not be paid. “I had a family with children, and they did not pay me for half a year. I could not force myself to have them evicted, but I do not want to go through that again,” one of the landlords said.

Boro Vujović, the director of a real estate agency, confirmed that families with children have a difficult time finding an apartment. “While living in an apartment, the family has a hold over it. Owners cannot just evict them by force, but they have to sue them, which can take years. People do not want the risk, and therefore they reject families with children,” he explained.

Rental rates are another problem. The average rent of a 60-square-metre apartment is about 600 euro, or a little less than 4,500 kuna. The highest rent is in the city centre, Ravnice and Maksimir, where it reaches up to 800 euro per month, while the cheapest ones are in Sesvete, Dubrava and Gajnice, where a 60-square-metre apartment costs about 400 euros. This is much higher than it used to be when the average rental price of a flat of 60 square metres was about 350 to 400 euros.

The reason for the lack of rental apartments is the growth of flats offered for daily rent. But the better days are coming, claims Vujović. “There has been hyperinflation of daily rental apartments. But people will soon realise that it is not worth it and they will against start renting them for the long-term, and this will bring the rates down.”

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Hana Ivković).

More Zagreb news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

A 110 square-metre apartment in Jurišićeva Street for 6,500 kuna, a 95 square-metre apartment in Degenova for 5,500 kuna... Rental rates in the Zagreb city centre are so high that many tenants if they decide to look for an apartment in this area, cannot find an apartment which they can afford. Especially in December, when the Zagreb Advent brings numerous tourists to the capital. In addition to extremely high prices, the problem is that there are few apartments offered for long-term rental at all, which is not surprising given that owners who opt for short-term rentals to tourists can earn a monthly rent in just a few days, reports Večernji List on November 17, 2018.

The number of apartments offered for short-term rentals in Zagreb is higher in December than in the rest of the year. “Many property owners who have empty apartments opt for short-term rental during the largest event in the city. It is better than to have an empty apartment,” said Marko Marinšek, who rents out apartments in Gundulićeva Street.

However, short-term rentals demand a lot more effort from the owners than long-term leases, where owners just have to take care that the monthly rent and utility bills are paid on time.

“On the other hand, many people have stopped renting their apartments, due to too much competition. Some have even taken their apartments from the market altogether,” said Bruno Babić from the Apartments in the Zagreb Centre association, which brings together more than 20 apartments of different owners. But this does not prevent others from trying to rent their apartments to tourists.

Despite the fact that there have never been more apartments offered for short-term rental, all the apartments which are part of the association have already been booked for the Advent weekends, mostly by tourists who will arrive in Zagreb by plane. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in December are more or less booked, with a few vacancies available over the week.

There are no apartments in the city centre which are available for long-term rental under 300 euro a month, said Anita Vukoja, the owner of In-between real estate agency, which rents out apartments for her clients. “The demand is the highest for two-bedroom apartments and studios from 300 to 500 euro a month. As soon as they appear on the market, they are rented the very same day. At the same time, people looking for an apartment complain that it is impossible to find any,” said Vukoja. “There are many people who are buying apartments just to offer them for short-term rentals,” added Vukoja.

The average price for a four-bed apartment in Zagreb is 50 euro per night, although such apartments can cost up to 100 euro in the centre.

For more news on Zagreb, click here.

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Petra Balija).

The government believes that owners of tourist rental apartments pay too low taxes compared to other taxpayers.

Rental owners and the tourist board do not seem to like the idea.

About 120 million euro is invested annually in rooms, apartments and houses, and 130 million euro in additional facilities.

Just last year, over a thousand apartments entered the rental market.

ZAGREB, January 27, 2018 - Recategorisation, more favourable Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development loans, better treatment by state institutions and turnover growth are the key expectations for this year by providers of tourist accommodation in households, Danijela Čavlović of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce has told Hina.

More tourists mean fewer apartment available for everybody else.

By commercial rental prices, the best-known street in Zagreb is among the most expensive in the world.

In December 2003, I took my future wife to England for the first time. We visited the usual impressive places - London, Cambridge, Oxford, York, the boarding school were I was beaten as a child - but the best part of the trip for me was Boxing Day at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in the pouring rain. I could tell from her dubious outlook that The Boss did not feel the same, but the chap we met inside - dodgy hairstyle and cheap leather jacket apart - was the man who launched my real estate career in Croatia.

If you bought property in Croatia during the boom, you will have heard of Martin Westby. He was the man who put together the early Bible - How to Buy Property in Croatia. It was an essential tool in the jungle of 2004 Croatian property buying, and his informative newsletters to several thousand subscribers became must-read Croatian tourism information. 

Martin is back with a new, throroughly-researched and informative book to answer the questions people are asking in 2013 about Croatian property - the thorny issue of rental law, licences and the EU. Included in his new sure-to-be bestseller with the catchy title:

The 2013 Guide to Renting in Croatia - The Legal and Tax implications of letting your Croatian property

The 64 page guide covers:

The Basics. The necessary elements that an owner will need to have in place and understand; whether you are renting under 2013 rules or post EU harmonisation.
Categorisation and the Rental Licence
The new Property Tax
Do I even need a licence? Alternatives to applying for a Rental Licence.
Taxation Issues
Current rules for applying for a Rental Licence (2013)
Post EU law harmonisation -Applying for a Rental Licence (2014)

To get more information and order your copy, visit Martin's website.