February the 1st, 2023 - Pula apartment prices, much like most other things which are purchasable of late, have shot up by as much as seventy percent in some cases. 

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, s fully furnished apartment in the attic of an Austro-Hungarian building spanning 48.57 square metres in Stoja (Pula) is currently for sale for 135,000 euros. At that price, it means that a single square metre of an apartment in Stoja costs a whopping 2,779 euros. A two-room apartment in the Sijana area spanning 75 square metres in a building built back in 2008 is being sold for 200,000 euros or, if it's easier for people to calculare in the old way - for one and a half million kuna.

There are also Pula apartment prices coming in at 2,666 euros per square metre, and the brand new residential area under development in Marina Veruda offers luxury apartments with a swimming pool, where a one-room apartment on the ground floor spanning 51.41 square metres on a turnkey basis, costs a massive 289,181 euros.

There are even some where the price per square metre will cost a buyer as much as 5,624 euros. A resident of Pula can hardly afford that even if they held a position in any one of the top paying local companies, but the location above Marina Veruda is probably not intended for locals. It's more than likely aimed primarily at foreign buyers who are perhaps more affluent, and who will be able to get from their yacht to their apartment easily, or rent it out while aboard their yacht, writes local portal The Voice of Istria/Glas Istre.

In a way, this is a picture of the Croatian real estate market as it currently stands, which, judging by the prices per square metre, is almost entirely intended for a buyer from Western and Central Europe, but not for a Pula local, who simply doesn't take home that sort of cash each month or year.

"Regardless of the interest rates, Pula apartment prices have jumped so much that our customers can't keep up with them," explained Sergio Ricchiuto, the owner of the Pula-based real estate agency Immobilia Nekretnine/Property, who has been in the business for more than forty years now. He says he doesn't know why square metres in Pula have become so expensive recently.

''The media claims that the prices went up by about 10 to 20 percent, which isn't quite the case because the prices of some properties jumped from 50 to 70 percent, depending on their location. For our locals, especially young people and young married couples who are thinking of buying an apartment, it becomes mission impossible because at these prices they simply can't afford it regardless of the current interest rate, which is a small item compared to the price,'' Ricchiuto concluded.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated news section.

October the 4th, 2022 - Four Croatian cities boast the most expensive property prices when looking at square metre costs, and the City of Zagreb isn't among them.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, to begin with, it's worth noting that the Republic of Croatia's real estate turnover last year amounted to a massive 60 billion kuna, which is a whole 20 billion kuna more than it amounted to back in 2020. The number of sales was also 30 percent higher. The highest price per square metre - coming in at more than two thousand euros - was achieved by property sellers in four Croatian cities: Dubrovnik, Rovinj, Split and Opatija, while in the City of Zagreb the average price per suqare metre was 1,600 euros.

It is particularly interesting that almost half of the properties were bought with cash, and when we talk about the possibility of buying real estate, residents of the coast are the least likely of all to be able to actually afford property.

This interesting data was commented recently on HTV's Dnevnik by economic analyst Luka Brkic from the Libertas University, who said that people, especially in turbulent, uncertain times, try to escape with their assets to safer harbours - and one of the anchors definitely comes in the form of purchasing real estate.

Brkic also said that APN's loans further stimulate the demand for apartments, and then the price increases follow.

"It's also possible to go into slightly more speculative waters and say that a large part of property that is bought with cash has speculative characteristics and attributions, that is, that it is possible that it is a matter of some percentage of money laundering," said Brkic, claiming such things can never really be ruled out.

Brkic added that some Croatian and international research estimates show that the shadow economy which is very much present here in Croatia could be worth slightly less than 30 percent of GDP. This is an absolutely enormous amount of money that does not end up in the tax system at all, he noted.

"This is something that is definitely a problem. Whether it is a third now or not we can't be sure, but whatever the figure is - it's definitely much too high," he warned.

For more on property prices in different Croatian cities, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

October the 3rd, 2022 - Croatian arable land is yet another thing that has seen its worth massively increase in a relatively short space of time. While property of all kinds across the country has seen price hikes, the price per hectare of arable land has done quite the leap.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the average price of purchased Croatian arable land last year stood at 27,595 kuna per hectare, which is 1,665 kuna more than it was the year before, according to data from the State Statistics Office (DZS) published on Wednesday.

The aforementioned statistics also show that back in 2021, the average price of purchased meadows was 18,204 kuna per hectare, which is 915 kuna more than it was the year before, and pastures costed 18,516 kuna or 2,865 kuna more.

In Pannonian Croatia, the average price of purchased arable land was 27,869 kuna, meadows came with a price tag of 19,276 kuna, and pastures totalled 11,557 kuna per hectare. Compared to just one year before, the average price for the purchase of Croatian arable land increased by 1,453 kuna, meadows by 408 kuna and pastures by 837 kuna per hectare.

The average price of purchased arable land in the Adriatic part of Croatia stood at 40,793 kuna per hectare, which is 7,153 kuna per hectare more than it was back in 2020, meadows came with a price tag of 16,456 kuna or 2,499 kuna more, and pastures were 25,313 kuna per hectare or 4,890 kuna more than they were sold for back in 2020.

In Northern Croatia, the average price of arable land was once 23,872 kuna per hectare, meadows costed 19,021 kuna, and pastures came at a price of 17,111 kuna per hectare. As such, the average purchase price of Croatian arable land was 1,354 kuna more, meadows were 40 kuna more and pastures had seen an increase of 125 kuna per hectare.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section for more on Croatian land and property prices.

June 5, 2021 – The Croatian real estate market is very interesting and full of good investment opportunities. Many potential buyers were expecting prices to go down significantly during 2021, but is this really happening? A look at real estate in Croatia. 

Croatian economy has been going through turmoil in the last year. While the pandemic is wreaking havoc on the travel and tourism industry, devastating earthquakes in Zagreb and Central Croatia caused even more problems and shifts in the local economy. Incredibly, the traditionally volatile real estate market in the country doesn’t seem to be going through a serious disruption, at least when it comes to prices.

Zagreb, the country’s largest city, is experiencing a turbulent period. The real estate market of the city has been rattled both literally and figuratively by a series of earthquakes. The damage from the earthquakes exposed a poor state of many buildings within the city’s centre. At the same time, much of the Croatian coast has had a rise in property prices due to the region becoming a global travel hotspot in the last 5-10 years. Many of the most attractive areas like Dubrovnik or Split centres seem overpriced to anyone looking to buy. With all this in mind, it would seem logical the crisis Croatia is facing at the moment would force the prices to drop. Still, according to an article by Dnevnik.hr, the prices generally seem to be stable or are even rising.

Regional Differences

The real estate situation in Zagreb is dynamic. The aftermath of the earthquakes left many searching exclusively for new buildings outside of the city centre. Consequently, there is a rise in prices for such properties. At the same time, there is a drop in prices for some centrally located apartments, but the buyers are rare, especially in buildings that are awaiting renovation. On the coast, Dubrovnik, the country’s most expensive real estate market, is seeing a drop in sales. Reduced demand doesn’t seem to be having a direct impact on the average price. It seems most property owners believe in a quick recuperation of this popular travel hotspot. This is also true for the rest of the popular Dalmatian areas. In Istria, the market seems stable and attracts plenty of foreign buyers, especially from Slovenia, Italy, and Austria. Around half of the properties sold in Istria are bought by foreigners.

For more, follow our dedicated business section.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 4th of January, 2020, it would seem that the Croatian property prices and thus the country's real estate market is finally returning to pre-crisis levels, at least when it comes to asking prices, and the volume and the number of transactions are also accelerating, according to a report from Vecernji list.

The Institute of Economics in Zagreb, together with the competent ministry of construction, published the second edition of the Croatian Real Estate Market Review for 2018, which shows that in 2018, there were 104,000 real estate purchases in Croatia and the value of real estate sold stood at a massive 32 billion kuna, or 8.4 percent of Croatia's GDP, according to the aforementioned newspaper.

Agricultural land was dominated by almost 40,000 transactions, but the value of the land actually sold has fallen from the previous year to around 1.6 billion kuna in total. Most of the money was spent in the housing fund - about 13 billion kuna, construction land accounted for about six billion kuna, and family homes accounted for about 5.7 billion kuna. In the year under review, about four thousand more homes were sold - just over 11 thousand houses changed owners.

The analysis of the sales contracts does not confirm that there has been a particularly dramatic increase in Croatian property prices, but that impression can definitely be obtained according to the required real estate prices.

For example, in Zagreb, the median price of apartments sold in 2018 was 4.9 percent higher than in 2017, amounting to 9459 kuna per square metre. The median price means that half of the just over 8,000 apartments sold went below that price and the other half was more expensive.

When it comes to other parts of Croatia, Split-Dalmatia County had the largest price spike in flats - about eight percent with a median price of per square metre costing 11,669 kuna, and in Istria - 6.7 percent - but a median price of 8722 kuna per square metre. In 2018, when compared to 2017, prices fell in eleven counties, most notably in Koprivnica-Krizevci, by 17 percent (4981 kuna), Lika-Senj (5469 kuna) and Požega-Slavonia by 11 percent, where you'd pay 3636 kuna per square metre in an apartment.

Lower prices for apartments sold have also been recorded in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, otherwise the Croatian record holder when it comes to cost, and in 2018, in Croatia's southernmost county, 520 apartments were sold, which marked a decreased of about 5 percent to 12,158 kuna per square metre.

With regard to family homes, significantly higher prices were achieved in cities and municipalities in the Adriatic region of Croatia, and the highest median house prices are of course in Dubrovnik.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more on Croatian property prices.