Croatian Apartments Best for Property Investment

Croatian apartments have been shown to be the best bet for overseas property investors interested in Croatia.

Last year, property owners could ask eight per cent more money for their Croatian apartments, while houses saw a rise of 4.5 per cent in the asking prices compared to 2017.

In fact, over the last two years, the asking prices for Croatian apartments have risen by as much as 13 per cent, while house prices rose more slowly at 7 per cent, according to an annual analysis by Njuškalo conducted on a sample of more than 150,000 real estate ads from its base.

The website also recorded significant annual growth in the number of visitors to its Real Estate category. In 2018, there were as much as 11 per cent more visits than in 2017, and more than 20 per cent more than in 2016, with a growing trend in the number of visits from abroad. The share of foreign visitors to the Real Estate category was over 12 per cent, with most visitors clicking from Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Austria.

Prices for Croatian apartments grew most in coastal towns, and in Zagreb and surrounding towns. The average asking price for an apartment in Zagreb now amounts to 1,961 euros per square metre, 10.4 per cent more than at the end of 2017, while the average price of a house with a yard is 1,296 euros.

The price per square metre in Split has now reached 2,792 euros, an increase of 11 per cent compared to December 2017, while the most substantial rise in the prices was recorded in Dubrovnik, with an average of 3,773 euros per square metre, 16 per cent more than the year before.

In Zadar, the asking price increase was even higher than in Split, almost 13 per cent, and the average asking price for an apartment is 2,116 euros per square metre. Rijeka recorded a jump of 4 per cent, and the current average price is around 1,520 euros.

In Samobor near Zagreb, prices for Croatian apartments increased by 12 per cent, while in Karlovac the jump was slightly smaller (8 per cent). Although the average prices of apartments in larger towns in eastern Croatia used to stagnate or decline, the end of the last year brought a rise in asking prices there as well, according to Njuškalo.

The average price of an apartment in Osijek is 963 euros per square metre, 4 per cent more than in 2017. Slavonski Brod recorded an increase of 2 per cent, and the average price of an apartment there was 802 euros.

As for houses, owners ask for 4,623 euros on average in Dubrovnik, 3,029 euros in Split, and just 510 euros per square metre in Požega in Slavonia.