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Following the report of Croatiaweek of January 13th Croatian real estate market demonstrated 10% increase in 2019 and occupied the 3d place in Europe after Luxembourg and Hungary. Major engines of this statistics are prices rise in Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb. While Zagreb just follows residential construction boom, Dubrovnik and Split suffer from lack of new construction. Burza Nekretnina statistics shows stable rise in prices for Croatian real estate since early 2018. Despite difficulties in purchasing procedure which is still present for many non-EU countries, every fifth property in Croatia is sold to a foreigner. Among the most frequent requests for the real estate at Croatian coast are waterfront villas or apartments. Most of buyers from Austria and Germany continue to be focused on Istria with tragic absence of new beachfront villas under 2-2,5 mln euro. Istria still offers less than 4-5 proper villas of this kind. Practically the same is situation over Kvarner which continues to be overpriced. New modern villas of first line position is a great rarity in Dubrovnik area as well with prices reaching 4-5 mln. euro for a proper modern villa with private beach. Most popular request is a first line new modern villa in...

Starting from January 1st 2019 Croatia has obliged all national companies Directors to pay pension/medical contributions. Many properties in Croatia had been bought in the name of legal entities in Croatia. It helped to optimize taxes and sometimes it was the only way to legally own Croatian real estate due to absence of reciprocity with this or that state. Any foreign citizen can be an official Director of Croatian company, however, it does not give him work permit in Croatia and temporary residence there. However, all CEO are subject to pension and medical contributions now. In case you company has a Croatian Director, he has to receive minimum salary of 5445 kn and pay minimum contributions of 2050 kn per month. In case your company has a non-Croatian Director, he has to get min wage of 8500 kn and pay min contribution of 3100 kn per month. He can be released of those fees only if one proves by submission of A1 form that he is covering those taxes in his mother-country within EU or any other country having relevant agreement in Croatia. In this connection, we would recommend closing down your Croatian company in case it is used just...

Good news for potential real estate buyers in Croatia - as of January 1st, 2019 Property Transfer Tax went down to 3%. Five years ago it was 5% tax, then it's level was reduced to 4%, now 3% rate is introduced meant to stimulate overall realty market activity, encourage buyers to buy apartments, houses, land and other types of immovables in Croatia. Croatia is now one of the most favourable tax regimes for realty in Europe: purchasing taxes are lowest in comparison with Spain, France, Germany, etc. Annual taxes are not still introduced at a proper level, so that Croatian properties owners enjoy possibility of paying approx 2-3 euro per m2 per year.

Every real estate market has its peculiarities explained by geographical position, historical development, and consumer behavior. And Croatian realty market is not an exception. Here is the expert opinion of the Croatian realty market on its inadequacy . Istria confusions Most of Croatia's property buyers come from neighboring Slovenia, Austria, and Germany. They travel mostly by car and the nearest point in Croatia for them is the Istria peninsula. They come to be closer to the sea, to the beach, to enjoy the sea, swimming and sunbathing. First of all, they want to look for properties on the first and second lines to the sea, not 5-10 km away from the coastline. It concerns all the segments of the market: smaller apartments, modest houses, and luxury villas. Although Tuscany-style villas are strongly present in the mainland real estate market of Istria, still 80-85% of the buyers want to stick to the coast of Croatia But if you look at the coastline from Umag to Medulin we will find just a few new developments on the first line, practically no houses for sale, up to 10 seafront villas, and no land plots for sale. This situation is very disappointing for Croatian...

Which countries are Croatia’s main competitors in holiday real estate? It is Spain, especially Majorca island, as its coastline resembles Croatian but connectivity and general infrastructure are considered to be better. On the other hand, Greece, especially Corfu island, becomes a competition when we talk of the ecological environment. When we look at prices, we see that Croatia is more affordable than both of these locations in a segment of newly built villas of 350.000 – 600.000 eur that can not be so often found on the seashore on Corfu and Majorca. Besides, Croatia is offering mainland properties in the cenetr of Europe within 3-5 hours by car from Austria and Germany which is a great advantage. It should be noted that being a young member of the European Union, Croatia is still not ranked high among member states and is often taken as a country of socialist background with outdated facilities. This is a mistaken concept indicating complete ignorance and lack of information. During the last 5-7 years Croatian has made huge progress: highways are among the best in the EU, and hospitality and catering industries have highly developed historically. The country is extensively building modern shopping malls and...

Real estate market in Croatia has completely recovered of crisis tendencies and was in a green PLUS zone throughout 2017. Global recession of 2008 hit Croatian realty market by price drop 25-50% in many areas. However since 2014 - 2015 it is demonstrating a steady enthusiastic growth. Croatia is celebrating already a third booming year of tourism followed by rise in residential construction and sales. Popular Croatian resource Njuskalo renders the following statistical data on 2017 tendencies and results: - generally real estate prices in Croatia rose in 2017 by 2,32%; - the largest growth was demonstrated by Pula area where prices increased 11% with average price per m2 reaching 1485,00 eur; - highest realty prices are still indicated in Dubrovnik with average price of 2494,00 eur per m2 for apartments and 2100,00 eur per m2 for houses; - least popular areas are Osijek (as it is far from the sea) and Rijeka that had been overpriced for decades and it is now turning back to normal. Crozilla, another noticeable web resource, fixed almost 14% rise in real estate prices for Dubrovnik in 2017, about 13% rise of prices in Split ,12,5% in Pula and 7% in Zadar. At the...

2017 was highly successful for Croatia in terms of tourism. In December 2017 Croatia Airlines recorded 2 mln a year passengers for the first time in history. Swiss International Airlines announced new flights from Geneva to Pula. After some break Alitalia decided to be back to Croatian market and re-launched flights between Rome and Dubrovnik. As a sample, Dubrovnik airport schedule is including flights of such companies as SAS, Lufthansa, Finnair, Vritish Airways, Brussels Airlines, Air Berlin, Iberia, Eurowings, Air Serbia, Norwegian Air, Thomas Cook airline, Croatian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, TUI Airlines Belgium, Austrian Airlines, Germania, Alitalia, Trade Air, EasyJet, Transavia, Vueling, Monarch Airlines, Thomson Airlines, Je2, Volotea, Aer Lingus, Condor, Luxair, Transavia, Glogus, Siberia airlines, Travel Service and many others. It means that Croatia is highly popular, rising tourism always brings rising interst towards local Croatian real estate purchases.

U.S. News & World Report just released new 2018 survey of best 80 countries of the world. Croatia hit position No 50. Last year achievement of Croatia was #49 ranking. Croatia is ranked higher than many other EU countries like Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia. However, it is well behing the leaders of ranking: Switzerland (#1), Canada (#2), Germany (#3), United Kigdrom (#4) and Japan (#5) which are mentioned within TOP 5 countries of the ranking. The closest neighbours of Croatia in the ranking are Phillippines, Morocco, Panama, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Peru. Methodology of the ranking is taking into account variety of metrics including 65 attributes like gross domestic product purchasing power per capita, advernture environment, citizenship, cultural influence, entrepreneurship, openness for business, heritage (history), power (political, economic, military), quality of life, etc. It means that Croatia yet has a lot to improve to successfully compete with neighbours like Germany (#3), Italy (#15) and Austria (#17).