However, the number of bought newly-built apartments is much lower.
The optimism in housing construction has definitely been growing in the last year in Croatia. The number of apartments built and the number of building permits issued for new buildings is increasing. However, the trend is not followed by the number of sold newly-built apartments, so it is no surprise that market prices have been stagnating or growing at just a minimum rate in some parts of the country. Last year, 6,903 new apartments were placed on the market, but only 2,791 new apartments were sold, reports Večernji List on October 3, 2017.
Last year, the largest number of new apartments was built in Zagreb, Split and Zadar, and these were the towns with the fastest growth in the sales of apartments as well. The disparity between the registered number of new flats sold and the newly-built units in the market has not discouraged investors from constructing new buildings since more and more building permits are being sought and issued.
Permits have been issued for more about 8,000 individual new housing units, which is an increase of nearly 30 percent. Last year, 852 new buildings were built, of which 68 were hotel buildings and similar facilities, while 48 were new office buildings. Interestingly, the retail and wholesale trade industry has constructed 87 new buildings, while 166 buildings were built for investors in warehouses and industrial facilities.
Prices on the market are stagnating. The average price of a newly-built flat in Croatia, not including units built as part of the government-supported social housing initiatives, was 11,027 kunas per square metre, while in the first half of the current year it was three kunas less. Looking just at Zagreb, the average price was 11,770 kunas for newly-constructed buildings, which was about four percent or 350 kunas per square metre higher than in the same period of 2016. The price recovery has been slow, since the average square metre of a newly-constructed apartment in Zagreb in 2015 cost around 12,214 kunas.
Construction is one of the most important industries for the Croatian economy, as evidenced by the fact that, from 2002 to 2015, despite the economic crisis, around 255 billion kunas were invested in construction projects. Out of this, approximately 40 billion kunas were invested in the construction of housing buildings, about 100 billion kunas in transport infrastructure, but only five billion kunas in industrial facilities.
Translated from Večernji List.
