Good news for Split property owners.
“Not only have we created more favourable conditions for citizens to solve their housing problems, but we have revived the property market and lowered the price of apartments”, representatives from the state property agency said just last week, during the handover ceremony of socially-assisted housing (POS) apartments in Split, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on November 15, 2015. However, the data say something else. The market price of a square metre in a new building in Split is a lot higher than a thousand euros paid by people from the priority list of POS program. That is confirmed by apartments offered on Njuškalo, the most popular online marketplace in Croatia, where the POS apartments in Split are already offered for 1,550 euros per square metre, which is a lot more than what the present owners paid to the state.
According to the analysis of real estate prices on Njuškalo, which last month contained 161,000 properties, overall property prices in Croatia did actually decrease by two percent compared to the same month last year, but Split is an exception. Indeed, Split and Varaždin have recorded the biggest increases in prices.
Split is currently second on the list of large cities with the highest average prices of real estate properties – the price of a square metre of apartment on the Split peninsula is 2,206 euros. More expensive is only a square metre in Dubrovnik (2,994 euros), while, for example, the average price of residential square metre in Zagreb is only 1,541 euros. According to Split Deputy Mayor Goran Kovačević, that is exactly the reason why the citizens of Split have taken advantage of the flaw in POS program and have decided to try to resale the apartments.
In other cities with POS apartments, it is quite easy to find properties with similar or slightly higher prices, while in Split the difference is huge. Real estate experts say that is the reason why so many people in Split wanted to rent POS apartments as well.
As far as differences between city districts are concerned, there are few surprises. The cheapest apartments are in Brda (1,593 euros per square metre), while the most expensive ones are on Zvončac (3,600 euros). However, these are only average prices. “At present, we have an apartment on Mertojak, with the price of 880 euros per square metre. It is an apartment on the ground floor with area of 62 square metres which can be bought for 55,000 euros. However, we also have an apartment on the Split Riva, which costs 7,000 euros per square metre”, said Anđelka Ramljak from Biliškov Real Estate.
