December the 31st, 2024 – Plenty of significant changes await Croatian landlords in the new year. Most remain deeply unpopular.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Radmila Kovacevic/VL writes, as of tomorrow, nothing will be the same in family accommodation in Croatia. It’s worth noting that this type of accommodation is perhaps the most recognisable part of Croatian tourism.
On of tomorrow, 2025’s maiden day, more laws will come into force. Those rules follow changes to the Tourism Act and will mean big changes for Croatian landlords. Around 100,000 registered renters with about 650,000 tourist beds will be forced to make alterations, and there’s been plenty of protest.
The new rules are written in the Hospitality Act, the Building Management and Maintenance Act, the Income Tax Act, the Real Estate Tax Act and the VAT Act, and there’s a lot to study. The annual flat tax for Croatian landlords is increasing. As of tomorrow, changes mean that such Croatian landlords will formally become hosts if they rent within the borders of the county in which they themselves live.
Changes are also looming for the owners of apartments in residential buildings who rent their properties out to tourists. In the next five years, they’ll have to obtain the consent of their neighbours if they want to continue doing business.
property tax
Additionally, the threshold for entering the VAT system is increasing from the current 40,000 to 60,000 euros, and the deeply unpopular property tax is being introduced.
The preparation of these new laws and the changes they’ll bring was accompanied by a lot of dissatisfaction among the Croatian landlords themselves. This is especially the case for those who rent out their apartments in buildings to tourists. Several small protests were even held.
Although Croatian landlords find it difficult to admit, the fact that everyone who has something to rent has taken up the business and that new apartments have been springing up on the coast for years proves that this is indeed a lucrative business. Looking solely at the numbers, this means that since 2016 alone, Croatian tourism has grown by more than 175,000 beds in registered private accommodation units.
Are the new laws, including the Tourism Act, which Croatia has never had before this year, ideal? No.
The goal is more sustainable tourism by all parameters. That involves curbing out of control apartment building, ensuring order in apartment buildings and returning some apartments to long-term rental. There also needs to be more realistic taxation than before, but there is no ideal situation here.
