June the 6th, 2024 – One real estate agent has stated that the drop in traffic in terms of property hunting is obvious, but that Croatian property prices remain unrealistic.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Boro Vujović, founder and owner of a real estate agency, and Boris Žgomba, president of the Association of Travel Agencies at HGK, were recent guests on N1 where they commented on the prices on the real estate market. Vujović says that the biggest reason for the growth is inflation.
“One of the reasons was APN, low interest rates on savings and loans. Subsidies that were supposed to enable people to buy apartments more easily actually ended up making apartments more expensive,” he said.
“The owners of used apartments profited the most, because those from new buildings didn’t get their turn to sell them through APN. That measure had a good intention behind it, but it didn’t actually bring good results,” he added. “When the tax exemptions were abolished back in 2017, there was a certain compensation for the first property and it didn’t turn out exactly as we wanted, so it’s one of the reasons for the price increase, but not the main one,” he noted.
croatian property prices are still unrealistic
He says that the decline in traffic is now more than obvious. “The reason is the high prices, but also the lack of property available. There are buyers, but there are no new properties. We mustn’t forget that last year, 6 percent of foreigners bought property in Croatia, and now there’s a mild crisis in the countries these buyers come from,” said Vujović. “The key to the whole story is the high appetite of the sellers, and the asking prices are still far from realistic. Sellers who are realistic are still selling their properties, some who have higher appetites will have to adjust their prices a little, but they will probably stay where they are and will not grow any more,” he explained.
croatian property owners haven’t lowered their prices
Boris Žgomba says that it isn’t true that Croatian landlords have significantly lowered their prices in the Mediterranean. “The story was taken a little out of context. “Croatia is said to have raised its prices the least, but in one year, it is realistic because in three years we actually had a big increase in prices,” he said.
“Croatian property prices aren’t decided by us, nor are they decided by the government. They’re decided by the market and the relationship between supply and demand. Back in 2021, there was a large relationship on the demand side, in 2023 it balanced out, and this year we expect stabilisation. Those who went a little overboard will have to lower their prices a little,” he added.
“We have almost a million beds located in private houses and apartments nationwide and the annual increase is 40,000 new beds. The maths says that the demand is not that great and what happens happens and prices will rise and whoever is more efficient and faster will have guests,” he explained. adding that the people who deal with it are not experts, so there is exaggeration. “This contributes to the disorder on the market,” Žgomba pointed out.
