On the first day of the Real Estate Fair held at the Boćarski Dom in Zagreb, participants of the round table on the topic ‘Real Estate Market in Croatia’ assessed that the drastic decline in real estate sales on the Adriatic is caused by their excessively high prices, leading foreign buyers to seek other attractive Mediterranean markets where properties are half as cheap.
In the Zagreb real estate market, there is also a noticeable decline in apartment sales, which is attributed, according to Bora Vujović, director of Opereta, a real estate agency, to the increase in mortgage interest rates, greater scrutiny of apartment seekers who ultimately find it difficult to decide on a purchase, while the scandal regarding drinking water in Vrbanima has nearly reduced interest in apartments in that part of Zagreb to zero.
The Podsljeme area, due to its difficult connection to the center, is no longer a hit for new construction, with the neighborhoods around Jarun giving way to New Zagreb, whose advancement began with the arrangement of Bundek and continued with the opening of the Avenue Mall shopping center, resulting in all apartments offered for sale in Središće being sold out, despite prices ranging from 2,200 to 2,400 euros per square meter.
One of the key problems slowing down apartment construction, as heard at the round table, is the pressure from owners of construction land who want to sell it at unrealistic prices, making apartment construction unprofitable. The solution, according to Josip Tica, a professor at the Faculty of Economics, lies in the intervention of local authorities, which should increase the number of construction plots in proportion to the demand for them. (Renato Đurđević)
