How much do foreigners really love Croatian real estate and how do their transactions affect real estate prices in Croatia? We attempted to find answers to these questions by analyzing statistical data from the Tax Administration and the Croatian National Bank regarding the number and value of transactions, their territorial distribution, as well as the types of properties preferred by foreign citizens.
Publicly, it has often been stated that foreigners buy every third, or even every second property on the coast, but statistical data shows a somewhat different picture.
In seven coastal counties, a total of 13,632 apartments were sold in 2022, while foreigners, according to the Tax Administration data, purchased 4,284 apartments throughout Croatia. The vast majority of these transactions are concentrated on coastal properties (about 90 percent of foreign transactions are on the Adriatic), so it can be concluded from these figures that foreigners buy every fourth apartment on the coast.
Houses are less appealing to them – in 2022, the Tax Administration recorded 1,055 house purchases by foreigners (across the entire country), while a total of 6,511 were sold in the seven coastal counties.
In terms of value, foreign citizens participated in real estate transactions in Croatia with about 17 percent in 2022. All real estate transactions at the national level were valued at around 8.5 billion euros, and foreigners purchased properties worth 1.44 billion. Of course, the share of the value of foreign transactions in coastal counties is certainly higher than the mentioned 17 percent, as their primary interest is directed towards the coast.
Growth in Agricultural Land Sales
This is also evident from the data of the Croatian National Bank, which analyzed transactions where the buyer is a non-resident. According to their data, in real estate transactions on the Adriatic, foreigners participated with between 87 and even 98 percent, depending on the year. Besides the Adriatic, foreigners also purchased properties in Zagreb, but most often less than a hundred properties annually.
It is interesting to observe how the interest of non-residents in Croatian real estate has grown over time. Ten years ago, in 2014, they purchased 4,843 properties, and in the record year of 2022, as many as 13,336. Likely due to the uncertain economic situation and rising interest rates, interest decreased last year, with non-residents purchasing a total of 12,266 properties, or about eight percent less than the previous year. The average value of an apartment purchased by a non-resident last year was 116 thousand euros, while the average value of a house was 133 thousand euros.
The only category in which there was an increase in transactions by non-residents last year was agricultural land: 547 such transactions were recorded, while there were only 11 in the previous year. Foreigners are also intensively buying construction land – last year they purchased about 2,700, and the year before nearly 3,000.
Overall, in the last 10 years, foreigners have purchased about 77 thousand properties in Croatia worth approximately 6.9 billion euros. They bought the most apartments, around 25 thousand, and about 6.7 thousand houses.
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