Adriatic coast Croatia property rises by 17.1% over the last 12 months

CentarNekretnina, the largest Croatian property portal, has released its monthly Croatia property price trends for March 2008.The data is compiled from advertised asking prices drawn from a sample of approximately 50,000 properties throughout Croatia.

On average, property prices in Croatia rose by 1.2% in March 2008 compared to the previous month, equating to a 12-month increase of 4.3%. This is in contrast to properties on the Adriatic coast, which increased by 1.5% in March, a 12-month price increase of 11.2%. After stripping out all properties other than apartments and holiday homes, the monthly price increase for Adriatic properties was 2.3% in March, with a 12-month increase of 17.1%.

The relatively good level of price increase for properties on the Adriatic coast is explained by the fact that the most sought after houses and apartments, in quality locations, were mostly bought by non-Croatians, for whom a quality property on the Adriatic represents a good investment owing to Croatia’s expected entry into the EU by 2010.

The average asking price of a typical Adriatic coast apartment in March 08 was 2149 EUR per sq. m. (12-month increase of 1%), whilst that for a house was 1598 EUR per sq. m. (12-month increase of 17.7%).

Despite occasional (seasonal) fluctuations in price on the Adriatic, over the last two years the trend for asking prices has been upward, with prices increasing on average by 31.5% between May 2006 and March 2008, as shown in the chart above.

CentarNekretnina publishes its property price index monthly and bases calculations on the advertised asking price of approximately 50,000 properties. CentarNekretnina states that although it would be incorrect to conclude that the achieved price per sq. m. is the same as the asking price advertised, the fact is that asking prices and realised sale prices do generally follow the same trend.