All costs when buying real estate in Croatia
When buying a new property in Croatia, there is a lot to think about and consider. The sales price of the property is usually at the top of that list, but there are a lot of other costs involved as well. These costs may or may not be similar to what you are used to in your home country.
Aside from the price of the property itself, there are some other costs that are not as obvious, especially to foreigners relocating to Croatia.
To be clear, there are the costs of purchasing real estate in Croatia, and there are costs of owning real estate in Croatia. In this post, we cover all possible costs associated with buying a property.
#1 Cost of the property itself
The biggest cost that you will have when buying a property is the cost of the property itself. The cost of a property in Croatia depends on various factors.
These factors include:
- Current state of the real estate market
- Time of year
- City/place where the property is located
- Exact location of the property, i.e. neighborhood
- Proximity to the city center
- Proximity to the sea
- Floor on which the property is located
- Age of the property
- Whether it is a house or apartment
- Size of the property
- Whether the property is furnished or not
- Amenities
- Condition of the property
- Quality of the building
- Whether the building has an elevator or not
- Whether the property has a garage or parking spaces
- Lot size of the property
There are a few ways to determine the average prices of properties according to your needs. First, you can contact a real estate agency. They can inform you of the realistic price for a property according to your requirements. If you’d like a vetted recommendation, contact us using the below form.
The second method is to poke around on Njuškalo.hr to see the types of properties that are currently available. These prices can be a little less reliable as they have been known to be a little higher than what the owners will actually take (in some cases). Njuškalo is the biggest Croatian advertising web site. View our English guide to Njuškalo here.
Note: To buy a property in Croatia, you don’t have to open a Croatian bank account, but you must have Croatian OIB. When paying from outside of Croatia, you will need additional paying information such as a SWIFT code. Contact the Tax administration according to the location of a property and they will provide you with the SWIFT code and other important information.
#2 Down payment
If you plan to get a mortgage in Croatia, it is important to understand how much a bank may fund for the purchase. Most Croatian banks will only fund 75% of the cost of the property. This means you will need to pay 25% of the property cost in cash or funded in some other way, which serves as a down payment.
If you are a foreigner, there are restrictions to getting mortgages in Croatia. You can learn about getting a mortgage loan here.
#3 Deposit
When buying a property, signing a pre-contract between a seller and a buyer is common and recommended. In addition to defining key information about the property, this pre-contract also defines the amount of the deposit called “kapara”.
The deposit secures the property, but also can act as a type of severance pay. If the buyer backs out of the purchase or doesn’t meet the pre-contract terms, they will lose this deposit with no chance of refund. If the seller backs out or violates the pre-contract terms, they must pay double the amount of the deposit to the buyer. The usual amount of the deposit is 10% of the property sales price.
This deposit is part of the 25% of the property cost you would need to pay in cash. Read More...
