The average price of a square metre of a newly built apartment in Zagreb reached €3,518 in the first half of 2026, compared with €1,220 in 2001. The figures, based on completed property sales recorded by the City of Zagreb Statistical Yearbook and the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, exclude advertised asking prices. At the current average, a 50-square-metre apartment would cost approximately €175,900, equivalent to around 99 months of the city’s average net salary.
While average monthly net earnings in Zagreb increased from €548 in 2001 to €1,777 in the first half of 2026, property prices have followed a volatile trajectory. New-build prices rose every year from 2016 onwards, with the sharpest annual increase recorded in 2022, when they jumped by 32%. In the first half of 2026, one square metre of a new apartment cost the equivalent of 1.98 months of average net pay, approaching the historical peak of 2.31 months recorded in 2008.
The wider housing market has become even less affordable relative to earnings.
Between 2015 and 2025, prices across Croatia’s residential property market, including both new and existing homes, rose considerably faster than salaries. In Zagreb, the ratio of prices across the entire housing market to average net earnings reached its highest level since 2009 in the first half of 2026, although it remained below the peaks recorded in 2007 and 2008. Nationally, prices of existing residential properties had reached almost 2.5 times their 2015 level by the third quarter of 2025.
The findings highlight the growing challenge facing prospective homeowners, particularly as the recent acceleration in property prices erodes affordability. Although wages have increased faster than new-build prices over the longer term since 2001, the latest figures show that purchasing a home remains demanding relative to earnings. The analysis also cautions that salary comparisons do not account for everyday living costs, mortgage interest rates, deposit requirements or lending conditions.
