In 2021, there were nearly 2.4 million housing units in Croatia, a rise by 6.5% from 2011, and the latest population census, conducted two years ago, also shows that the number of vacant dwellings jumped by 43%В while the number of occupied dwellings dipped by 4.2% since the previous census in 2011.

According to the data provided by the national statistical office (DZS), there are 600,000 vacant dwellings and 231,000 holiday homes.

With a decline of the population size, and a rise in the number of housing units, it is evident that there will be more and more empty housing units, the head of the DZS department for demographic and social trends, Dubravka Rogić-Hadžalić has told Hina.

Vast majority of housing stock privately owned

Of those 2,4 million housing units 86.5% are privately owned homes.

Of the 1.4 million occupied flats, most of them are three-room flats (26.3%), while four-room flats follow with a 26% share, and two-room flats amount for 21% of the housing stock. Five-room flats make up a 12.6%В of the stock, and single-room flats amount to 7.1%.

The average size of occupied flats in Croatia has risen to 92 square metres, from 81 square metre in the 2011 census.

Broken down by the median property size, the biggest average space is in northern counties, with the average size  ranging from 114 square metres in Međimurje

County to 106 in Varaždin County. On the other hand, the smallest median size of the occupied flats is in the City of Zagreb, 79 square metres.

Broken down by the year of construction, most occupied flats were built in the period between 1971 and 1980 (one fifth). Thus, 275,000 flats now occupied were built in that period.

In other words, 52% of the inhabited housing units were built from 1961 to 1990.