By August 7, nearly 7,000 applications for the first property tax refund had been received, with 4,600 approved. The average support per family amounts to 7,568 euros.
Nearly 35 million euros, to be precise 34,815,099, has been paid out by the state so far through the tax refund on the purchase or construction of a first residential property, and behind this figure are 4,600 positively resolved applications out of a total of 6,994 received. The Agency for Legal Transactions and Real Estate Brokerage (APN) has been counting applications since June last year, and by August 7, 5,875 had been processed.
Of the approved amount, 24.75 million euros relates to VAT refunds, while 10.06 million euros went to real estate transfer tax refunds. The difference between the number of received and processed applications suggests that the administration is still working at full steam.
Of the 5,875 processed applications, in addition to the 4,600 approved, 220 are awaiting additional documentation, and 1,055 were rejected or withdrawn because they did not meet legal requirements. Interestingly, 291 applications, accounting for 4.96 percent of all rejections, were eliminated solely because the property price exceeded the legal threshold of 50 percent above the average price.
Other reasons for rejection included sales contracts signed before January 1, 2025, exceeding the age limit of 45 years, ownership of other properties, and multiple submissions within the same household. Thus, the filters are set broadly and without exceptions.
Looking at the regional distribution, the City of Zagreb leads convincingly with 1,897 approved applications. Zagreb County follows with 435, Split-Dalmatia County records 428, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County 327, and Osijek-Baranja County 212 approved applications. The gap between the metropolis and the rest of the country is expected but not negligible.
At the city level, after Zagreb, the most approved applications are in Split (248), Rijeka (185), Velika Gorica (155), and Osijek (121). Zadar recorded 119 approved applications, Karlovac 82, and Zaprešić 78, figures that vividly illustrate where young people are most intensively solving their housing issues.
The average age of applicants is 32 years, with the youngest being just 18 years old, while the oldest are at the upper limit of 44 years; the measure is intended exclusively for citizens under 45. The average household that received support has two members, although a family with 12 members was recorded, which is the largest household in the entire sample.
The average area of the purchased or built property is 72 square meters. Extremes, as expected, emerged in coastal counties: in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, the smallest property was only 14 square meters, while in Istria County, the largest reached 259 square meters, a range that speaks to the diversity of needs and possibilities.
The average property price based on all approved applications is 2,186 euros per square meter, but this average hides huge differences that vividly illustrate the Croatian real estate market. The lowest price, 103 euros per square meter, was recorded in Vukovar-Srijem County, while the highest, 5,263 euros per square meter, was paid in Dubrovnik-Neretva County.
As for the support amounts themselves, the average payment for VAT refunds is 14,698 euros (1,684 applications approved), while for real estate transfer tax refunds, the average is 3,451 euros (2,916 applications approved). Overall, the average support per family is 7,568 euros, an amount that, in the context of the range of square meter prices, means a significant injection for some and only a symbolic contribution for others.
