VRTNI NAMJEÅ TAJ - DalCasa

EventsCijene elitnih apartmana u luksuznim zgradama na atraktivnim lokacijama i dalje ćerasti / The prices of elite apartments in luxurious buildings on attractive locations will stillkeep growing(our offering features apartments from 400 to 4700 €/m 2 ),and it is noticeable that buyers are avoiding over-constructedapartment settlements further away from thesea. They are more interested in peaceful locations thatfeature smaller objects and are closer to the coast.When we’re talking about houses, the buyers are showinga great deal of interest for smaller houses with a courtyard,or if we’re dealing with wealthier buyers (which aremostly foreign), they are looking for houses (villas) with abigger courtyard that will ensure them peace and privacy.”Here is what Mr. Branko Papeš, director of Dogma, whichis a leading real estate agency in Rijeka, has to say:“As a company, we are regularly conducting the analysisof price movements based on purchase prices, or trulyaccomplished prices. We are conducting those analysesbecause the market regularly features various analysesfrom different types of advertisers or portals, which arebased on prices you see in the advertisement section.Those are the prices that the sellers are asking or, as welike to call them, starting prices. A difference betweena starting price and an accomplished price can reachup to 20 percent. Those types of information created anartificial image of the market and our potential clients,especially real estate owners, were being misinformed.We are following the prices on quarter-of-the-year basisand the current situation is that, although we are witnessinga downfall of real estate purchases (20% less real estateswere sold during the first three months of 2008 whencompared to the same period of 2007), the prices arestill slightly growing. Not in the same emphatic fashionas they did over the last ten years, when the increase ofprices reached between 12 and 23 percent a year. Thesame period (January-March) of 2006 (average price of1216 €/m 2 ) and 2007 (1534 €/m 2 ) is characterized by a17% increase, while the same period of 2007 (1534 €/m 2 )and 2008 (1631 €/m 2 ) marks a 6% increase. The trend ofreal estate prices not increasing in such rapid mannerwas noticed in the second half of last year, and we predictthat trend to continue. The prices will not be growingfor all types of real estates, as they previously have.Although all economical indicators and market laws (thelaw of offering and demand) show that the prices shouldhave stopped growing by now (even to the point wherethey should have started dropping), that situation has notoccurred because the real estate market is renowned forslowly responding to change, and we also shouldn’t ignorethe mentality of our people, as they regularly becomeemotionally attached to their real estate. Accordingto our prognosis, the market will witness a process ofseparation between quality and less-quality (non-quality)real estates. The non-quality (unfurnished, high floors, undera board, ground floor, northern orientation, no view,no parking space etc.) real estates on unattractive locationswill see their prices drop, while quality real estates,particularly if they were built on attractive locations, willsee their prices slightly growing, although not in the previouslyemphatic manner.”So what should we expect? There shouldn’t be toomuch hope for a large downfall of real estate prices inCroatia, as something like that is not on the horizon. However,what’s positive about the whole situation is the factthat the future brings a filtration on the real estate market,especially on the Adriatic and in the bigger cities.That occurrence could truly end the chaos that is currentlypresent on the market. Quality and luxurious realestates will cost a lot of money in the future, while thosethat don’t have as much quality and are situated in lessattractive locations will definitely be sold under realisticprices – significantly lower ones than today.41