Copyright Romulic and Stojcic

February 21, 2022 – Despite the devastating effects of the global coronavirus pandemic on leisure, travel and tourism, we have managed to avoid a massive sale of hotels. The Croatian villa market is also booming.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, the popular Croatian online buying and selling portal, Njuskalo, has some interesting statistics for us. They show that the number of active accommodation listings across the country increased by 20% between 2019 and the end of 2021, with a total of 12,015 active listings posted last year.

Although in these two years there has been a slight increase in sales of properties in which accommodation establishments operate, it seems that the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic in tourism in Croatia has not really caused a significant wave of sales of hotels, boarding houses or inns. This has also had a rather surprising effect on the aforementioned Croatian villa market.

In addition to the above, there are indications that the real estate market in this segment has well and truly recovered, particularly from the first pandemic year of 2020, judging by the asking prices of buildings that have increased everywhere except in infamous Dubrovnik, according to Njuskalo.

The country’s relatively rapid tourism recovery, which has boosted investor optimism, is underscored by data from consultancy Colliers, which featured in its new review of Croatia’s commercial property market. for the year 2021.

Colliers’ analysis shows that last year no less than 39% of all commercial real estate-related transactions in the Croatian market were made in the hotel sector, after a relatively low share of 22% a year earlier. early, when the retail sector had absolute primacy in operations.

Last year’s biggest tourism deal was the acquisition of Sunce Hoteli, a company formerly owned by Dalmatian businessman Jako Andabak, which was taken over by development company Eagle Hills, announcing in December an investment of 44.2 million euros in the already impressive Bluesun hotel portfolio.

While Central and Eastern European investors were active investors in the retail sector, domestic institutional investors, pension funds and insurance companies remain important investors in the hospitality sector. Together with Valamar, pension funds PBZ CO and AZ are embarking on a new round of investment in Valamar hotels in Hvar, Makarska and Rab.

Njuskalo statistics show that the number of accommodation establishments that were for sale in the first month and a half of this year (6735) is 30% higher than the same period in 2019 before the pandemic, but the number of announcements at the beginning of this year is lower than last year.

The fact that the pandemic has not encouraged the sale of hotels is illustrated by the distribution of these announcements by segments, where it can be seen that from 2019 until today, most of the sales are in the Croatian market. villas, with a share of between 88 and 90%.

Hotel sale announcements are only 7% and in 2019 they were 8%. The number of currently active listings on February 15 this year was 4476, once again dominated by the Croatian villa market, followed by hotels and the lowest percentage being occupied by pensions and hostels. Also, most hotels, boarding houses, hostels and villas are located on the coast, and about five percent are located in the city of Zagreb.

The largest number of listings are for properties located on the coast in the county of Istria, with the highest sales in Porec, Medulin, Umag and Labin. It is followed by Kvarner, then Zadar County with an 8% share. Only two percent of Njuskalo’s listings over the previous three years were located in the Dubrovnik area. In Primorje-Gorski Kotar, most of them are in Crikvenica (18%), followed by Opatija and Krk. The largest share of hotels in the number of advertisements is in Zadar County, with 12%, while in Istria Croatian villa advertisements dominate.

To find out more, see our section dedicated to lifestyle.