Housing Policy and Labour Market in Croatia

Abstract

The socialist approach to housing in Croatia was to give tenants strong, and to some extent rigid, rights. During this paradigm, market renting was also discouraged. The policy privileged tenants and gave them subsidized rent, but it also limited their spatial mobility if they did not want to lose that privileged status. After independence, two vital processes on the housing market were undertaken: the privatization of socially owned housing stock and denationalization. Consequently, the stock of apartments previously owned by the companies and the state was sold to the ‘tenancy right’ holders for just a small part of its market value, resulting in more than 80 per cent of apartment users becoming legal owners. That is a positive outcome from a social policy perspective, but it could endanger the mobility of the Croatian labour force. Price developments and turnover dynamics are still bounded by underdeveloped and outdated cadastre as well as strong regional differences.

Citation

Bejaković, P. and Mrnjavac, Ž. (2019), "Housing Policy and Labour Market in Croatia", Håkansson, P.G. and Bohman, H. (Ed.) Investigating Spatial Inequalities, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 159-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-941-120191010