Each GUP (general urbanplan) of a city has a great influence on the real estate market in the same. Any changes in zoning and changes in building rules affect the decisions of investors and buyers, and therefore have a strong impact on real estate prices.
Judging by publicly available data, the Zagreb GUP focuses on the expansion of green zones, the prohibition of redevelopment and expansion of construction zones and the reduction of the construction of residential units per newly built building. There was also the expansion of roads and the lengthy process of implementing urban plans. All in all, a climate that does not encourage investors to look for new housing units, and with the reduced volume of construction, we also come to higher real estate prices.
A plastic example is the urban villas in the sub-sljemen zone of the city of Zagreb, which were built according to the old GUP in the area of 400 BRP, and which mainly contained 5 to 6 residential units of approximately 50 to 70 m2, according to the new GUP a maximum number of 3 residential units is prescribed, and we come to the calculation that each of these residential units will have at least 110 m2 on which the area is additionally calculated by one garage and one parking space or in some places two garages... we come to a “product” that will have at least 140 chargeable m2 and that few will be able to afford, for unlike the apartments that were built according to the old GUP and where young families could afford the area of their first non-residential building, which rarely exceeded a hundred m2.
Furthermore, the question arises of the shortage of smaller, affordable apartments and in the foreseeable future the apparent “surplus” of large unaffordable apartments.
The conclusion that the prices of newly built apartments, affordable areas, will certainly rise, is not difficult to make, and what will happen to large apartments and whether investors will even engage in their construction remains to be seen.