What we have learned on this coast
Practical notes for owners: what goes wrong in a property that stands empty, what a proper winterising round covers, and what renting out a house here really asks of you. No sales copy, if something is not worth doing, we say so.
Two kinds of owner, two different problems
Almost everything here divides along one line: whether anybody pays to sleep in your property. The obligations, the levies and the risks are not the same on both sides of it, and the most common mistake is assuming that not renting it out means none of it applies.
You use it yourselves
Your property is empty for most of the year, and that is the whole risk profile. Damp, storm damage and slow leaks are found late or not at all, the annual property tax applies precisely because nobody lives there, and the duty to register people staying overnight still exists.
You rent it out
Everything above still applies, and a second layer sits on top: approval and categorisation, a registration number for every unit you advertise, guest reporting within twenty-four hours, and levies calculated on the beds you are approved for rather than on the ones that were slept in.
Owning, and what it costs
The obligations that attach to the property itself, including the ones that reach owners who never rent out a single night.
What a standard Croatian household policy leaves out
Earthquake is often not included. Unoccupied property carries conditions most owners never read. The exclusions matter more than the sum insured.
7 September 2026 · read onManager, representative, caretaker: three different jobs, one confusing word
Croatia has a statutory building manager, an elected co-owners representative and a caretaker. They do different things, and only one of them works for you personally.
4 September 2026 · read onThe first hundred days after buying a property in Croatia
The purchase is the part everybody prepares for. What follows it is a list of small administrative jobs that are cheap now and expensive in two years.
3 September 2026 · read onUtilities in 2026: what the increases mean for a house nobody is living in
Housing and energy costs were the largest driver of Croatian inflation this year, and network charges rose from January. The empty house pays a disproportionate share.
2 September 2026 · read onWhat a holiday home on the Croatian coast costs you in a year it stands empty
Most cost estimates for a Croatian property assume somebody lives in it. An empty house has a different bill, and several of the items do not fall when the usage does.
1 September 2026 · read onThe annual property tax on a Croatian holiday home: what changed, and what arrives by post
Since 2025 a property tax applies to every Croatian home that is not somebody's main residence, including houses that are never rented out.
28 August 2026 · read onRenting it out, and what it obliges you to
Registration, guest reporting and the levies that are calculated on your capacity rather than on your season.
Categorisation: the document your rental business actually runs on
The approval decision that categorised your property sets your capacity, your tax and your registration. Most owners have not read it since the day it was issued.
31 August 2026 · read onThe flat-rate income tax for landlords: paid per bed, decided by a piece of paper
Most private landlords in Croatia are taxed on capacity, not on income. The number of beds on your approval decides the bill, whether they were slept in or not.
30 August 2026 · read onThe registration number: what every rented property in Croatia now needs
Every accommodation unit advertised on a booking platform needs its own registration number. Getting one is free. Not having one takes your listing offline.
29 August 2026 · read onTourist tax for landlords in Croatia: a flat rate per bed, three deadlines and one widespread misconception
As a private landlord you pay the Croatian tourist tax as an annual flat rate per bed, not per guest and night, and may not bill it to guests.
24 August 2026 · read oneVisitor in practice: access, guest categories and the most common mistakes
Part two of the series. How to get access, why your property's classification decides everything that follows, and the six errors owners make again and again.
21 August 2026 · read onRegistration applies even if you never rent out: what owners need to know about eVisitor
Most owners assume eVisitor and the tourist tax are a landlord's problem. They are not. The duty attaches to somebody sleeping in the property.
20 August 2026 · read onThe year on this coast
What has to happen and when. Most of the work that decides how a property looks in July is done between October and April.
The bura: what the wind does to a house, and what to check before it starts
The bura is dry, sudden and violent, and it does not damage houses at random. It finds the four or five things that were already slightly loose.
5 September 2026 · read onGarden care in Dalmatia: what really has to happen in winter and spring
The Mediterranean garden does not rest in winter, it just works more quietly. What decides how it looks in July is done between November and May.
19 August 2026 · read onWinterising a holiday home: a checklist for Croatia
The Dalmatian winter is mild and still the season in which most damage happens. Not because of the cold but because of damp, wind and an empty house.
18 August 2026 · read onWhen something goes wrong
Cases from our own rounds: what we found, what was done about it, and what it cost to find it late.
The smoke over Dalmatia: where it comes from and what it does to your house
The haze over the coast in September 2026 is drifting in from fires in Bosnia and Herzegovina, not from local ones. What smoke actually does to a closed-up property, and what it does not.
8 September 2026 · read onAfter the storm: what the insurer actually needs, and in what order
Most claims that go badly on this coast do not fail on cover. They fail on evidence, and the evidence is destroyed in the first twenty minutes of tidying up.
6 September 2026 · read onA small earthquake, and a ceiling on the bathroom floor
A magnitude 3.9 tremor at half past one in the morning brought a metre of ceiling down in an empty flat in Šibenik. It was found two days later.
28 August 2026 · read onThe fire near Omiš: what matters now for owners
Around 1,000 hectares burned between Lokva Rogoznica and Omiš. What owners who are not on site should do, in which order, and which deadlines are short.
17 August 2026 · read onGetting work done
Tradespeople, quotes and the building season, which is not the season you are here in.
Ask us directly
If something about your property is unclear, write to us. We answer questions from owners who are not clients too. That is how most of these articles started.