Opposition MP, Sabina Glasovac, who is also deputy leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) warned on Friday of the dire situation of university students who can't afford increasing rents, calling for more spending on rent subsidies and also for increasing the capacity of state-funded student dormitories.

“Renting an apartment has become a very expensive sport, which is unattainable for many,” said Glasovac. “The situation on the real estate market is a consequence of inflation, whereby people want to secure their savings by investing in apartment purchases. This in turn increases the demand, and hikes up rents,” she said.

“Tourist rentals on the Adriatic, and short-term renting via online services also push rents up, while the number of apartments on the Zagreb market has at the same time actually decreased due to the earthquake,” she said, referring to the March 2020 quake which hit Zagreb and damaged many buildings in the city center.

The head of the SDP’s youth branch, Lovro Lukavecki, said that a third of all students who apply for a place at student dormitories get rejected. He warned that the share of students living in dormitories is only 9 percent in Croatia, compared to 20 percent in the EU.

He added that the cost of renting a smaller apartment in Zagreb is about 3,000-5,000 kuna (€400-665) per month, which he said represents “a big financial burden for students and their families,” so the SDP appealed to the government to improve student housing.

SDP proposed revising the 2022-23 academic year subsidy plan to increasing subsidies paid to students renting apartments, from 200 (€27) to 500 kuna (€66). According to estimates, 50 percent of students who did not manage to get a place at a dormitory would be able to claim that subsidy. There are about 3,000 of them and the cost of that move would be about 13.5 million kuna (€1.8 million).

SDP also proposed building new dorms and upgrading existing ones, which they say could be done with EU funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)