As many as 91% of Croatians live in their own property, which is 21% above the European average, according to a survey by the EU's statistical office Eurostat quoted by the Vecernji List daily on Friday.

In terms of home ownership Croatians share the third place with Hungarians, with the percentage of privately owned homes being higher only in Romania and Slovakia.

While in the EU around 53% of the population live in houses, 78% of Croatians live in houses and the house ownership share in the whole of Europe is higher only in Ireland, 92%. The share of apartment owners is the highest in Spain, 66%, followed by Latvia and Estonia.

The average EU citizen has 1.6 rooms in their property at their disposal, with citizens of Malta having the most space for themselves (2.3 rooms per household member), while Croatians have an average 1.2 rooms at their disposal, which puts them close to the bottom of the ranking. The number of members per household is highest in Croatia, Poland and Slovakia (3), the European average being two members.

As for the share of homes where parents live after their children have left, in Croatia children traditionally leave their parents’ home later in life. In the EU, there are 32% of empty nester homes, the share being the highest in Malta and Cyprus, around 70%, and Ireland, 63%. In Croatia, the share of empty nester homes is less than 13%.

As for housing conditions, 8.2% of people in the EU could not afford adequate heating in their homes in 2020, 1.5% did not have a toilet, shower or bathtub, and 13.9% had problems with leaking roofs. In Croatia, close to 10% of houses had leaking roofs, 5.7% of homes could not be adequately heated, while only 0.7% of homes did not have a toilet, shower or bathtub, says the daily.