Real estate tax refund programs see activity in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Croatia, the Agency for Legal Transactions and Real Estate Brokerage (APN) has approved 4,770 requests for tax refunds related to the purchase or construction of a first residential property. As of the reporting period, the total value of approved support exceeds 36.2 million euros. In the Osijek-Baranja County, 220 requests have been approved, ranking fifth in the country. Out of 7,327 total applications received, 1,090 were rejected, often due to property prices exceeding the permitted threshold or applicants possessing other real estate.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Indirect Taxation Authority (UIO) has received 1,074 applications for VAT refunds on first-time property purchases, though no decisions have been approved yet. The delay is attributed to the need for electronic data exchange between the UIO and other institutions. Officials noted that many applications are currently incomplete due to missing documentation regarding household members or unverified copies of documents. The legal deadline for resolving these requests is six months.