City-owned flats for rent in Zagreb: the social list, affordable rent and how to apply

Two ways to a City flat

City flats are governed by the City's Decision on Renting Flats (Odluka o najmu stanova, Official Gazette of the City of Zagreb 3/25, amended 7/26). As a rule, the City lets them through public calls, for two purposes:

• The social list (by socioeconomic status): for the lowest-income households. Tenants pay the protected rentProtected tenant (zaštićeni najmoprimac)simplifiedA tenant who lives in a flat on the basis of a former tenancy right and paid a protected rent. For private flats a transitional protected lease has applied since 1 January 2025.Source: Zakon o načinu izvršenja presuda ESLJP u skupini predmeta Statileo (NN 36/2024), čl. 4., 17., 18. i 20., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary.
• The affordable list: for lower- and middle-income households. Rent is a share of household income. The call of 30 April 2026 is covered in our affordable rent guide.

There are no other City lists, for shortage occupations or young families, for example. Being under 35 or holding a bachelor's degree or higher earns points only on the affordable list.

Protected rent is not the same as protected-tenant status. Protected tenants are former holders of a tenancy right; their rights are in our protected tenants guide.

Exceptionally, if it has a flat free, the City can let one outside the list: to someone left in an exceptionally hard situation by an unexpected event after the last social call's deadline, for example the onset of severe disability, the death of the sole earner or total incapacity for work. The social list's conditions still apply: citizenship, three years' residence, the income limit and no habitable home owned. The request goes to the City's social-welfare office (Nova cesta 1; 01 6101-810, 01 6101-870), which sends a reasoned opinion to the housing office.

Who can apply for the social list

All four conditions must be met together (Decision, Arts. 5 and 18):

1. 1Croatian or other EU citizenship, or international protection. Other foreign nationals are not on that list (our reading of the Decision).
2. 2Continuous registered residence (prebivalištePermanent address (prebivalište)simplifiedThe address where you've settled for good, the centre of your life. You register it with the police within 15 days of moving in.Source: Zakon o prebivalištu (NN 144/12, 158/13, 114/22), čl. 2.–4. i 10., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary) in Zagreb for at least three years on the day the call is published.
3. 3Income per household member in the previous year of at most 30 % of the average monthly net wage in Zagreb, or 50 % for a single person. In the 2025 call that was €433.50 and €722.50 (the 2024 average wage: €1,445).
4. 4Nobody in the household owns a habitable flat or house in the City of Zagreb or Zagreb County.

Income means all money income (work, pensions, property, interest and the rest), in Croatia and abroad, after tax. The Decision has no other means test, for savings or a car, for example.

The household is the applicant and the people living with them or registered at the same address: a spouse or partner, relatives, adopted children and others the applicant must support. The Decision lets unrelated people apply as a future household, with a joint statement certified by a notary, in its chapter on affordable flats (Art. 26); the 2025 social call doesn't mention it.

How points work and how flats are offered

Applications are scored by the City's lettings committee (Povjerenstvo za davanje stanova u najam). On the social list, points come from:

• Housing status: renting on the market 12, living in your parents' flat 9, organised housing 15, homeless 30 points.
• Household: single parent 20, one-parent family 15, single-person household 15 points, plus 3 per member, 5 per minor child and 3 per adult child in full-time education.
• Social and health status: guaranteed minimum benefit 15, carer or parent-carer or parent-carer status 12, a care allowance or level III inclusive allowance 9 per household, and a personal disability allowance or level I or II inclusive allowance 15 per adult and 20 per minor receiving it.
• Special circumstances: an applicant over 55: 15, domestic-violence victim with a final judgment 10, young people aged 18 to 29 formerly in alternative care 10, Croatian war veterans 0.5 per month of service (up to 20 points), victims of wartime sexual violence 10 and civilian war victims 8.

Income level and years in Zagreb earn no points on the social list: income is only a ceiling.

When a flat becomes free, it's offered to the first household on the list whose size it fits. Before deciding on a letting, the City re-checks the conditions with a site visit. You're removed from the list if you no longer qualify, gave false information or refuse a suitable flat without good reason. Sizes for social flats are:

• one person up to 40 m²
• two people 40 to 50 m²
• three or four people 50 to 80 m²
• more than four people over 70 m²

The size may differ by up to 10 m², or up to 20 m² for a household with a wheelchair user.

What it costs: protected rent or a share of income

Rents are set by the mayor's conclusion on rents (Official Gazette 11/25), which has applied to existing tenants too since 1 July 2025:

• Households with income up to 30 % of the average wage per member, or 50 % for a single person, pay the protected rentProtected tenant (zaštićeni najmoprimac)simplifiedA tenant who lives in a flat on the basis of a former tenancy right and paid a protected rent. For private flats a transitional protected lease has applied since 1 January 2025.Source: Zakon o načinu izvršenja presuda ESLJP u skupini predmeta Statileo (NN 36/2024), čl. 4., 17., 18. i 20., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary. According to the City (June 2024 and January 2025), it is €0.36 per m² of the flat a month.
• Households above that limit pay a share of their average monthly income: 12 % for multi-person households under 50 % of the average wage per member, 16 % at 50 to 80 % and 24 % above 80 %.
• The income-based rent is cut by 20 % when a household member has a disability of degree III or IV, and by 20 % for flats in the Sesvete city district. The cuts add up.
• Anyone who doesn't provide income data the City can't obtain itself pays €8 per m² a month.

Examples (our arithmetic): a single person in a 40 m² flat pays 40 × 0.36 = €14.40 a month, and a family of four in 70 m² pays €25.20. A three-person household on €2,400 a month in an affordable flat (16 %) pays €384, or €307.20 in Sesvete. UtilitiesUtilities (režije)Housing costs on top of rent: electricity, gas or heating, water, waste, the reserve fund, the HRT licence fee and internet. The lease decides which the tenant pays.Source: Zakon o najmu stanova (NN 91/96 … 105/20), čl. 5., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary are extra.

The City says it calculates protected rent under Art. 10 of the national decree on protected rent, which sets the minimum from the flat's floor area and a construction value per m². The sources we checked don't say which value per m² it uses.

The lease: five years, renewable

• After the mayor's decision, a written five-year lease is signed as a notarial deed. You must come to sign within 15 days of the invitation (8 more with good reason), or you're treated as having withdrawn.
• At expiry a new five-year lease is concluded (Decision on Renting Flats, Art. 34(2)) if you met all your obligations and, 60 days before it ends, you apply for renewal and show that the household still meets the conditions.
• No sublettingSubletting (podnajam)simplifiedWhen the tenant lets the flat, or part of it, to someone else. They need the landlord's consent; subletting without it is a ground for notice.Source: Zakon o najmu stanova (NN 91/96 … 105/20), čl. 19. i 28., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary, and no use other than living there.
• The City will terminate the lease early if the flat is unused for more than three months without good reason, if anyone in the household comes to own a habitable home in Zagreb or Zagreb County, on the grounds in the Residential Lease Act, or if you don't provide the data needed to set the rent.

For affordable flats you also pay a depositDeposit (polog)simplifiedMoney the tenant pays as security for unpaid rent, bills or damage, and gets back at the end of the lease. The lease sets the amount and when it's returned.Source: Zakon o najmu stanova (NN 91/96 … 105/20), čl. 3. i 17., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary of two months' rent, and the tenant pays the notary. For social flats the Decision says nothing on either. Nor does it say whether a social tenant whose income has risen above the limit can move to an affordable lease.

Lists and deadlines: what's open today

The social list: the call ran from 2 April to 2 May 2025, on paper. The mayor set the list on 23 December 2025. It has 1,102 applicants with 6 to 142 points (our count). It stays valid until a new list is set, and a social call must be held at least every five years. The City of Zagreb publishes the list.

Applicants have 8 days to object to a proposed list. Since the 2026 amendment, the proposed list shows only initials and the last four digits of the OIBOIB (personal identification number)Croatia's personal identification number, a permanent identifier used in official records. Croatians get it at birth; foreigners when there's a reason to.Source: Porezna uprava: Osobni identifikacijski broj (OIB), checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary.

The affordable list: the call of 30 April to 1 June 2026 drew 1,150 applications, and slightly fewer than half were complete and eligible. The proposed list was published on 13 October 2026, objections can be filed only through natjecaji.zagreb.hr until 21 October 2026, and the mayor then sets the final list.

On 20 October 2026 no call for City flats is open, and no date for the next social call has been announced. We found no official figure for how many flats the City lets each year or how many households from the 2025 list have been housed.

Questions: the City Office for Asset Management and Housing, Trg Stjepana Radića 1, upravljanje-imovinom@zagreb.hr. Its flats department sees people on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:30 to 15:30 by appointment (01 6100-110). Information on the social list: 01 610-1589 and 01 610-1524.

How many flats the City has and what's being built

At the end of 2024 the City managed 6,451 flats. According to its asset report, 602 are used without a lease. We found no official count of empty City flats.

A building with 288 flats for affordable and social rent is going up in Podbrežje, and the City expects the works to finish by mid-2027. In April 2025 the City also listed plans for about 100 flats in Klara and about 600 in Borovje, and the mayor said the City had suspended the sale of its flats.

If you're not on a list

• The state affordable-rent programme (APN) and the City's affordable call are covered in our affordable rent guide.
• We collect the cheapest flats on the market in flats under €500.
• What you're entitled to as a tenant in a private flat is in our guide to tenant rights.

Frequently asked questions