But then… In March 2025, Croatia just changed its immigration law for the better. If you’re retired and you own property there, you can now renew your residence on that basis — spouse included.
And almost nobody covered this! But now it is getting too good to be ignored.
Add the fact that they joined the Schengen area, and got a new nonstop flight from New York to Split, and in ten years of living in Europe I have not seen a Mediterranean country move this fast in this expat-friendly direction. To the point that over 50,000 expats have already moved to this skyrocketing destination on the Adriatic coast.
Now, is Croatia good for everyone? Absolutely not — specifically if you are one of the 2 types of people that do not fit this country.
Today, we will look at the real pros, the hidden cons, and the 5 best Croatian cities for Western retirees. One has world-class healthcare, one is shockingly affordable, and our number one… isn’t the prettiest or the cheapest, but you will be surprised why it won anyway.
Let’s start with the big reasons why you should consider Croatia…
Pro Number 1: Property, and The Changes of March 2025
If you are American, British, Canadian, or Australian, you can own property in Croatia. That right comes from reciprocity.
A foreigner may buy property in Croatia if their own country lets Croatians do the same — and Croatia formally recognizes reciprocity with many countries, including the United States.
So you buy the way a Croatian buys, with one extra step: consent from the Ministry of Justice, usually 30 to 60 days, with a high approval rate for Americans.
And in March 2025, things got even better. Croatia amended its Aliens Act so that a retired non-EU citizen over the age of 60 who owns property there can extend temporary residence to his or her spouse.
In a country with no retirement visa, that is the closest thing to a retiree pathway that exists.
Hold on to that number, 60. At the end of this article I’ll show you why it’s the most important number in the whole story.
But… Croatian property title is not the clean, indexed, title-insured system you’re used to. The country keeps two parallel registers.
The Land Book — zemljišna knjiga — run by municipal courts, and the Cadastre — katastar — which records the physical facts: boundaries, surface areas, building footprints.
Two systems, built independently, and for most of the twentieth century Croatians bought and sold land without updating just one of them, often because a handshake between neighbours was simply how it was done.
So mismatches between both registry books happen — like when the cadastre says the property has 1,539 sqm, but the land book says 1,519. If the two registers disagree, harmonizing them takes weeks to months.
And decades of unfinished probate mean the friendly man selling you a hillside stone house may be one of eleven heirs, only three of them ever registered.
Transaction costs are around 6%, including the 3% transfer tax on a resale or 25% VAT on a new build, and the purchase process takes four to ten months.
There is one last cost, and it surprises second-home buyers. Since 1 January 2025 Croatia charges an annual property tax of €0.60 to €8.00 per square meter of usable area.
If you are buying a property to rent to someone else, that new tax can hurt you. Fortunately, properties used as the owner’s permanent residence are exempt! So if you are buying to live there, you don’t pay it.
Pro Number 2: Safety and Multilingual People
Croatia is the 19th most peaceful country on earth — ahead of Germany. In one year, the country recorded 23 murders. Twenty-three, in a nation of 3.87 million people. All solved.
Croatian crime is overwhelmingly theft rather than violence, and Croatia is among the safest EU member states on multiple indicators, like robberies.
According to my wife, the most dangerous thing in Croatia is to put your beach towel too close to the towel of someone else in a crowded beach. Other than that, in most cities it is safe to walk at night — even for women.
The realistic risk is a pickpocket working a crowded promenade in high season.
Now, let’s talk about the language barrier. You might expect a Slavic country in the Balkans to present a gigantic struggle if you speak only English. But not Croatia.
In the English Proficiency Index, built on test data from 2.2 million adults across 123 countries, Croatia is 2nd in the world. Second. Behind only the Netherlands, ahead of Austria. And it was 11th only two years earlier, so in this aspect, Croatia climbed fast.
But of course English will not solve everything and learning Croatian is a good idea. Then you also will be able to claim that you speak 4 additional languages instead of just one.
Croatian is Slavic, it has seven cases, and it is hard. But there are ways to make it easier to learn.
Bureaucratic stuff like tax filings, medical records, utility contracts, and every visit to the organs that issue your residence permit are in Croatian.
Get Moving Out, Working Abroad and Keeping Your Sanity for the 11 secrets that make expat life easier than you imagine.
In daily life on the coast, though — the doctor, the bank, the contractor, the neighbour under sixty — English works to a good degree. You’ll be fine at ordering dinner, and the government counter is the part you can pay someone to help you translate.
The 5 Best Cities in Croatia for Expat Retirees
To rank the best Croatian cities, we used objective criteria — six factors, each scored 1 to 10, out of 60 total: property costs, weather, the size of the expat retiree community, private healthcare, infrastructure, and year-round vitality.
And every property price we will show you is a realized transaction price, not an asking price, because in Croatia asking prices are often WAY higher than transaction prices.
In Split, realized was €3,738 per square meter. Asking was €5,183. Budget from asking prices and you’ll be wrong by nearly forty percent.
Choosing the wrong place to move to during your retirement is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make. Our Patreon includes The Expat Compass Diagnostic, a 40-question, data-driven algorithm that factors in your budget, your tax situation and your healthcare to tell you which of 30 global regions is your perfect mathematical fit — plus a personal analysis of your results and our 74-page guide to affordable European cities.
City Number Five: Opatija — 28 points out of 60
Remember the city with world-class healthcare I promised? This is it.
Opatija is a Habsburg-era spa resort at the foot of Mount Učka, built in the 1880s for the aristocracy of Vienna, and it holds something extraordinary for a town its size.
Thalassotherapia Opatija is a special hospital for cardiac, pulmonary and rheumatic rehabilitation. It is one of the most famous cardiac rehabilitation centers in Southern Europe.
A national cardiac reference centre in a town of eleven thousand people really shows that healthcare is one of the vocations of this place.
However, Opatija has an issue that you might already have guessed by seeing how fancy this place looks like. High prices.
Together with Dubrovnik, Opatija is the most expensive municipality in Croatia at €3,975 per square meter, or about US$425 per square foot — above any city we will show you today. You’re paying Dubrovnik prices in a town of eleven thousand with no airport.
This is how a local described the town to us:
“Opatija is, along with Dubrovnik, one of the most upscale spots in Croatia. It’s all about old-world charm, polished facades, and that curated ‘European Riviera’ vibe — which is exactly why it draws a certain crowd: think Russians with a taste for flash, and anyone into the glitz-and-glam aesthetic. In a way, it’s like Monte Carlo’s more modest cousin.”
The weather is milder than the raw numbers suggest, because the Učka mountains shelter the town from the bura, the cold northeasterly wind. That’s why the Habsburgs picked this spot.
But the rain is another story: 1,925 millimeters a year, almost 76 inches, the wettest figure on our list.
Another issue is that… it is kind of a niche city that caters to wealthy, seasonal people. It is alive during summer, and also during Christmas when there are festivities. But in January, for example, Opatija is quite empty.
Very different from the next city.
Number Four: Rijeka — 36 points out of 60
Rijeka is very close to Opatija, but so much cheaper, and it does not empty during winter.
Here is how the same local who described Opatija to us described also Rijeka:
“Drive 15 minutes from Opatija and you arrive in Rijeka, where it’s a completely different story. The culture here in Rijeka is grounded, gritty, and a lot more about the ‘everyday person’ than curated luxury. Unsurprisingly, prices reflect that — Opatija can be pricey, while Rijeka feels much more affordable across the board.”
Rijeka has 9 out of 10 on year-round vitality — the highest mark any city gets in any category on our list. It’s a regular city of 108,000 with a university and a cultural scene year-round. The Korzo promenade in February is full of people who actually live there.
Healthcare is serious too, at 8 out of 10. KBC Rijeka is one of only five clinical hospital centres in the country and the tertiary referral centre for the whole northern Adriatic.
So why just number four? Rain, and solitude.
Weather gets 4 out of 10: it gets up to 1,925 millimeters of rain per year. Even at the low end of the estimates, that’s forty percent more rain than the Dalmatian cities coming later on our list.
Rijeka is directly beneath the Dinaric mountains, which force wet air upward and wring it out over the city.
The expat community there is quite small, especially considering the size of the city. The airport is small, with only fifteen destinations.
But road connections are good — Ljubljana and Trieste about 1.5 hours each, Zagreb about two.
Number 3: Pula — 40 points out of 60
And this is the city with the best cost-of-living factor in our ranking: 9 out of 10.
Pula is located at the southern tip of Istria, and for most of its history it was culturally closer to Italy than to the Balkans.
In 2026, average prices for residential real estate are less than €2,400 per square meter, or about US$250 per square foot. And Istria itself is not cheap — Rovinj is almost €3,700. Pula is the affordable city in an expensive region.
And the region is growing. Istria County recorded the highest population growth of any Croatian county: 1.66% in a year — a lot for a country that has been shrinking since 1991.
The foreign community there is maybe the longest-established in Croatia: Germans, Austrians, Italians, with a growing British and American presence.
The downside? Pula is far from being as sunny as the next cities on this list. In August the sun shines about 67 percent of daylight hours. In December, 30 percent. Three hours a day.
The climate is humid subtropical rather than true Mediterranean, and Istrian winters are mild but grey and foggy.
Healthcare gets a 5 since it has just a general hospital, and not a clinical hospital centre. Complex cases go to KBC Rijeka, about 1.5 hours away by motorway.
The airport is useful but most of the flights are during summer: around 32 heavily seasonal destinations.
But Pula is at a corner of four countries, four road networks. Trieste at 1.5 hours. Ljubljana at 2.5 hours far. And even Marco Polo airport in Venice, a large airport with worldwide connections, is just 3.5 hours.
Now the top two, and both of them are in Dalmatia.
Number 2: Zadar — 41 points out of 60
Our second place has the best weather-to-price ratio of the five, and the only reason it is 2nd and not 1st is… the lack of one building.
Despite the recent 24% increase, property prices in Zadar still cost, on average, less than €2,700 per square meter, about US$285 per square foot. For comparison, this is less than HALF the price per square foot in San Diego, California.
Average winter highs in Zadar are 11°C, about 52 Fahrenheit, and 30°C in summer, around 86F.
The caveat is the bura (or bora) wind, which can drop the temperature several degrees within hours and, at its worst, closes bridges and coastal roads.
Zadar is in a growing county in an otherwise shrinking Croatia: a 1.27% population increase in a year, second only to Istria. And the expat population there is growing, attracted by the sunny weather and ok prices.
And I say “ok” prices because Zadar is not cheap. It was cheap, but now this gap closed — prices are not absurd like in Dubrovnik, but not cheap either. So don’t plan a budget on last decade’s reputation: in recent years, the city improved, but prices followed.
Grab Budget Travelers, Digital Nomads & Expats: The Ultimate Guide for 50 tips, tricks and hacks for cheaper flights and free stuff.
But why is Zadar just the 2nd place, not the 1st? It is because Zadar has a general hospital, but not a clinical hospital centre. And in Croatia’s healthcare hierarchy, a general hospital is below a clinical hospital centre, without the same advanced resources.
Zadar’s hospital has English-speaking staff, and for routine care it’s adequate. But for a too complex problem, you’re being transferred — most likely to the next city of this list, about 1.5 hours down the highway.
Zadar also has a relatively big airport. It handled almost 1.7 million passengers across around 65 nonstop destinations, but most of the flights are summer-only.
Number 1: Split — 47 points out of 60
And this is the city I told you about at the very start. The one that isn’t the prettiest and isn’t the cheapest, but it wins anyway for very good reasons.
The thing that most locals complain about Split are the prices — indeed it is not a cheap city for Croatian standards.
Residential properties cost on average around €3,800 per square meter, about US$400 per square foot, an increase of 8% in a year. A one-bedroom rents for €800 to €1,000 a month during low season, and €1,200 to €2,000 in summer.
A realistic all-in budget for a couple is €2,400 to €3,400 a month, depending on whether you own or rent.
In good part this is because Split is the most tourist-attracting city in this ranking — Split-Dalmatia County recorded 20.9 million overnight stays in 2025.
That quiet morning coffee watching the boats? During summer, forget it. You’ll have it in a crowd, at a table you queued for, at a price set for someone on vacation.
So despite all that, why did Split still get the 1st place? Because it’s the only city on our list that addresses 2 huge problems when retiring abroad.
Problem one: what happens when something goes seriously wrong with your body.
Croatia has exactly five clinical hospital centres — two in Zagreb, plus Osijek, Rijeka and Split. KBC Split is the largest in Dalmatia, with just over 4,000 staff, and it’s the central health institution for the entire southern part of Croatia. It is also considered the 2nd best hospital in the entire country.
Cardiac, oncological, neurosurgical — you’re already in the right city, instead of being loaded into an ambulance toward one.
Second advantage: getting back home.
In 2025, Split Airport handled almost 3.9 million passengers, with around 59 nonstop destinations. In Croatia, only Zagreb is bigger. And in 2026, United launched the first ever scheduled nonstop flight between the US and Split — out of Newark.
Most of its traffic is seasonal, from April to September, but even during low season you still can connect to Frankfurt, Munich or Zagreb.
And Split doesn’t close during winter — it stays alive, and less crowded. Year-round vitality gets a 7, because the city is still functioning in January.
Even in February, Split is a normal city, with a hospital that can treat you and an airport that can take you home.
The Two Types of Person Croatia is NOT For
Now the thing about Croatia almost nobody talks about.
The Croatian Ministry of the Interior publishes the official list of purposes for which a non-EU citizen can be granted temporary stay: family reunification, education, scientific research, humanitarian grounds, life partnership, work, posted work, digital nomad stay, and “other purposes.”
Did you notice it? There is no retirement category! Age appears on the ministry’s pages only under humanitarian grounds, and not as a route for a financially independent retiree.
So retirees apply under “other purposes”, a discretionary catch-all administered by the police. However, temporary residence for other purposes is granted for a maximum of one year, and a new application can be submitted six months after the previous permit expires. Then a six-month gap before you can even ask again.
There is one more issue… “Other purposes” permits do not count toward permanent residence. They are on an explicit exclusion list, alongside seasonal workers, volunteers and trainees.
You can live legally in Croatia for a decade, renewing your “other purpose” visa, and be exactly as far from permanent residence as you were the day you arrived. Ten years of rent, ten years of paperwork, and no accumulated status to show for it.
Buy Residence & Citizenship in Europe for a country-by-country guide to visas, residence and EU citizenship.
And there’s no golden visa as a back-door like we see in Greece. The digital nomad permit has a 2026 income threshold of about €3,600 a month, but it requires you to actively work remotely for a non-Croatian company, which by definition rules out a retiree.
Now let’s go back to that March 2025 change I mentioned at the beginning, because we can finally see what it really is. If you are retired and over 60, owning property is the only way to bypass the restrictions and make your visa renewals much easier.
So for a retiree, buying property in Croatia is much more than a lifestyle decision.
And we must also talk about taxes… The first US–Croatia income tax treaty was signed in December 2022, and an amending protocol was signed in Dubrovnik in 2026 — the next step is Senate approval. As of right now, the treaty is not in force.
Until it’s ratified, Americans in Croatia handle pension income, IRA and 401(k) distributions and capital gains through foreign tax credits, and not through treaty relief.
The Second Negative Point: The February Problem
Croatia recorded 110.1 million overnight stays in 2025 from 21.8 million arrivals — an all-time record. Tourism is about 20 percent of the economy. And of those overnight stays, 104.6 million happened on the Adriatic coast.
While such numbers boost the economy, they create some side-effects. One of these side-effects is the nine-month lease.
A landlord can earn more in ten weeks renting for tourists than in nine months of long-term renting, so the market adapted. Leases are commonly offered from around September to June, with the tenant expected to vacate for the summer.
So in some cases, retirees who rent need to pack their belongings into storage and find somewhere else to be from mid-June to mid-September. Of course year-round leases exist, but… they’re priced accordingly.
The second issue is the summer spike. That Split one-bedroom at €820 off-season becomes €1,200 to €2,000 in July. That’s a huge increase in your single largest expense, driven by a market that doesn’t care that you live there.
And the third issue is the shutdown. Restaurants close. Flight schedules are very reduced. In the smaller, tourism-dependent towns, the pharmacy stays open and very little else does.
Of course some things are changing and there is a growing “winter tourism” industry in Croatia. But winter is still a time when entire cities virtually close — the mayor of Dubrovnik was even looking for ways to make people work during winter.
So here is a recipe to fail: you visit a certain town in Croatia in July. You fall in love with a version of a town that exists for ten weeks. You buy a home in it. And you spend your first February discovering that the place you moved to has closed.
And the lesson is: if you are choosing where to move to in Croatia, visit the place in February, not July.
But… if Croatia has no retirement visa and you need to buy a property, which European countries give you an easy road to permanent residence?
Still weighing Croatia against the rest of the world? Our guide on where to move abroad walks you through how to narrow the whole map down to the handful of places that actually fit you.
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Levi Borba is the founder of expatriateconsultancy.com, creator of the YouTube channel The Expat, and a best-selling author. Some of the links in our articles may be affiliated links, meaning the author earns a small commission if you make a purchase.
