Cost of Living in Zagreb

How is 1500 Euro/month in Zagreb? Is it possible to say 600 Euros/month?

Students can get monthly pass (tram and bus) for 100 kn.

OK, so I live in ZAGREB. It is a great city to have fun and spend some quality time.
Live in an apartment (1bedroom),45square, outside from the center and paying 3200kn with all the expenses(renting expenses). My salary is 6500kn.
Living with girlfriend who also works with salary of 3000kn. So basically her salary is gone when we paid the rent. Monthly food is 2000kn(buying in groceries shop ONLY), paying for gas is 800kn(one car).Monthly urban transportation is 500kn. If you want to drink coffee everyday in pubs it is gonna cost you 10kn average per day and beer would be 15kn. So, lets try to sum it all together. Both of us earning 9500kn.
All expenses are 6500kn. So we are left with 3000kn for ourselves(witch is good). Then try to include sometimes cinema, mentioned coffee and the beer and sometimes go on a dinner. After all with all that money, we are able to have 1000kn. So what if we want to buy some clothes and other stuff??? IT is IMPOSSIBLE. So, basically that is why all the youth people are going out of Croatia cause it is not good to live here. I hope I helped someone.

@#Croat: Is Zagreb even safer than cities in the Czech Republic? Like Prague, Brno, and Cesky Krumlov?

Croatia is super corrupt.. and according to everyone I speak to here they say they are constantly taking advantage of each other. Most places wont rent out to anyone long term as they will give you ridiculously high prices that no expat can afford and is soley meant for tourism. Whatever you think youre getting into.. its not good if you are trying to immigrate here. Ive been in Split/Vis for a combined 3 months and im about to leave. Its a total shit show for foreigners

I lived in Zagreb 7 years and I am a native Croatian.

First of all, the average salary pointed here is not so low for Zagreb. 5900 kunas is the current average of Croatia, and average of Zagreb is more like 6600 if not 7k net because there is a huge difference here between salaries of entry-level positions/seniors and even low-level managers. When I say huge, Im talking about thousands of euros per month of a difference.
The problem with Zagreb is that there aren't so many huge multinational companies and Business centers like in Prague, Bratislava or Budapest. I can tell you for sure, I think its very unlikely to get a job if you do not know Croatian at all( if youre from ex-Yugoslavia and your Croatian is decent, its a different story). I don't remember seeing any job openings where you only need English. It must be taken into consideration, the unemployment is still very high in Croatia for most white-collar/office jobs, so it is not likely you can get a work-permit for these kind of jobs. I am a Croatian and getting a job in any kind of multinational company is like hitting jackpot, even though these kind of jobs are also usually payed very bad in the start (they know that even if the salary is 4000 kunas/550 euros, there will be many candidates for a white-collar job) .

Zagreb just recently became a tourist destination (something completely impossible to see just a couple of years ago), so after a lot of time, rent is also becoming more expensive, but definitely still affordable. If you share a flat with only 1 friend/flatmate, its even possible to find nice apartments(50 sq meters, 2 bedrooms) for 200 euros each with utilities. This is impossible in Budapest/Bratislava/Prague.
But this is the price for Croatian people, I have no idea about expats. I heard stories that Erasmus students tend to get robbed in housing prices but I dont know any details. If you are here on Erasmus go to dormitories which are also affordable and I would say very fun. Rooms for international students, with a roommate, are cca 100 euros.

Shops are crazy expensive in comparing with Eastern Europe and even countries like Germany. There is a huge retail monopoly and not too many discount shops like Lidl. We dont have Aldi and Penny market at all.
Just to give you an example, a canned typical commercial average beer in a shop will cost you between 8-10.5 kunas. Heineken is the latter (10.5)and thats one and a half euro for a beer from a shop. Crazy !
But on the other hand beer in caffe bars and breweries is actually quite cheap. You can drink very good draught beer in pubs like Medvedgrad/Zlatni medo for 2 euros.

Have cash because its not easy finding places where you can pay by card.

The city is not overcrowded like Prague and Budapest so for having a family, if you have a decent salary, its really nice. Croatians are very open people usually, I think I can honestly say we have absolutely nothing against any foreigners here, although usually we like you more as tourists or Erasmus students. If youre an expat worker, its possible to find idiots who will dislike you for taking "our jobs", but just ignore them. Most Croatians understand that if we can travel and work wherever we want, anybody should be able to do the same here, although as I mentioned, its really difficult to find a job as an expat here (foreign language teachers, IT come to mind where its probably possible).
The city is completely safe. I think safest capital in Europe. During the night you can go EVERYWHERE, ANYWHERE. There is a very small + gypsy ghetto completely outside of the city, but again unlike most Eastern European cities, these gypsies are basically just poor Croatians who in general are not even close to dangerous or even strange.

Thats it, if you have questions be free to ask and I'll be happy to answer.

Hi all

Im looking at moving to Zagreb into the banking sector as a debt collector

I have a small apartment provided

The company im working for has offered me 13500 kuna a month amd said after Taxes be about 8100kuna a month.

Does croatia have a system that pays into my future pension fund like Australia? We call it superannuation?

Is this considered "good money" and enough to live in a small (50sqm) apartment for a single mid 40s person

Is the utilities prices above a good guide for a single persons use?

Any feedback would be fantastic

Thank you

Lulu,dont get me wrong but there is no need for part time english teachers in Croatia. Croatia has plenty of universities that print out english professors and most of the people know english allready. Its no China.

Besides,with no formal qualification(master degree in english,or at least Cambridge certificates)you wont be able to obtain job anyway. If you have IT education that would be something to work with.

And EU wise,how about googling it?

Hi , I have lived in Croatia actually for almost 7 years for studying and work I slavonska pozega medical center .really it was the best part of my life .. The Croat are really duša od ljudi.. Now I am planing to spent a year with my wife as a part of my retirement plane .. So I am looking forward for your advise .. That is renting a furnished apparent in the city of Zagreb medical care and the Borovak .. Thank you ..

I agree with Goran. I work as an engineer and I have 600eur monthly earnings. I'm a beginner. Also, most of the data is correct, but the question is whether it is really the average net salary in Zagreb 6600kn (880eur) because most people who are highly educated work for so much. From the average should throw out the salaries of managers as for example directors of large companies that have a 15000 EUR net monthly salary. Then I would say that the real average salary 5500 - 6000kn.

Zagreb, Croatia generally,is very expensive for us residences.Mayority of us work for 500-1000EUR which is not enough for rent or loans costs besides other expences. Hollidays, travelling-forget about it!