EIB support for more affordable homes across Croatia

• EIB Advisory helps five biggest Croatian towns and cities to build more affordable homes faster
• The EIB will support cities to benefit more from Croatian national housing strategy, including Croatia’s new Affordable Housing Act
• The EIB ready to expand its advisory partnerships across Croatia to deliver more affordable homes

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has completed a one year advisory assignment designed to help five largest cities in Croatia accelerate the delivery of affordable and social housing. The project provided cities of Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Varazdin and Rijeka with clear and structured options and practical tools to effectively move forward their housing projects and strategies and build more affordable homes faster.

The EIB Advisory assignment, delivered under the InvestEU Advisory Hub, coached cities in development of implementation‑ready housing strategies, action plans and project pipelines. It showcased how to combine a strong analytical basis with hands‑on support. It also developed practical tools to enable effective planning of housing investments that respond to local needs while remaining financially and institutionally sustainable.

The EIB Advisory helped create a clear framework applicable country-wide to help all municipalities translate Croatia’s new Affordable Housing Act and support from European Commission into real homes, directly supporting EU hosing initiatives and Croatia`s housing priorities.

“EIB wants to empower Croatian towns and municipalities to build more affordable homes faster,” said Marko Primorac, Vice‑President of the European Investment Bank. “This requires raising local capacities to draft, manage and implement local affordable housing project, build partnerships, and be able to identify best financing models. Partnering with five biggest cities in Croatia was a step in the right direction to achieve this ambitious goal and we look forward replicating the initial success of this cooperation model across Croatia.”

“Today affordable housing is one of the key social and economic issues, which is the reason why the Government of the Republic of Croatia, through its National Housing Policy Plan and the Affordable Housing Act, is implementing measures aimed at increasing access to housing for our citizens,” said Tomislav Ćorić, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia and Minister of Finance. “In this context, the Ministry of Finance ensures a stable fiscal framework and develops tax and financial instruments to increase the offer of housing units, encourage long-term rental, and ultimately contribute to a fairer and more balanced housing market.”

Pan‑European mobilisation to tackle the housing crisis

The assignment complements the European Commission’s European Affordable Housing Plan and its broader efforts to expand social and affordable housing, prevent housing exclusion and mobilise investment across Member States. The EIB works closely with the European Commission to turn these policy objectives into tangible investments by combining advisory services with long‑term financing.

In Croatia, the EIB advisory programme delivered city‑specific action plans, institutional capacity assessments and a project selection toolkit. These practical instruments remain available to cities beyond the end of the assignment and offer a replicable model for other municipalities. As a result, each of the five participating cities now has a clearer pathway to delivering new affordable homes, supported by sound governance, realistic financing structures and a pipeline of mature projects.

The EIB Group considers housing a strategic priority and is scaling up both advisory and financing support across the European Union. Over the past five years, the EIB Group has invested more than €18 billion in affordable and sustainable housing across Europe, and in 2026 it is stepping up this support to around €6 billion.

Working with the European Commission, national governments, cities and national promotional banks, the EIB aims to translate this increased investment into more affordable, energy‑efficient and sustainable homes, while reinforcing social cohesion and quality of life.

Background information

EIB Group   

The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group is the financing arm of the European Union, owned by the 27 Member States, and one of the largest multilateral development banks in the world. In 2025, the EIB Group signed €100 billion in new financing and advisory services for over 870 high-impact projects under eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, territorial cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, strong global partnerships and the savings and investments union. Beyond long-term loans for large infrastructure, the EIB Group crowds in private investment for high-risk innovative projects and businesses, with a growing role in Europe’s markets for venture debt, venture capital, guarantees and securitisations. 

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is the subsidiary of the EIB Group specialised in providing guarantees and equity to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses and startups across Europe. Acting as an anchor investor, through its extensive network of partnering banks and investment funds, the EIF mobilises private investment and nurtures the ecosystem of venture capital funds to support innovative European entrepreneurs. 

In 2023, the EIF together with six Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands) launched the European Tech Champions Initiative, a fund-of-funds to scale up innovative startups. To date, this initiative has already enabled the creation of 15 European venture capital mega-funds and scaled up 430 companies, including 11 unicorns (with more than €1 billion in capital). 

Photos of the EIB Group's representatives and headquarters, logo files and video B-roll for media use are available here. 

EIB Advisory 

In addition to financing, the EIB Group offers advisory services that help public and private clients develop markets, build capacity and support high impact investment projects. In 2025, EIB Advisory helped accelerate project delivery and crowd in finance for 179 projects worth more than €80 billion in the European Union and beyond. 

InvestEU 

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps crowd in private investment for the European Union’s strategic priorities such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings all EU financial instruments previously available for supporting investments within the European Union together under one roof, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.