Has anyone bought real estate in Croatia?
 

Obviously, I've been through the buying real estate in a foreign country thing and have learned a thing or two from it, but when I bought my house in France I was already very knowledgable about France and I spoke French.

I do not speak Croatian, but I am interested in buying a place there - house or apt. near or on the beach. Prices seem to be incredibly good right now and I've had good luck with real estate purchases in my life.

Anyone done this? Can recommend agencies? I'm obviously going to go there to see things first hand before I bite the bullet, but am beginning to make a plan and would welcome any help.

Buen viaje.
M

Just researching my trip to Croatia later this year, and I came across these pages...

http://www.visit-croatia.co.uk/property/property2.htm

http://www.idealcroatia.com/propertyhome.htm



which may be of some help and/or interest.

I am wondering if it is still a requirement that owners of beachfront property lease their "piece" of the beach from the government which used to own all the beaches.

Perhaps that has changed since we went through this drill.

St Cirq: Sometime in the past year, the Financial Times ran a special section about great places to buy a home. Croatia was at the top of the list. It was an excellent article so see if you can find it on the FT website. They listed agencies, prices, pros and cons, legal regs, etc..

Costs along the Dalmatian coast and islands such as Hvar have risen dramatically in the past frew years, but Istria still appears to offer some excellent values. Austrians and Germans are very well represented in the second home market in that area.

By the way, we ate lunch at La Table du Terroir near Montignac (en route from Cognac to Monasties) on your recommendation. Thank you for a terrific tip!

My advice is don't hesitate. A colleague of mine, a Croatian living in California, said his two homes in Croatia have gone up 500% in the last half dozen years. One is in Rovinj and one in Zagreb. It's only been fairly recent that foreigners can buy land in Croatia and it's become very popular. Good luck picking where you'll buy!

Thanks, all. I'll definitely research that piece in the Financial Times. Glad you liked the Table du Terroir, eskrunchy!

As for how many houses I need, one more will do just fine, I think. And I'm divesting myself of another soon, so it's not as though I have a collection :)

StCirq, you can have as many houses as you like! Do you have an idea of where you're interested in buying?

StCirq, I'm interested in what you unearth - I'll have to dig up that FT piece as well. Go you! That's wonderful!

wanted to bring this to the top, to find out more recent info~

More recent info:
It seams that there will be no more restrictions for the EU citizens from the beginning of the next year.
But there might be still some problems with non EU.
I'm a Croatian citizen, and my parents sold an apartment to an American a few years ago. We didn't have many problems with the transfer of real estate.
But it wouldn't be bad to take some advice from an advocate.
If the real estate is very important for some reason (an island, national park, old town, ...) then the property has to be offered to the state/town first (same price as for buyer). If they don't buy it, you have a green light. Our case didn't take long although it was in Korcula.
If you need any info on how to get a property not involving agencies, I might help you.
[email protected]
I hope it was some help for you.

Tell me when The Buza Bar is for sale. Of course, I would drink any profits.

((H))

Just make sure that the titles are clear and there are no disputes. We researched buying land in Croatia but found that the value was better elsewhere. *shrug* YMMV

thanks, where did you buy slojan?

I'm actually back into thinking about this idea, after having abandoned it for a few months. I have EU citizenship, for what that's worth.

And for now, what I'd like is a place I can rent - long-term, not by the month or anything - for at least a few years.

Thanks for all the tips. Slojan, where did you end up buying?

maitaitom, was that directed to me?
where is Buza Bar? I'm not sure.

If you are interested in house that could be rented, maybe our house can be the right one for you.
We have just started selling it.
If you are interested, i can send you some photos or you can see some older ones on our web site.

For what it's worth, when we were in Montenegro last week, we learned that waterfront real estate costs a lot less than in Croatia. In the beautiful Bay of Kotor, a waterfront house can be bought for less than 100 thousand euro. If you find Croatian real estate to be too expensive to get into now, it may be worth looking into Montenegro since the Dubrovnik airport is located so close to the Montenegro border. The Montenegrins are building so many waterfront luxury condos & resorts along the Dalmatian coast.

As one Russian said:
I'm building apartments in Montenegro for sale to earn money, and building a house in Croatia for myself to enjoy it.

I've pretty much abandoned the idea of Croatia at this point. Much more interested in a small place or apartment near La Rochelle...when I finally get around to selling the place in the Dordogne.

Well, selling your place in the Dordogne should be a piece of cake. I imagine potential buyers will be coming out of the woodwork. Too bad it'll be a few years before we'll be in a position to consider being one of them (sigh).