Buying property in croatia ?

[Nicola]

I'm confused Faye - aren't you the lady that emailed me to ask about buying a house abroad? Will you not be deserting your own community if you move to Hvar?
I too have family values and I happen to believe that my family will benefit from travel around the world and from living (albeit temporarily) amongst locals in Croatia.
I presume your boyfriend's business is not reliant on tourism - maybe he would view us 'travellers' differently if it were.

[john sole]

Interesting debate. From my recent trips to Croatia, I've witnessed the building of many new purpose built holiday apartments, many costing in excess of £80k. I'm sure the local builders, local estate agents (who are charging both buyer and seller 3% of purchase price), Croatian govt who is getting 5% of purchase price, local decorators, furniture shops etc..are very happy with the cash generated by foreign buyers. They are actively encouraging it by building and promoting these properties (which are priced well out of locals reach).

We've recently bought an apartment - have Croatian neighbours who have become great friends, in an area where Germans and Austrians have been buying property for years. We've not come across any negativity whatsoever. People seem to be overlooking the fact that local people are making a lot of money out of this property boom and seem to be quite happy about that. Maybe the locals are also the 'greedy' ones - selling their property at the highest possible price, hence pricing their fellow folk out of the market. You can't put all blame on the foreign buyers. This is just business, supply/demand, selling your asset/goods for the highest obtainable price.

We have the situation in the UK whereby first time buyers are priced out of the market thanks to second home owners and buy-to-letters snapping up properties - with the pitiful pension provision over here, you can hardly blame them - the bubble is surely set to burst though.

[Culchie]

Faye, i mis interpreted your post on your boyfriend living in the UK, so sorry for that.

However, it does not change my argument, that people try and do the best they can for themselves and their family, hence the practice of emigration.

Very few people would leave their own country if they could get ahead in life staying in thjeir own country.

However that is not always the case, hence the 49 million Irish Americans in the USA, the Portuguese in Switzerland, the Turkish in Germany etc....

I'm sorry Faye, we're going to have to agree to disagree.
I'm not going to apologise for trying to invest in property, to me it's the same thing as investing in shares or whatever, except that I also can use the property for a holiday base as well.
My conscience is clear, I work hard, I pay my taxes, I'm investing in my families future by buying property in an area that I think will do well. (The same logic as investing in shares, having a pension, educating oneself).
I don't think it is going to harm anyone, in fact it helps local economies when I rent the property out to vistors to Croatia.

I hope your boyfriends business is successful, and I'm sure it will be even more so in years ahead, as Croatia prospers.

[Tony]

Just to change the subject, to the people who have already bought a place in Croatia. Do you think it's too late to buy something there now ? Have you found it easy to integrate into society ? Has anyone bought out there with the view to living there permanently or just for holiday s? Also does anyone know if ryan air or any charter airlines have plans to start flying out there?

[Ruza T]

I would like to add to this discussion.
Everyone I have ever spoken to in Croatia doesn't mind the foreigners buying up properties. They have said that many of these people buy run down properties and turn them into something beautiful. There is no harm in that, right?

Also, they have said that they love Germans, Americans, British....anyone with money to spend. We go to Croatia and pay for workers, eat in restaurants, buy furnishings for our "homes", go out at night, spend money in the supermarket etc. Don't the locals all benefit from that?

They have said however that they don't appreciated people from Hungary etc. because they bring EVERYTHING but the kitchen sink with them. All their food except bread and milk comes with them. Croatians argue that these "tourists" don't add very much to the economy. That they are "cheap".

Don't get mad at me..........this is what they have said.

I even witnessed one Czech tourist actually try to sell their left over food (which they brought with them) to the locals so they wouldn't have to pay tax on it.

So, in my opinion......I think the Croatians are fine with us buying properties and investing and long as we contribute our fair share. Makes sense.

[georgeba]

Faye, you seem to juxtapose, quote, people that value family and communites, unquote, to people with money. It is all much more complex than just black and white. I live on Hvar and see Brits who come here and honestly try to integrate into the community to enjoy good neighbourship and what have you (and they buy properties, of course). They make friends with locals and study their language. Nobody is ashamed that the other party is different (richer, poorer, blonder, darker). What I see around looks right to me. Old stone ruins get repaired, people get jobs helping newcomers. It is true that more Croats than before no longer can afford large houses but I did not see homeless - not even in Split which is quite a large city and must have its share of social ills.

Probably the same Brits who are buying now will sell to croats in ten years' time, who knows?

[AjaxKM]

Just my 2 cents worth :-
I have many Croat friends all of whom are delighted that my wife and I are buying a house in there land, they seem to think we are crazy to want to go back to the UK after we come to visit them.

Individual house purchasers cant be blamed for mass tourisum theres a huge differance between 1 Brit buying a house and 1000 yanks disgourging off a cruise ship trailing around town for an hour dropping litter and being rude

there is good and bad in all situation's yes we do buy up housing but if the avergae wage is 500 euros a month how can they afford a house at 8k anyway?

and last but not least as im sure your aware the Croat housing system is vastly differant from ours here with people traditionally preferring to stay in 1 family home rather than moving every 5-10 years so who else is buying all the new builds when they have a stable population

Personally i intend to move there permanently when they join the EU

As my wife is a Doctor and I am a Pharmacologist how can we be taking anything away from the community?