Reflections on a Croatian property win

[rijekafan]

I just sold my flat in Rijeka to a private buyer who refuses to deal with agents. Both my agents said the place was worth 88k max and I sold it for 100k. The flat is in very good nick and is in a perfect position and I knew someone would fall in love with it.
At least one of my agents is an honest, good woman but she undervalued the place. The poor thing, every client who came said how bad the place was and most refused to consider the dvarnice to be part of the flat. Croatian agents and their clients have really bad relations and it is not always the agents fault. Croatian buyers and sellers of property can do the most amazingly bad things and its the agents who cop the flak.
I have to say that compared to the stories from Dalmatia that I hear from you guys, Rijeka is very tame. Selling my flat was a fairly painless process.
I have just bought an old ground floor place in central Mali Losinj which I am going to turn into a shopfront and a rear office. This is going to be a very challenging project. Finding non ripoff builders is proving very difficult and I have to bribe the neighbours to stop fighting so I can get the place into the land book. Thats going to be a real soap opera which I will report on in due course if anyone is interested.

[capio]

The main thing that stood out in your post is how matter of fact you were that you had to bribe your neighbour to most foreigners this is unthinkable, after a while I became of matter of fact to it too, and unfortunately one has to adapt and play my the local rules or fight a losing battle.

[rijekafan]

Maybe I am jaded but bribing the neighbours is the obvious thing to do. They hate each other and dont want to sell so they have no motivation to get their places into the land book. The only way I will get them to agree is to offer them cash. I must admit would do the same in Australia if we had these dumb land book rules. Its not illegal, my increased property value will more than compensate for the bribes, they get cash and land book entries. Sometimes with successful bribery, everyone wins:) I knew the situation when I bought the place. You never know, they might say no.

[Carol]

couldn't people just do it because its the honourable and decent thing to do, even when you don't like the person?

[rijekafan]

Back when I was doing Soviet sociology we studied the concept of social atomisation, where because you could not trust anyone but your closest friends and family, society broke up into its constituent molecules. Social atomisation also occured as a result of the Yugo system. This effect was compunded by the robber capitalism of post independence Croatia. People learn that its a jungle out there and in all business transactions there are winners ad losers. The concept of a win win has not arrived yet. When most peoples only assets are their property and this property is governed by archaic and often corrupted rules, one can understand why there is such a lack of cooperation.
As for honourable and decent, I find Croats to be very honourable once they have accepted you into their atomic structure. If you are not part of their small group, anything goes.

[Carol]

i don't think I have ever read a more credible post!

[rijekafan]

What a nice thing to say:)

[Slatkica]

Rijekafan, what attracted you to Croatia in the first place?

[justapixel]

sladka said:

Rijekafan, what attracted you to Croatia in the first place?

I guess he was a Rijeka fan. ;D

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[capio]

Excellent post Rijekafan and very true

[rijekafan]

When I first planned to invest in Croatia I was going to put my money into Varos in Split. I love Varos and Split but decided to say with some Lesbian freinds in Varos before I made a final decision. My friends kept on going on about Rijeka which they said was Croatias only liberal city. When in Varos I saw the hompophobia directed against my friends and I met numerous crazies from Hercigovina who kept on going on about the joys of killing Serbs and Jews. One night when eating dinner in the centre a patron shot off an AK47. I had meetings with the local council which was obviously totaly corrupt and incompetent.
My friends dragged me up to Rijeka and I grew to love the place as well. I noticed there was a work ethic there that did not exist in Dalmatia. Also the place was liberal, multicultural and the local officials I dealt with were not corrupt. I also felt that being Croatias principal port and being so close to Italy, Rijeka had enormous potential. I ended up buying in Rijeka and not Varos. Varos would have been a great investment but I am still glad I stuck with Rijeka.
By the way in my travels through Bosnia and Serbia with my Rijeka born girlfriend, we are treated incredibly well wherever we go. Everyone had family in Australia or Rijeka.People say that Rijeka kept its soul and the best bits of Yugoslavia are preserved there.

[darcy]

I agree with rijekafan, when I was in Croatia I had solid relationship with people and companies from Istria and Rijeka.

I think that Split is a fabulous city, but people there can be a real pain. Split is a mixture of large influx from southern Bosnia, Dalmatian hinterland and Dalmatia (coast and islands) who are all quite different socially and politically (left and right, rich and poor).

I already bought my property close to Split a while ago, but if I have to do it again I would prefer Istria and Rijeka.

[justapixel]

What differs Rijeka and Istria from other parts of Croatia is that they managed to avoid all the consequences of war that had crippled other parts of country for over a decade. They also stayed clear of huge influx of refugees that crippled urban culture which was especially evident in Split. Rijeka was always a culturally rich, vibrant city, but what's really important, it stayed that way while other parts of country, including Zagreb took a beating.

I guess Dalmatian cities suffered the most, especially Split which was overrun by all kinds of primitive, extremely nationalist people from Dalmatian and Herzegovinian hinterland (they call them "Rolling stones" there ;D ).

My trip to visit some friends in Split in mid 90's turned into a Tarantino movie full of street gangs, drug dealers, Herzegovinian mafia, total lawlessnes and very weird social encounters. Well... actually I enjoyed it a lot, since it was so out of this world. ;D

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[rijekafan]

I agree with Justapixel about everything but Rijeka avoiding the consequences of the war. The local JNA arsenal was abandoned and locals looted it. Very young children were wandering around with RPGS and grenades. The fighting came quite close to Rijeka and thousands of refugees flooded in and took over all the local accomodation places. The 128th brigade from Rijeka had a parade before going to fight in Lika and Bosnia. My girlfriends Dad was in this unit and her brother having been press ganged by the Bosnian Serbs was on the other side of the lines. Apparently there was no cheering and it was desperately sad parade through Rijeka.
Rijeka stayed solidly sot through the war and since. The HDZ was hated throughout. Tudjman and the HDZ launched a vindictive campaign against Rijeka and HDZ cronies stripped the place. Rijeka was turned into an economic wasteland. It is only really started to grow seriously in the last few years. Even now Kvarner and Istria and Dalmatia are ruled like colonies by a parasitic Zagreb.

[darcy]

As there are on this forum experts from Split area, just a question, what is the level of polution north of Split these days? When I was buying (almost 10 years ago), I was presented with an environmental report of the Kastela Bay and then I rulled out hte location.
Is it any better now?