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Post by Ribaric on Oct 6, 2010 12:45:33 GMT 1
With nothing more in the way of evidence than the two eyes I possess, I am convinced a major commercial/retail property crash is upon us. Within the last ten years or so, a huge number of "retail parks" have been erected in the northern areas which seem to achieve little except expose the older retail parks to the cold winds. Certainly, several in Varazdin, Cakovec and one I know in Sveta Helena (near ZG) have near empty car parks, at least when I see them, and many have only about 50% occupancy of the smaller shops within the park.
Varazdin has a larger number of recently vacated office spaces and, with only a few people of my acquaintance to judge, many people are quitting their business or moving it back into the garage/bedroom. Even two of local bicycle stores have "gone home" because nobody came to their shops which were located in "quiet" shopping malls.
Despite this, I cannot find a reasonable (circa 40m sq) business space to rent or buy which is at anything like an attractive price. It looks like the up-coming Ribaric.doo will make do with basement space for it's office. That's fine for us but a town can't survive on cottage industries alone... can it?
Any views about recent changes in your area?
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Post by happy on Oct 6, 2010 12:53:24 GMT 1
That's fine for us but a town can't survive on cottage industries alone... can it? Any views about recent changes in your area? Back to the future ........... 'the Med as it once was' |
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Post by Madgolfer on Oct 8, 2010 6:49:41 GMT 1
Why take on the expense of retail/office space if you don't need to, especially for a start up business? Assuming that you have suitable space in your basement and are allowed to run a business from home by your local authority, why not start there and move on later.? Our land lady has two empty units in our office building. Both of the businesses that opened there back in Jan and March have now gone, but she refuses to come down on the monthly rental. We have been in her building for four years now, have always paid our rent on time and maintained the premises as and when needed. We have asked about taking on both of these other units in return for a discount, but she is not interested........  |
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Post by riki on Oct 8, 2010 7:57:05 GMT 1
A discount in Croatia, that's just crazy talk!  People would much rather leave offices standing empty than rent them at a lower rate. Usually it's not even a discount that's needed, the price is just totally over-inflated. |
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Post by gmh on Oct 8, 2010 8:08:18 GMT 1
Zagreb is full of empty office space. I've been looking at the same rental signs every day for over a year now. Lot's of small business closing, but surprisingly there some opening too. In the middle of winter a guy opened a bike shop 2 blocks from a well established bike shop. I felt for sure he would fail, because who buys bikes in winter ? He's still going surprisingly.
The big shopping malls around Zagreb are practically empty apart from on Saturdays. Surely you can't make enough money in only 1 day a week to keep afloat ?.
Meanwhile Arena shopping center is nearing completion and they are keenly working away on Supa Nova (to be the biggest) out by the airport. That one should at least capture the Velica Gorica market. The massive City West out on the highway to Maribor is like a ghost town, even the free bus service can't lure people out there. Mainly because it's the same old shops.
Apparently where they build Ikea, will also have a huge shopping center around it.
Maybe it could all work out if the government reduced income tax, and raised wages considerably. A super rich tax wouldn't hurt. Get some of those massive profits back from the few mega richpeople here who are sucking the country dry.
We all know Croatians love shopping, if you give them more money, they'll certainly spend it.
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Post by zvekov on Oct 8, 2010 9:51:07 GMT 1
taxing the super rich?? I can imagine there are hardly any in that country with such a huge grey economy... Unless you start taxing existing assets, but then that might not only affect the super rich, but also the cash-poor/asset rich
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Post by crojoe on Oct 8, 2010 11:11:16 GMT 1
The actual problem in many ways is the laws on company assetts, and many business people (small and large companies) exercise this right to the full by buying cars, houses, boats and all manner of goods with company money. This is why you see teenager boris in a brand new SUV, Mama Ivana in a 4x4 Mitsubishi and company owner daddy in the latest Audi. It's all company money, thus reducing taxes. It's all nice, but the fact is this then drives up taxation on the employees. I don't blame the practice, but it's used by the rich to the full.
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Post by zvekov on Oct 8, 2010 13:31:16 GMT 1
am not an accountant... but i'm sure there's rules in place to govern that practice.. its just a question of if the appetite to enforce is there... so in that case no new laws needn't be enacted... It is clear, assets acquired, that are used for production cannot be expensed fully on year 1.. i am quite sure of that.. and those which are of arguably dubious use, will definitely not be... in any case, the use of the luxury car by employee, director or whatever must count as an emolument which can also be taxed in a personal capacity...
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Post by gmh on Oct 8, 2010 16:48:55 GMT 1
I think you have it Zvekov. There are systems in place, but they are rarely enforced. The system could be a progressive tax system, that has a much higher tax for the likes of Todorič and Kerum, Vlahović, Rajić, and the rest.
The government should be more diligent in their enforcement and investigations.
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