Hello celt-ga,
I would STRONGLY advise you to find a trustworthy agent to deal with
this matter for you.
You can find a page of advice on buying property in Croatia on the
Croatia Holiday and Home site.
http://www.croatia-holidayandhome.co.uk/want-buy.html
Be aware that the law on not being able to own land right up to the
sea has persisted from the previous state of Yugoslavia: “If you buy
on the beach the public will have access to the land to at least 6m
above the waterline.”
“It is possible to conclude and verify a sales contract from Britain
but it is the best to have it verified in a Croatian embassy or
consulate. If you verify such a contract before a public notary, then
this verification has to be translated into Croatian by an appointed
courts interpreter.”
The site recommends you to learn at least some conversational Croatian
before starting the procedure. I tend to agree with that, having spent
5 years in Croatia in the early 1980s.
It seems that you need to do a bit of detective work on your own:
“We found the best results by finding a place we liked and then asking
around - the word for estate agent is 'Nekretnine'. We also visited as
many Croatian based websites as possible before we left; this gave us
an indication of prices and some initial appointments.
Our experience showed us not to expect glossy brochures, high street
offices and men in sharp suits. Instead, it will be hand written
notes, back street solicitors and busy people probably doing at least
one other job.”
My personal opinion is that you would be strongly advised to find a
native Croatian speaker you can trust to represent you. Perhaps you
might be able to find someone from an émigré Croatian family?
The other thing you need to know, from my personal experience of
living in Croatia in 1979-1984, is that, during the previous regime, a
lot of the second homes on the coast and islands were built on a
do-it-yourself basis during times of economic downturn, when not all
materials were readily available. I advise you to look carefully at
the quality of any building dating from this period!
“Vendors on the Adriatic Coast will probably be more prepared to deal
with English purchasers when the main tourist season is over in
September, October and November.
Please note that normally in Croatia, even the purchasers pay about
2-3% of the purchase price to agents. (The seller also pays a similar
amount.)”
The site strongly recommends that you obtain a written survey for
properties which interest you, and to pay for a translation if you
cannot understand the Croatian.
Once you have done this, even before contracts come into the picture:
“you are expected to make a down-payment of 10% of the sales price or
different if so agreed between the contractual parties. If the vendor
pulls out it should be a condition that they pay you 10%”
Non-citizens of Croatia then have to get permission for the purchase
from the Minstry of Foreign Affairs, which in turn will confer with
the the Ministry of Justice, Administration and Local Self –
Government. This process can take months (from my personal knowledge
of Croatian bureaucracy, this is not an over-exaggeration!). The
owners name needs to be entered into the Land Book (Zemljisne Knjiga).
Permission to purchase will be granted if there is a reciprocal
agreement with the country of which the purchaser is a citizen, ie
only if Croatian citizens are free to buy property in your country.
The page to which I am referring
http://www.croatia-holidayandhome.co.uk/want-buy.html lists all the
documentation required for the purchase. The documentation must be
submitted together with a request, written in Croatian, to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is also necessary to submit all the
documentation to the local Land Registrar, in order to change the name
of the owner in the Register.
Within 30 days of purchase, you have to register with the tax
authorities and pay them 5% of the purchase price. If you resell the
property within 3 years, at a price higher than you paid, you will be
liable for a tax of 35% of the difference between the purchase price
and the selling price.
The Avatar estate agency (see below) notes that: “the timescales for
return of the letter from the Foreign Ministry cause difficulty in
setting a completion date as vendors are not always prepared to wait
for such a long completion period nor is it definite how long this
procedure will take (between 3 and 12 months).”
http://www.avatar-croatia.com/buying.htm
However, there appears to be a loophole to these proceedings: “While
such an approval can take up to 12 months, it can easily be avoided if
the property is bought by a domestic company, which can be entirely
owned and controlled by a foreign person. In that way, the transfer
tax on real estate of 5% can also be avoided during each subsequent
sale of the property.” If you want to take this route, you would need
to obtain advice on setting up a company in Croatia or you would need
to find a company that deals with such matters.
http://www.croatia-holidayandhome.co.uk/want-buy.html
If you would like a free tax guide specifically for foreigners
purchasing property in Croatia, you can request it at
http://www.croatia-holidayandhome.co.uk/tax-guide-form.html
The Croatia Holiday and Home site provides a list of estate agents
at:
http://www.croatia-holidayandhome.co.uk/estate-agents.html
None of these is listed as specialising in Hvar, but I’ve looked
through to see who is currently advertising property on Hvar.
Avatar is advertising one apartment on Hvar
http://www.avatar-croatia.com/property.htm
Broker has a house plus land at
http://www.broker.hr/nekretnine/0315.htm “An exclusive land with old
house Land 20.000 m2 PRICE:25 EUR/m2 “ Unfortunately, I was unable
to search the rest of the site, because the database facility is not
working currently.
RealestateCroatia.com currently has 3 properties on Hvar
http://www.prodajese.com/eng/list.asp?regija=3&page=1 (you need to go
through all 6 pages to find all 3).
Adriatic Real Estate has one property on Hvar at the moment
http://www.telsat.org/
Berlin Immobilien has one house right on the sea front for 180.000 EUR
http://www.berlin-immobilien.hr/index%20en.htm
If you want to look at Burza Nekretnin, which features offerings from
a number of agencies, go to http://burza-nekretnina.com/hbn/home.html
Select Jadranski otoci Uncheck “poslovni prostor” because this
relates to trade premises. Unchech “zemljiste”, unless you are wishing
to buy land. Uncheck “turisticki objekt”, unless you wish to buy a
hotel etc. You have further options for “stan” (apartment) or “kuca”
(house) which you can leave checked or not as you wish. Under
“Cijena” you can enter a desired price in euros in the range from (od)
to (do) your specified sums. You can leave the default options for
the rest. Select “Hvar” from the drop-down menu (it will already be
visible for selection). Click on “Pretrazi bazu podataka”
Currently, the search comes up with 27 properties. They are displayed
in a table with the following column headings:
vrsta (type, where stan = apartment and kuca = house_
mjesto (town/village)
ulica (street)
m2 (area of property in square metres)
posrednik (estate agent)
telefon agencije (telephone of agency)
cijena (overall price in euros)
Eu/m2 (price in euros per square metre)
Sob (number of rooms)
Clicking on the linked number for the property will provide further
written details. Most are in Croatian, but I did notice some English
translations in a couple of cases.
Clicking on F will bring you to photos of the property, while clicking
on N will bring you to a ground plan of the property.
The web site of another agent also has tips on the legal process:
http://www.croatia-estate.com/en/faq.htm
Here it is stated that it is possible to conclude a verify a sales
contract abroad, rather than in Croatia, however, “In such a case it
is the best to have it verified in a Croatian embassy or consulate. If
you verify such a contract before a public notary, then this
verification has to be translated into Croatian by an appointed
courts interpreter”
Here is a company which offers apartments in a complex between Jelsa
and Verboska http://www.komarca.com/en/opis.html
Parsain is an estate agent based in Hvar, with contact details at:
http://www.cursor.hr/pa.nsf/e2c4a1f395cac0764125670b0078aca8/a96e431cc551e9f9c12569d80047304e?OpenDocument
Their web site in Croatian only: http://www.parsain.hr/
Current properties http://www.parsain.hr/parsain/ponuda.htm
(kuca = house, stan = apartment, dio kuce = part of a house)
Other reference sources:
http://www.escapeartist.com/croatia/croatia.html Moving To Croatia ~
Living In Croatia ~ Real Estate In Croatia ~
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/075226205X/202-0729516-5525423
Book: "A Place in the Sun": Buying Your Dream Home Abroad “This
title includes all the countries that "A Place in the Sun" has visited
- France, Italy, Spain and the Canaries, Portugal, Greece, Turkey,
Florida, the Black Sea, the Caribbean and Croatia. As well as
photographs to make readers want to give all up and move there
straight away, it features lots of practical information about how to
get there, and about climate, currency, language and so on. And if
you're not sure where would suit you best, the author also includes an
introduction to the culture, the food, the sights and the people of
each country, to help you decide on the perfect location.”
“Here is the list of the on-going costs and fees which are due when
buying a property in Croatia:
5% buying tax (based on the value estimated by Ministry of
Finance,which is very close to the market value)
2% solicitor’s and notary’s fees
3.5% agent’s fees
The on-going costs are:
Non-Resident’s tax is 1,60 US$ for sqm of the housing space annually
Ground-tax is 0,26 US$ per one netto square meter annually.
Reserves are 0.52% of the market value of the property annually
Garbage costs are cca 53 US$ annually
Electric costs - one kWh is on 1.02.2000 US$ 0.058
Water costs - one cubic meter of water is on 1.02.2000 US$ 1.18
Insurance for the house and houshold ammounts generally to US$ 530
annually. “
http://www.istra.com/nelblu/info_en.html |
