When Croatia signed the EU Stabilization and Association Agreement in 2005 its chances of accession to the European Union were massively boosted; as a direct result, foreign direct investment began to flood into this stunningly beautiful south-eastern European nation immediately.
With its sublime stretch of Adriatic coast, Croatia has long been regarded as one of the most beautiful parts of Europe. The war in early 1990s swept back the flourishing tourist industry and little by little visitors are flocking back to its string of coastal and island resorts. Best of all, is that Dubrovnik. And indeed Croatia has remained, in essence, a holiday paradise place, that has so far escaped the extremes of mass tourism.
Since Croatia has been becoming ever more popular as a holiday destination lately, foreign investments and interest in purchasing property, or real estate, in the country has also risen quite suddenly especially in recent years. The popularity of Croatia in terms of interest in buying property in Croatia is very understandable, when looking at the suburb geographical location of this Southern European country.
Croatian land and house prices in the country are still very favorable compared to other European ones. Especially on the Dalmatian islands where properties such as beautiful Croatia stone houses built in the traditional style. In other beautiful Croatia historic towns such as Dubrovnik, Hvar, Zadar or Korcula there are also excellent real estate and property purchase opportunities to acquire prime location real estate at reasonable prices. Interest of foreign investors in buying Croatia property, including the small islands, grew up very quickly two years ago. Until then foreigners did not trust that this was a market worth investing.
Property in Croatia has risen in price by over 20% per annum over the last two years. This fact reflects increased popularity that Croatia now enjoys as a holiday home and profitable property investment base. This dynamic is supposed to continue, particularly as Croatia is being considered for get full EU membership by 2009. With the region's newfound stability and substantial new investment in infrastructure, such as motorways, hospitals, etc., all the forecasts are that Croatia property is set to rise in value quite considerably.
After several years people spending their holidays in Croatia have become more familiar with the country and are/will be more than happy to buy property in Croatia like houses, apartments etc. Nowadays number of people seriously interested in property for sale in Croatia is showing a sharp increase, the number of real estate agents offering properties in one of the beautiful provinces is rising as well. This includes both Croatian real estate agents focusing on the international property market and international operating firms.
The popularity of this trend just serves as a highlight of the quality of the property developments being undertaken across Croatia and the depth of international interest that exists in the Croatian real estate sector. The Croatian property investment market seems to offer the impossible - a mature emerging market - and any international real estate investor searching for exciting opportunity should not miss the opportunity to invest into the rising star that is Croatia.
The author of this article is Diana Hillary, researcher studying international property markets, foreign investments to Croatia property and other hot spots.
