Frequently Asked Questions

Citizens of all 27 member countries of the European Union from 1 February 2009 can buy property in Croatia without any special conditions. Stabilization and Association Agreement foresees that from 1 February 2009. the real estate market will be liberalized so that citizens and companies from the EU can buy houses, apartments, cottages in the same way as Croatian citizens, which means no previous administrative barriers as a condition of reciprocity (that Croats can olso buy real estate in the country of buyers residence) and without prior permission from the Ministry of Justice.

For nationals of countries that are not members of the EU applies the principle of reciprocity.
That is, a foreigner is allowed to purchase real estate in Croatia if the same is valid for the Croat in the buyer’s country, under the same criteria and conditions. Buyers must first get permission of the contract from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to present their proposal for registration in the land register. The consent for the purchase of real estate, subject to reciprocity, is issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs based on the previous consent from the Ministry of Justice.

Land register is a legal record of land ownership. Both parties to the contract can request a land-registry certificate.
Land register consists of two main books and an assortment of documents. The main book contains land registry entries and a record of actual and other registered rights.
A collection of documents contains notarized copies of documents based on which registration in the main book is made. Some land registry entries contain Section A or deed of title; Section B or proprietary document; and Section C specifies any ‘burdens’ on the real estate.
In Section A land registry body (real estate) is registered. Ownership rights are registered in Section B and in Section C actual rights are registered with which the land regitry body (real estate) is burdened. e.g a bank mortgage, pre-emption, rent, lease, ban of alienation/prohibition or burden.

Real estate sales contract obliges the vendor to transfer the property he is selling to the purchaser who after the stated amount was paid becomes the owner of the purchased real estate.

The price of real estate is established by the owner with regard to the actual prices of real estate on the market. Commercial value of real estate is defined by a tax authority in accordance with its «tables» while to allocate credit from a bank the estimate of real estate is established by a licensed appraiser.

The buyer is obliged to pay the seller the full price as agreed upon in the contract, and the seller is obliged to convey the property in question and allow the new owner to register the purchased real estate in the buyer’s name in the land-register (so called «tabularna» declaration).

Each and every owner of property whose ownership is registered in the land register is able to transfer ownership to an interested buyer. Property owners not registered in the land register are also able to sell their property. In this case, however, the buyer obtains so called «not registered ownership» of the purchased real estate. In order to register the real estate in his name in the land register he has to present a legal concession.

The purchaser is responsible for paying real estate tax in the amount of 3% of the market price for the property purchased.

The purchaser is required to pay tax on additional value (PDV) of newly built real estate which is included in the total price stated in the sales contract, which frees him of paying the usual 3% property tax on purchased real estate. However, based on the Croatian Tax manual the purchaser is not exempt from paying the property tax of 3% on the land underneath and surrounding the building in which he purchased realty.

The deposit is a certain amount of money or exchangeable things which one party gives to the other at the moment of signing the contract as sign of concluding a contract and as a warranty that the contractual obligations will be performed. In most cases the deposit is 10% of the total amount of the contractual price, consistently with the legal maximum. In case the contractual obligations are met the deposit has to be returned or comprised in price. The party who gave the deposit is not authorized to withdraw from the contract paying the deposit nor can the other party do the same by paying twice as much. Rather, both parties to the contract are obliged to fulfill their contractual obligations. In case the party who gave the deposit is responsible for not fulfilling the contractual obligations, the other party can insist on fulfilling the contractual obligations, if possible, or ask for compensation. As for the deposit, it can be comprised in the compensation and returned, or be contented with the received deposit.