CROATIA: Croatia has moved to prevent wealthy foreigners from buying up its idyllic Adriatic islands amid fears that EU accession will send property prices soaring and drive locals out of the market.
Zagreb hopes to join the EU in 2009, but is concerned it might lose its treasured islands to tycoons, speculators and real-estate companies from western Europe once Brussels obliges it to let citizens of other member states purchase Croatian land.
"Those islands are one of Croatia's greatest treasures, and we must protect them," said prime minister Ivo Sanader after the government proposed a law that would give the state the right to purchase hundreds of the islands ahead of private buyers.
The new measures will regulate the sale of property on 746 small islands in the Adriatic, many of which are visited by increasing numbers of tourists each spring and summer.
"Through these amendments the government will not ban the owners from selling their real-estate property on the islands, but proposes that the owners will have to offer them at market prices to the state first," said Bozidar Kalmeta, the minister for tourism.
Zagreb would then have 30 days to buy the island, or part of it, before it is automatically offered to the local authorities. Only if they also fail to show interest can the owner place it on the open market.
The government believes the 746 islands to be worth €750 million, but expects only one in 10 to be put up for sale.
Just 66 of Croatia's 1,184 islands are permanently inhabited, but most are privately owned by people who are under pressure to sell from estate agents buoyed by predictions that prices are set to soar when the country joins the EU.
In a country with widespread poverty and carrying scars from the Balkan wars of the 1990s, Croatians have heard reports claiming that stars like Sharon Stone, Clint Eastwood and Robert de Niro have bought islands for over €1 million each.
The state has already asserted ownership of Croatia's entire coastline so new arrivals must lease beaches on their property from Zagreb for private use.
