According to one of the leading Croatian newspapers today, foreigners are selling their properties in Dalmatia in droves. Everything is for sale, as witnessed by so many signs all over the place. “Croatia is no longer attractive to foreigners,” one of the leading real estate agents in Dalmatia explains. “We chased them away.” He adds that the Mediterranean coast has much to offer, and those with money are looking for better prospects elsewhere. As far as chasing away is concerned, I very much agree. Istria is the same as Dalmatia in this respect. Almost everyone I know who has bought a house in Motovun and its surroundings during the real estate boom has been selling it for years. The laws of the land are horrendous and the local authorities are atrocious. Well, the local population is not all that welcoming, either. Even I have been thinking about selling my house and leaving Croatia for good. But the article I have browsed through is quiet about the buyers of properties sold by foreigners. Are they Croatian? Or are they foreigners once again? Well, are there any buyers at all? As for Motovun and its surroundings, the real estate market is as good as dead. I am not aware of a single sale in at least five years. The foreigners have been chased away all right, but their houses are idling away for years on end. Who in the world would buy them, anyway?

Addendum (April 8, 2016)

Little has changed since this piece was written. The last couple of years, only a few houses in Motovun have changed hands, but an ever-larger number of them have become available for sale. Now that the new tourist season is starting, there are telltale signs everywhere around the hilltown. And they are getting ever larger. For sale! For sale! Most of these houses are in the hands of foreigners, as well as Croatians living abroad, but some of them are in the hands of locals. Now, most of the sales I am aware of have taken place under some duress. The houses had to be sold in a hurry, which is why the prices had to come down from the exorbitant heights typical of the boom that ended with the financial crash in 2008. And this is how the market is likely to be shaped in the future. Most of the sales will take place under duress. As for the buyers, they are spoilt for choice nowadays. Besides, they do not appear to be in any sort of rush. All told, the market will come back to, as it were, normal in five or maybe even ten years. To the best of my understanding, this applies to Istria as a whole, as well as to Dalmatia. The crazy prices that people remember from eight years ago are making the market quite sluggish, and the next boom is nowhere in sight. Soon enough, for-sale signs will become a staple of the Croatian coast.