Daily Telegraph article .... By Nicole Martin
(Filed: 12/08/2003)

Ten years after war almost wiped out its tourist industry, Croatia is rivalling the French Riviera and Tuscany as a smart holiday destination for travellers seeking sea and sun without crowds, high-rise hotels and fast-food chains.

The return of tourists to the former Yugoslavian state has also led to increasing demand by foreigners who want holiday homes.

The island of Trogir, near Split: 'It's like Tuscany was 50 years ago'

In the most expensive parts of the French Riviera it is difficult to buy a fully restored family property with a pool for less than £500,000, and a similar home in Tuscany for less than £400,000, according to the estate agent Knight Frank.

But in Croatia, a 400-year-old, five-bedroom stone house with a 3,280ft garden near Dubrovnik costs about £250,000, and an unrenovated three-bedroom house on the island of Hvar costs £52,000.

For £1.4 million, it is possible to buy the 121,000 sq ft island of Krknjas Mali, a 10-minute boat ride from Split.

Although few British estate agents deal with Croatia, its tourist board says about 300 properties were sold to Britons last year.

Maria Bennett, the founder of Homesincroatia.com, a website specialising in property in Croatia, said that in the second half of last year some 600 British families contacted her about buying a second home on the Dalmatian coast.

The country's popularity could be explained by its architecture, good weather, unspoilt coastline, low crime rate and rich cultural history, she said.

"It's what Tuscany was 50 years ago. People buying property in Croatia are looking for the authentic feel of the Mediterranean."

But buying a second home in Croatia was not easy, she said. Every property has to be approved by the foreign ministry and the notorious bureaucracy means that it can sometimes take two years to secure a property.

"You have to be very patient," said Miss Bennett, who took almost two years to find the 11th-century former monastery in Dubrovnik she bought for £25,000 10 years ago. "Very few properties are advertised and the market on the whole is unregulated. There is also no consistency in values."

"Agents don't value properties but tend to market them at a price named by the owner. This means that the price of very similar properties in the same town or village can differ by thousands of pounds."

But the complications did not put off Lesley Smith, 48, who in March paid £246,000 for a run-down, 14-bedroom property in Cavtat which she and her boyfriend hope to convert into a hotel.

"It's just so beautiful," she said. "I chose Croatia because I didn't want to buy something on an estate surrounded by a golf course and with lots of English people living nearby.

"We also wanted to buy something by the sea. Such a property in Italy, Spain or France would have cost a lot more."

But it may not be long before the English catch up with her. Lindsay McGregor and her husband, Keith, bought a home on the island of Vis almost three years ago. Since then at least five other British families have moved there.

The McGregors started looking for a second home after falling in love with the island while on holiday. They eventually found a four-bedroom dilapidated property for less than £100,000 which required extensive renovation.

"We have no regrets. It's wonderful, it's so unspoilt," said Mrs McGregor, 56, a former interiors consultant from Barnes, south-west London.

"We're very lucky that we bought when we did because prices are going up every year. To anyone looking, my advice would be to buy now."

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