Responding to a question by Party of Rights (HSP) parliamentary deputy Miroslav Rozic last week, the government said it had granted 22 of those applications and rejected 10, while the rest were being examined.
Over the last eight years, Croatia has received nearly 7,500 requests for the purchase of real estate, of which 3,105 have been approved and 514 turned down.
Rozic expressed his fears in the Parliament over what he called "a total sellout" of real estate to foreigners, and requested official information on how many foreign requests had been granted and according to which criteria.
The number of foreign requests for the purchase of property in Croatia has doubled since the year 2000. There were 605 such requests in 1999, the year after that their number rose to 1,192, and about 1,300 such requests have been received every year since then.
The relevant law requires a prior opinion of the Justice Ministry on the applications received. The positive opinion of the Justice Ministry is one of the conditions on the basis of which the Foreign Ministry grants its approval. The other condition is reciprocity.
If either of the conditions is not satisfied, the foreign request is refused, the government said.