The matter can be settled in the next few days, as soon as Croatia receives from Slovenia a legal interpretation of the request that the reciprocity principle should be applied to every property on every location.
Slovenia is no exception because Croatia, considering the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the fact that it is a candidate for European Union accession, and considering its own credibility and respect for good EU customs, is obliged to open its real estate market to EU citizens, a senior ministry official said, adding that Croatia has arrangements on the possibility of acquiring real estate based on the reciprocity principle with more than 20 EU countries.
Croatia's real estate market policy is identical for all EU countries, the source said.
The policy consists of a so-called mirror approach in which Croatia requests the country of origin of the person interested in buying real estate to present its own policy in this field. Every detail of this policy is then closely examined and the measures established for the purchase of real estate in Croatia mirror those applied in the other country.
Because each country has a different real estate market policy, Croatia has different arrangements with each, based on the mirror approach, said the source.
Croatia's fundamental starting point is the principle of non-discrimination, namely that Croatian citizens, regardless of their place of residence, should have the possibility to buy real estate in the country whose citizens wish to buy real estate in Croatia.
The source recalled that Croatia had passed a law enabling foreigners to buy real estate back in 1991, but that due to the inexistence of the reciprocity principle in Slovene legislation, this law could not be applied until June 2006, when Slovenia passed a new law with conditions under which foreigners could buy real estate.
The source said this was the reason why all 824 requests by Slovene citizens to buy real estate in Croatia had been turned down since 1991.
Slovenia has notified Croatia that its courts have granted requests to purchase real estate in Slovenia by two Croatian citizens residing there, that another case is being processed, and that 17 requests have been submitted so far, the source at the ministry said.