"Along the Mediterranean "sun belt," stretching from the Greek islands to southern Iberia, second homes make up 10 to 15 percent of total national housing stocks. The strongest markets are, unsurprisingly, France and Spain, the world's first and second largest tourist destinations. But demand is so strong (and the investment prospects so promising) that the hottest hot spots today are countries like Croatia and Bulgaria," the Newsweel reported
"The growth has been so spectacular that it's difficult to chart," Sébastien Duquesne of UCB International Buyers in Paris was quoted by the weekly as saying.
"Embroiled in a war for independence between 1991 and 1995, Croatia and its stunning Adriatic coast have only recently become safe havens for investors like Schmidt," the weekly said giving a story about Briton Schmidt who bought a vacation retreat on the Croatian island of Brac.
A year and a half ago, Erich Schmidt had a bright idea. "Why pay other people to rent a house for holidays," he thought, "when I could just buy a place myself?" So it was that the London recruitment consultant ended up with a vacation retreat in Croatia. Schmidt found a seven-bedroom stone house on the island of Brac for €230,000, a bargain by British standards. Today he would not consider selling it for less than half a million. And he's snapped up seven more properties in Dalmatia that he rents out to holidaymakers, the weekly reported..
"The second-home market is growing with such astonishing speed that it's hard to keep up. Prior to 1990, only a small number of Germans owned second homes in Sweden, for example. By 1991 the number had reached 1,500; it now stands well over 10,000. In France, 14,000 homes were sold to foreigners in 1994; the number was 75,000 in 2005. In Spain: 35,000 in 1997; 135,000 in 2005. Today the Czechs are big buyers in Slovenia, one of the most naturally beautiful of European countries," the weekly reported, among other things in the article headlined "Room with a View"