Croatian Government on a Mission to (Re)attract Real Estate Investments

Due to the continuing decline in investments and development on the Croatian real estate market, the Croatian government decided to introduce a number of remedying measures, some of which are summarised here.

Ownership disputes between the state and local community

In prin­ci­pal, real estate reg­is­tered in the land reg­is­ter as own­er­ship of the local com­mu­ni­ty is to be sold via a pub­lic ten­der. How­ev­er, this may prove not to be that sim­ple or true. Here the well-known Croa­t­ian prob­lem of the for­mer regime of state own­er­ship may strike once again. In cas­es of nation­alised (dur­ing the for­mer Yugoslav regime) real estate assigned for use to the respec­tive local com­mu­ni­ty, which was there­after based on spe­cial law(s) ex offi­cio trans­ferred into the own­er­ship of the Repub­lic of Croa­t­ia, such trans­fer was often not reg­is­tered and thus not (clear­ly) vis­i­ble from the land reg­is­ter. So, if the investor decid­ed to fur­ther pur­sue the project and pur­chased the real estate from the local com­mu­ni­ty, he actu­al­ly pur­chased it from its unlaw­ful own­er.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, sit­u­a­tions were/are not uncom­mon where the investor then sud­den­ly finds him­self unable to reg­is­ter his own­er­ship due to the reg­is­tered own­er­ship of the Repub­lic of Croa­t­ia finds his own­er­ship delet­ed and the Repub­lic of Croa­t­ia reg­is­tered as own­er. An unfin­ished project or a planned dis­pos­al over the final project is put on hold, along with a bit­ter taste of uncer­tain­ty over the out­come of the dis­pute and the faith of the investor’s project.

By intro­duc­ing the new mech­a­nism (in the Croa­t­ian media pop­u­lar­ly referred to as “the famous Art 78¹″) exclud­ing investors from dis­putes between the Repub­lic of Croa­t­ia and local com­mu­ni­ties on own­er­ship over real estate pur­chased by an investor (act­ing in good faith) from the local com­mu­ni­ty in a pub­lic ten­der, the Croa­t­ian leg­is­la­tor hopes to regain investors’ trust in trans­ac­tions with real estate attrib­ut­able to local com­mu­ni­ties. In such cas­es it will be deemed that the real estate was acquired direct­ly from the Repub­lic of Croa­t­ia, the investor will be enti­tled to seek the required land reg­is­ter reg­is­tra­tion per­mis­sion from the Repub­lic of Croa­t­ia, and the investor may car­ry on with his project.

Compensation-free acquisition of state-owned real estate

As a fur­ther encour­age­ment to invest in and devel­op real state, the Croa­t­ian leg­is­la­tor intro­duced the pos­si­bil­i­ty of com­pen­sa­tion-free acqui­si­tion of state-owned real estate for projects of inter­est for the Repub­lic of Croa­t­ia, in par­tic­u­lar­ly those ben­e­fi­cial to the eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty of Croa­t­ia and the social wel­fare of its cit­i­zens.

The inter­est of the Repub­lic of Croa­t­ia is to be deter­mined by the Croa­t­ian gov­ern­ment based on sub­mit­ted com­plete doc­u­men­ta­tion (the project with all required per­mits and con­sents, secured financ­ing, opin­ion on the align­ment of the project with zon­ing plans, etc.) and the proposal/recommendation of the gov­ern­men­tal com­mit­tee for admin­is­tra­tion of state owned real estate.

This new pos­si­bil­i­ty may prove applic­a­ble espe­cial­ly to infra­struc­ture projects, social­ly sen­si­tive hous­ing projects, and sim­i­lar projects.

Changes to construction legislation

The adop­tion of a new spa­tial plan­ning act, con­struc­tion act, and build­ing inspec­tion act, under which the Croa­t­ian gov­ern­ment plans to accel­er­ate the con­struc­tion per­mit issuance pro­ce­dure, cut cor­rup­tion, and encour­age invest­ments was announced.

The ulti­mate goal is to make life eas­i­er for investors, who con­sid­er slow­ness in obtain­ing of nec­es­sary per­mits as one of main obsta­cles to invest­ing in Croa­t­ia.

One of the announced changes is replac­ing cur­rent­ly required loca­tion and con­struc­tion per­mits with only one per­mit. A loca­tion per­mit will, how­ev­er, still be required in cer­tain cas­es (eg, exploita­tion of min­er­al resources, con­struc­tion in phas­es). This – along with the announced reduc­tion of doc­u­ments required for obtain­ing a con­struc­tion per­mit, the pos­si­bil­i­ty of dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings against offi­cers vio­lat­ing pre­scribed issuance terms, and the to-be-estab­lished zon­ing infor­ma­tion sys­tem (show­ing the sta­tus of appli­ca­tions for issuance of con­struc­tion per­mits, of build­ing zones, overview of required approvals and con­sents, etc.) – should speed-up and sim­pli­fy the pro­ce­dure for issu­ing con­struc­tion per­mits. Fur­ther­more, the Croa­t­ian gov­ern­ment believes that the announced changes (ie, reduc­tion of required doc­u­ments) will result in less cost­ly pro­ce­dures for obtain­ing con­struc­tion per­mits.

As always, the announced measures are subject to public debate, being welcomed by some and criticised by others. Whether and how these measures and remedies will ultimately boost the Croatian real estate market is to be seen.

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Art 78 of the Croa­t­ian Act on Admin­is­tra­tion and Dis­pos­al over Assets in Own­er­ship of the Repub­lic of Croa­t­ia, in effect as of 30 July 2013.

Misija Vlade Republike Hrvatske da (ponovno) privuče investicije u nekretnine

Potaknuta neprekidnim trendom pada investicija i razvoja na tržištu nekretnina Vlada Republike Hrvatske je odlučila uvesti niz mjera za poboljšanje, od kojih su neke ovdje sažeto prikazane.

Vlasnički sporovi između države i općina

Načel­no, nekret­ni­na koja je u zemljišn­im knjiga­ma upisana kao vlas­ništ­vo općine se pro­da­je putem javnog nat­ječa­ja. Među­tim, ovo mož­da i nije tako jed­nos­tavno ili točno. Ovd­je se ponovno pojavlju­je već dobro znani hrvats­ki prob­lem nekadašn­jeg društvenog vlas­ništ­va. U sluča­ju nekret­ni­na koje su bile nacional­izirane (tijekom bivšeg jugoslaven­skog reži­ma) i dodi­jel­jene na korišten­je određenoj opći­ni, a koje su potom temel­jem posebnog zakona odnos­no poseb­nih zakona po samoj sili zakona postale vlas­ništ­vo Repub­like Hrvatske, takav pri­jenos pra­va vlas­ništ­va često nije bio upisan u zemljišne knjige te tako niti (jas­no) vidljiv iz istih. Tako da uko­liko bi investi­tor odlučio da želi nas­tavi­ti s pro­jek­tom i sto­ga kupio nekret­ninu od općine, zapra­vo je takvu nekret­ninu kupio od njenog neza­koni­tog vlas­ni­ka.

Situaci­je kada se investi­tor odjed­nom nađe u pozi­ci­ji da ne može upisati svo­je pra­vo vlas­ništ­va na nekret­ni­ni jer se Repub­li­ka Hrvats­ka upisala kao vlas­nik ili da je nje­go­vo pra­vo vlas­ništ­va izbrisano usli­jed upisa pra­va vlas­ništ­va Repub­like Hrvatske nažalost nisu odnos­no nisu bile rijetkost. Nedovršeni pro­jekt ili plani­ra­no raspo­la­gan­je dovršen­im pro­jek­tom su stavl­jeni na čekan­je, popraćeni gorkim oku­som neizv­jes­nos­ti isho­da spo­ra i sud­bine pro­jek­ta.

Uvođen­jem novog meh­a­niz­ma (u hrvatskim medi­ji­ma pop­u­larno naz­vanog “čuveni članak 78”) kojim se isključu­je investi­tore iz vlas­ničk­ih sporo­va između Repub­like Hrvatske i odnosne općine u odno­su na nekret­ninu koju je investi­tor (pos­tu­pa­jući u dobroj vjeri) stekao od te općine pute javnog nat­ječa­ja, hrvats­ki zakon­o­davac se nada da će ponovno steći pov­jeren­je investi­to­ra u transak­ci­je s nekret­ni­na­ma koji­ma raspo­lažu općine. U takvim sluča­je­vi­ma će se sma­trati da je nekret­ni­na steče­na neposred­no od Repub­like Hrvatske i investi­tor će biti ovlašten od Repub­like Hrvatske traži­ti izda­van­je tab­u­larne isprave, te će moći nas­tavi­ti s razvo­jem svog pro­jek­ta.

Stjecanje nekretnine u državnom vlasništvu bez plaćanja naknade

Kao daljn­ji pot­i­caj inves­ti­ci­ja­ma i razvo­ju nekret­ni­na, hrvats­ki zakon­o­davac je uveo mogućnost nenaplatnog stje­can­ja nekret­ni­na koje se nalaze u državnom vlas­ništvu, a za pro­jek­te koji su od intere­sa za Repub­liku Hrvatsku, i to pose­bice za one pro­jek­te koji unapređu­ju gospo­dars­ki napredak Repub­like Hrvatske i soci­jal­no blagostan­je njenih građana.

Prit­om, interes Repub­like Hrvatske utvrđu­je Vla­da Repub­like Hrvatske na temelju pod­ne­sene pot­pune doku­mentaci­je (pro­jekt sa svim potreb­n­im dozvola­ma i sug­las­nos­ti­ma, osig­u­ra­no finan­ciran­je, mišl­jen­je o suk­lad­nos­ti pro­jek­ta s pros­torno-plan­skom doku­mentaci­jom, itd.) i pri­jed­lo­ga pov­jeren­st­va za raspo­la­gan­je nekret­ni­na­ma u državnom vlas­ništvu.

Ova nova mogućnost bi mogla biti zan­imlji­va pose­bice za infra­struk­turne pro­jek­te, soci­jal­no osjetljivu stanograd­nju te slične pro­jek­te.

Izmjene propisa o gradnji

Najavl­jeno je usva­jan­je novog zakona o pros­tornom plani­ran­ju, zakona o grad­nji i zakona o građevin­skoj inspekci­ji, putem kojih Vla­da Repub­like Hrvatske nam­jer­a­va ubrza­ti pos­tu­pak izda­van­ja građevinske dozv­ole odnos­no druge odgo­vara­juće dozv­ole za grad­nju te potaknu­ti inves­ti­ci­je.

Kra­jn­ji cilj je “olakšati živ­ot” investi­tori­ma, koji sporost u ishođen­ju potreb­nih dozvola sma­tra­ju jed­nom od glavnih prepre­ka za inve­sti­ran­je u Hrvatskoj.

Jed­na od najavl­jenih izm­je­na je zam­je­na dosadašn­je lokaci­jske i građevinske dozv­ole odnos­no druge odgo­vara­juće dozv­ole za grad­nju sa samo jed­nom potreb­nom dozvolom. Lokaci­js­ka će dozvola među­tim i dal­je biti potreb­na u određen­im sluča­je­vi­ma (npr. isko­riš­ta­van­je min­er­al­nih sirov­ina, grad­n­ja u faza­ma). Ovo – zajed­no s najavl­jen­im sman­jen­jem opsega doku­mentaci­je potreb­ne za ishođen­je građevinske dozv­ole, mogućnos­ti dis­ci­plin­skih pos­tu­pa­ka pro­tiv službeni­ka koji ne poš­tu­ju propisane rokove za izda­van­je, kao i uspostavl­jan­jem budućeg infor­ma­ci­jskog sus­ta­va pros­tornog ure­đen­ja (koji prikazu­je sta­tus rješa­van­ja zaht­je­va za ishođen­je građevinske dozv­ole, zone nami­jen­jene za grad­nju, pre­gled potreb­nih odobren­ja i sug­las­nos­ti, itd.) – bi tre­ba­lo ubrza­ti i pojed­nos­tavi­ti pos­tu­pak izda­van­ja građevin­skih dozvola. Također, Vla­da Repub­like Hrvatske sma­tra da će najavl­jene izm­jene (između osta­log sman­jen­je opsega potreb­ne doku­mentaci­je) u kon­ačni­ci pojef­tini­ti pos­tu­pak ishođen­ja građevin­skih dozvola.

Kao i uvijek, najavljene mjere su predmet javnih rasprava, te dok ih jedni pozdravljaju drugi ih kritiziraju. Da li će i kako će te mjere u konačnici potaknuti hrvatsko tržište nekretnina tek će se vidjeti.