European elite delighted with Istria

Businessmen and noblemen from throughout Europe have discovered an untouched tourism haven in Istria and there are building or restoring luxurious villas for themselves and their guests

article by: Stanko Boric

Western Europeans, particularly Brits, Germans, Austrians, Italians and Scandinavians have discovered Istria, and are buying homes there for two to three times less than the cost in Tuscany or Provence – regions Istria has been compared to. Andreas von Bismarck, one of the heirs of Otto von Bismarck, first Chancellor of the united Germany bought and restored a house in Vizinada. Though we found Bismarck at the house, he declined to speak with us. The house of the “king of pudding and baking powder” Richard Oetker is in the village Prascari near Visnjan. Oetker spent more than two years restoring the house and, like other wealthy people, he has had the entire estate covered with alarms and security cameras to protect his privacy.

Scottish landowner, Lord Alexandar McEwan, has a true castle in Oprtalj, which he made from a classical Istrian house. When Lord McEwan is residing there, both the Scottish and Croatian flags are hung out, and while he is away the house is rented out from 1220 to 2870 euro per week, depending on the time of year. Twenty kilometres from the von Bismarck home is the home where Formula 1 star Ralf Schumacher vacations. The extra luxurious home is in the village of Kaligarici and can only be reached via a gravel road. It is not known whether this house is owned by Schumacher or a friend of his, however the race car driver frequently spends time here. In the very centre of Istria, in the village Pajci near Tinjan, Baron Friedrich Mayer-Meinhof from Salzburg has a large estate.

The most spectacular view though is reserved for Irish producer and president of the Motovun Film Festival Mike Downey. From the terrace of his home in Grimaldi, the view stretches out over Butoniga Lake and the surrounding areas. Like McEwan's, Downey's house is also available for rent, from 1000 to 2150 euro per week.

In addition to the wealthy who visit Istria during the summer, members of the middle class have decided to make Istria their home. Among them is a couple from Holland, Sande Jan Worst and Minke van Ingen, who moved to the village Valenti in central Istria six years ago. Their home can only be reached via a very steep and almost inaccessible gravel road. “When we showed relatives and friends photographs of the ruins of the house and estate we sold our home in Holland for, they said we were crazy. Now, they all visit us and want to stay as long as possible,” says Minke with a smile. Her husband Jan has found work in Croatia with a German investor. Minke says that they have excellent relations wit the locals, who were quick to lend a helping hand when they first arrived. They visit Holland twice a year, but feel no nostalgia for the life they left behind. “We do miss the cultural life a little, for there is no theatre, cinema or other entertainment here, but what is hardest for us is that there are no English newspapers available here.” However, they say that the peace that they've found is priceless.

Among those who've decided to buy property in Motovun are Sofie Aller Anderson and her boyfriend Carsten Fromberg, both from Denmark. Fromberg is a film and theatre director and was a professor at the Danish School of Film until 2003. “Carsten visited the Motovun Film Festival and lead workshops for many years. We both loved the town and, together with our friend Robin Engelhart, found this stone house and decided to buy it,” said Sofie, who we found in the midst of renovating the old house in the centre of Motovun. “There's a lot of work to do, but we wanted to renovate the house to our liking,” says Sofie, who added that she's delighted with Istria.

The average Istrian stone house in need of renovation has a living space of 111 m2 and an average price of 49,000 euro, meaning that a square meter of Istrian stone houses is worth an average of 442 euro/m2. Meanwhile, the price of already renovated stone houses is about 165 times more expensive. The renovated houses have an average living space of 158 m2 and an average price of 185,000 euro or exactly 1168 euro/m2. Andrija Colak, co-founder and general manager of the specialized property sales guide InfoNekretnina is very well acquainted with the property market there, and he says that the price of renovating a house depends on many factors and can range from 400 to 700 euro per square meter.

“About 60,000 euro needs to be invested into the average house with 111 m2, meaning that the purchase and renovation of the house requires about 110,000 euro. It is important to note that the adaptation of such a house requires the help of an architect and verification of the plans by the Croatian State Conservation Institute to ensure that the adaptation is in line with traditional construction. With respect to the adaptation of stone houses, more than 60% of the requests come from foreign citizens, mostly from the UK,” says Colak.

Interest in investing in old rural Istrian houses has been climbing for the past fifteen years and has jumped in the last five years, thanks mostly to good marketing by the local tourist board. Statistics say that the ratio of domestic to foreign buyers of land in the interior of Istria is 70:30 in favour of Croatian buyers, however the real reason for this is that a large number of foreigners buy property through Croatian citizens.

“Istria is seen as the new Tuscany, only with much lower prices and a large supply of available property. Istria is new in the world and people are just starting to discover it, which is much more interesting to foreigners than Spain or the less attractive Turkey. This has created great demand for property which, for the local population, was more or less worthless until recently. Then foreigners suddenly started offering prices that were unthinkable for that kind of property. Therefore, the reasons for this interest are primarily the geographical position of Istria, which lies in the very heart of Europe, the authentic property foreigners want to buy because they are unique in the world and the low cost of property,” says Colak.

Architect Dean Peteh claims that in the beginning, the Germans, Austrians and Italians showed the most interest in stone houses, while now the majority of investors are coming from Great Britain. “There are two kinds of buyers, those who know Istria and want it to become their second home and those who want to invest in Istria. There are more and more of the second type in Istria; the majority are English who spend about 15 days a year in Istria and rent out the property at 150 to 800 euro a day for the rest of the year. In this way, they get a quick return on their investment and gain ownership over property that is only going to grow in value,” says Peteh.

The average buyer of Istrian stone houses is a member of the middle upper class, an intellectual, lover of nature and gastronomy. Considering that Istria is still not as popular as Tuscany or Provence, there is still a large number of abandoned and free properties that are reasonable investments. “The biggest problem is that the majority of these properties do not have clean ownership papers, this is very difficult to find. For that reason, and due to the high criteria of the buyers, it is now more common for new stone houses to be built in the native Istrian style. Here there is a danger of the 'Tuscanization' of Istria, as investors want to achieve architecture that will be impressive to their friends and neighbours. Architects are the ones to model their desires into a form that will be in line with the history and architecture of Istria,” says Peteh.

Today, the majority are building stone villas, though there are more and more successful attempts to combine modern architecture with the architecture of this region. “It is not easy to build a rural urban in Istria, as the Istrian house is a poor house. Modern Istrian stone villas today have spacious rooms, pools, satellite antennas and air conditions, and it is very difficult to combine the image of an idyllic poor Istrian house with the need for a comfortable country life in a villa. Therefore, this form is yet to be evolved. We wouldn't want copies of villas from Spain, France or Italy to be built here, a new form a residential living in Istria needs to be formed,” says Peteh.