The New Radisson Resort in Croatia has launched
Resort from Residences Dubrovnik Sun Gardens on Vimeo.
See here a movie of the resort
A sea view wine estate in Dalmatia
Middelland got the opportunity to sell an original 'Babic' wine field in Primosten with a building permit for a residential or commercial wine house.
The landplot is situated right behind Primosten and offers amazing views over the sea and the islands in front. Due to its location next to the hamlet of Vadalj (a few houses, a school, a bar, a restaurant) the landplot got partly zoned for building land. Vadalj is only 5 minutes from the coast and overlooks Primosten.
The former owner has opted for a building permit to build a large building for wine production and for holiday accomodation. The buyer of the land does not need to build this building, but can amend the drawings / build only part of the projected plan, or completely make a new plan.
Babic is considered to be one of the best grapes of Croatia, and the Babic wine produced here is sold at retail prices around 20 EUR a bottle. The most famous Babic field is on the edge of Marina Kremik, just a stone throw away from Vadalj. Have a look here. Or read this article here.
Total land plot: 10.733
asking: 20 EUR/m²
payment: 75% at notary transfer / 25% at abtaining full building permit.
total price now: 161.000 EUR
mail us for more information, to receive the full info package: info@middellandcroatia.com
Croatia´s real-estate market continues to decline
While western real-estate markets are showing signs of recovery from one of the worst crises in history, real-estate prices in Croatia are expected to continue to fall this year, possibly up to five per cent.
According to research by London-based Knight Frank Residential Research, property prices have experienced significant growth in the first quarter worldwide. In many countries, they have returned to pre-crisis levels, research shows.
In Great Britain, for example, real-estate prices in the first quarter jumped by 8.9 per cent while in the USA they grew by 2.3 per cent. Growth over 10 per cent was registered in the Scandinavian countries, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Singapore and Hong Kong. China saw incredible 68 per cent growth.
Even countries such as France and Germany that have experienced smaller increases contribute to what can be seen as clear signs that those markets – and the economies of those countries – are recovering from recession.
The only EU countries where real-estate prices have dropped are Ireland and Spain, a development explained by greater supply than demand.
Although Croatia was not covered by the research, data show that apartment prices continue to fall as in other transitional countries like Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria.
Economist Damir Novotny has said: "There was not such a dramatic drop in prices in Croatia as in the rest of the world, but our markets slower to recover." He has predicted that prices will continue to fall, or, in the best-case scenario, stagnate until Croatia enters the European Union.
The deserted bays of Kornati islands
Financial Times
By Claire Wrathall
The 16th-century chapel of Our Lady of Tarca stands on the jagged rocky shore of the scarcely inhabited island of Kornat, 18 nautical miles off Croatia’s north Dalmatian coast. Yet, despite its remoteness, most sailors in the desolately beautiful Kornati archipelago make a point of visiting at the start of the season. Signing the book by the door, and genuflecting before the altar and the ancient wooden statue of St Anthony, is held to protect the visitor from storms and other dangers. After our crew duly inscribed their names, we climbed a nearby hill the better to admire a 33m twin-masted schooner – our home for the next few days – anchored in the bay below. We then set sail for the neighbouring island of Levrnaka, where we would moor that night.
When George Bernard Shaw visited this part of the Adriatic in 1929, the landscape moved him to hyperbole. “On the last day of the Creation, God desired to crown his work and thus created the Kornati islands out of tears, stars and breath,” he wrote, to the subsequent delight of the area’s tourist industry.
Southern Dalmatia, with its tourist honeypot Dubrovnik and modish islands such as Hvar and Korcula, is well established. But the north is less frequented, its landscape harsher and more dramatic, the little Venetian harbours fewer and farther between. By the time you reach Kornati, you’ve all but left civilisation behind. Not much grows on these 140-odd pale karst isles and islets: only fragrant maquis, which fills the air with the scent of wild sage and oregano, and the odd holm oak or olive tree. And none has a permanent population or a village. Well out of reach of a phone signal, these clear ultramarine waters offer respite from the outside world. No surprise, then, that you can only really explore them by boat.
We started our voyage in Zadar, site of Croatia’s largest university. Had it not been for 72 bombing raids during the second world war and further bombardment by Serbian artillery in the early 1990s, it might rival Dubrovnik. Yet what remains of its Italianate old town, a labyrinth of narrow streets and airy piazzas surrounded on three sides by water, is still worth seeing. The handsome stock of buildings are constructed from white limestone that over time has been burnished to a reflective surface, which gleams gold at sunset. Its imposing ninth-century Byzantine rotunda church of St Donatus recalls the basilica on Torcello, an island in the Venice lagoon, and the cathedral bears a striking resemblance to the one in Pisa, while the excellent Donat ice-cream parlour by the cathedral is proof that Croatian sladoled rivals Italian gelato.
There are a handful of museums devoted to ancient glass, archaeological finds, ethnography, gold, and silver, along with Fosa (www.fosa.hr), a good waterside fish restaurant. But Zadar’s most extraordinary attraction is the Sea Organ, a gigantic 35-pipe instrument installed beneath the city’s handsome new marble esplanade, the Donja Riva. Depending on the weather and water conditions, the organ issues random rather eerie harmonic sounds that emerge from holes in the pavement and the steps that go down to the water.
| The 14-berth schooner Fortuna |
Otherwise, though, it was not luxurious. Skippered by its owners Tonci and Mirna Toric, aided by a first mate and a cook, it’s a base for the sort of holiday on which you make your own bed (a bedding roll containing a cotton quilt of the kind you get in business class on airlines, a narrow sheet and a pillow are provided), empty your own bin and bring your own toiletries.
Except at meals, which they serve, the crew are there for the boat, rather than the guests. (There was no faulting the way the sails were furled and unfurled, and I marvelled at the neatness of the rope coils on deck.) In some ways, it felt like staying with friends you barely knew, which made for occasional awkwardness, but this was ultimately outweighed by their vast knowledge of the area, its waters and its restaurants.
This is also the selling point of the charter company Sail Dalmatia, which had organised my trip. Founded by Dora Vulic, a London-based Croat who grew up among the sailing community in Split, it represents 45 vessels, from 10m sailing boats that sleep four (from €810 a week in late September, if you don’t need a skipper) to five-cabin 100ft Azimut motor yachts (€59,675, excluding food and fuel in high season), by way of eight schooners and ketches.
It’s this kind of insider knowledge you need in Croatia, a country still mystifyingly short of alluring hotels, and where dining out can be a lottery. In half a dozen visits I have never eaten as well as I did on this trip, thanks to our hosts’ recommendations and to chef Tomislav’s skill in the galley.
Konoba Levrnaka, where we dined after paying our respects to Our Lady of Tarca, was a simple seaside taverna in Anica bay, close to the only sandy beach in Kornati. We ate what we were offered: first, a tureen of juha, an intensely flavoured clear fish soup full of firm-fleshed skrpina, the bellicose-looking scorpion fish native to these waters, and utterly delicious. Then a kovac, a supersize John Dory baked to perfection in the traditional clay oven they call a peka, with shallots and flavourful potatoes. With a side order of blitva, a spinach-like leaf that’s another staple here, it was a great meal, made more memorable by the fact that, as we were eating, the taverna’s owner speared an octopus with a trident from the quay. We ate it for lunch next day, grilled with lemon and garlic, on the aft deck of our beautiful boat, anchored in yet another calm turquoise bay.