In Slavonia, not a single agricultural plot has been sold this year. The situation is no better in Dalmatia, where even the sale of agricultural land for conversion to construction has come to a halt.
The decline in real estate prices has also affected agricultural land, leading to expectations that this would be an opportunity for those with deeper pockets to start purchasing land. However, the opposite has actually occurred – the drop in prices has been accompanied by a decline in land sales, and the causes of such an anomaly must be sought primarily in poor state agricultural policy, and only then in the indirect influences of the recession and Croatia’s approach to EU membership. For investors, a favorable recession was supposed to stimulate investments that would pay off when prices rose upon entering the EU. However, the recession and EU membership have a more indirect effect on prices through the unprofitability of agricultural production. As stated by Ružica Dufek, the owner of the Vukovarka real estate agency, the state has cut incentives and the return on capital investments (which amounted to 40 percent) due to the recession and EU dictates, leading to a decrease in interest in production and consequently a decrease in interest in land.
