Super-rich real estate buyers from around the world are coming to Croatia, this Split agency will be the exclusive partner

Forbes Global Properties, a global association of Forbes magazine that brings together leading agencies in the luxury residential real estate market in 23 countries around the world, is expanding its business into Croatia, and has chosen the Split-based Broker Real Estate Croatia as its partner and exclusive representative of Forbes, Lider learns. This is a continuation of Forbes’ penetration into the Mediterranean market and Central and Southeastern Europe, where they entered last year through partnerships with agencies in Turkey, Portugal, and Cyprus.

On the first day of March, there will be an official presentation of this partnership in Split, which is expected to not only increase Broker’s turnover but also bring Croatian luxury real estate closer to the global market, to millionaire buyers eager for new investment destinations or enjoying their annual vacation. This was confirmed to us by Ivica Vulić, director of Broker Real Estate Croatia, which has been in the market since 1993.

– We are one of the agencies that Forbes negotiated with in Croatia, and it turned out that we are the best choice for their expansion in Europe. We are one of the agencies with the largest offer on the coast, and one of the leaders in the Dalmatia region, our offer extends from Zadar to Dubrovnik and across all the islands, where most of our offer is actually located, and that is what foreigners are looking for. Also, most of our buyers are foreigners; we are one of the first agencies that sold real estate to foreign nationals, we have been on the global market for years – says Ivica Vulić.

The agency, in addition to luxury villas for sale and rent, also offers more than 100 investment projects, and they expect an increase in customer inquiries from the partnership with Forbes. Forbes Global Properties provides branding and marketing services to leading global real estate companies, currently in 23 countries at over 500 locations (in the USA, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, the Middle East, New Zealand, and Europe), and they have properties that cost from 2 million euros and up. As a member of this exclusive network, Broker gains access to Forbes’ audience of over 150 million wealthy potential buyers, agents, and real estate sellers worldwide.

In smaller countries like Croatia, the policy is to have one exclusive representative, with Broker managing to negotiate that properties worth from one million euros and up are advertised with us. On Forbes’ pages, there will be a selection of ads chosen by the Broker team, which consists of 25 people.

– We managed to convince them that we have many properties that are cheaper than 2 million euros, which is otherwise their limit, but these are great properties and buying opportunities, and it would be a shame not to include them in the offer for potential buyers from Forbes’ list. Numerous new opportunities are opening up for us and the opening of new markets from which buyers are coming to us. Currently, we have the most buyers from Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, and there are some French buyers. These are buyers who either invest or buy for themselves, vacation properties – says Vulić.

For example, Spanish partners have seen a 50 percent increase in turnover since the start of their cooperation with Forbes, but it remains to be seen what will happen with the Croatian market, which has been declining for the past year.

– There are many elements that affect market movement, from interest rates on loans to inflation. As we see and hear from colleagues, there has been a noticeable decline in the number of customer inquiries on the coast in the last year by 20-30 percent, and everyone is working hard to improve that. There are several possible reasons; some sellers have inflated prices, and some buyers may be waiting for prices to drop. Some will therefore have to lower prices if they want to sell, but the prices of some quality properties will certainly not fall in the near future – concludes Ivica Vulić.