Owning your own home is the dream of many young families, but not all of them decide on an apartment. Many young parents' greatest wish is to have their own house with a garden, especially those who spent their childhood in the house and who are used to the privacy and comfort it brings.
Given that it is very difficult to buy a house that would fully match your wishes, many will still decide to buy land and build a property. Such a large and important investment brings with it many questions that buyers often do not have answers to, but that is why we are here, with a list of things to pay attention to when buying land.
1. Get information at the Spatial Planning Office
In order to be able to start building your dream house on a piece of land, the land you buy must be for construction or in a construction zone. You will get this information first-hand at the Spatial Planning Office, where they will tell you if you can build on that land, what can be built on it and under what conditions. You will also receive answers to the questions of the prescribed minimum land size and how far your building must be from your neighbor's. This information can also be found online on the official websites of individual cities and municipalities (urban planning, spatial plans).
Pay attention to the area and the number of floors on the land you choose, so that in the future, an investor does not build a large residential building next to your house.
2. Pay attention to clean papers
If you choose the land of your dreams in your ideal location, you may receive information like a cold shower after the purchase that the documentation of the land is not valid or that the property and legal relations on the land have not been settled. In the title deed, you can get information about whether there is a lease, mortgage, dispute or other encumbrance that may prevent you from buying land and obtaining clean papers. Be sure to check this before you buy, and you can hire a lawyer or estate agent to check it for you.
3. Pay attention to the location
Location has the greatest influence on the price of land. The price of land in the city center is always quite higher than land on the outskirts of the city or in smaller suburban areas. Websites where you can get cadastral and land (ownership) information are: https://geoportal.dgu.hr/, https://oss.uredjenazemlja.hr/, https://www.katastar.hr/, https://geoportal.zagreb.hr/Karta?tk=2 (for the City of Zagreb), etc.
4. Infrastructure is an important element when buying land
An important element when buying land is infrastructure, because the lack of infrastructure makes building a house quite expensive. Electricity, sewerage, water, gas, Internet – all these are important factors when buying land. If there is no infrastructure, the land should be quite cheaper because bringing infrastructure has a high price.
5. Land is worthless if you can't access it
Before you buy the land you are interested in, you must check whether it has access from a public road and whether it has an easement of passage, without which you will not be able to access your land. You can check this in the land register.
6. The communal contribution is an important item
If the land that is the subject of purchase has previously been built with infrastructure and no building has ever been built on it, the owner of the land must pay a communal contribution for the entire land, according to the coefficients of the municipality where the land is located. This can be a very large amount, so it is important to be well informed and see if there is a way to reduce this contribution. Therefore, every piece of information is important, especially if there is a possibility that the amount of the communal contribution may be paid in installments or even not paid due to the fulfillment of certain conditions.
In order to be sure that the land you are buying is of good quality and that the price is realistic, hire a real estate agency and insure yourself against possible fraud and the loss of your free time.
