Restoring ruins

[Siobhan]

How easy is it to restore a ruin?
Due to budget restraints, (I note property has increased significantly in value in the past year) I am interested in purchasing a property to restore/rebuild in Croatia and hope to visit in September. If one can easily restore a property, I assume this would be a good investment depending on restoration costs? I have seen may websites offering ruins to restore/rebuild with full planning permission? In reality, how easy is this to do? Are there reliable tradesmen available or companies that can provide a full project management service? Does anyone have an idea of the cost involved?
Is the property size restricted according to the size of the plot? Is the style of property also controlled?
Would love to hear from others who have undertaken such projects. Thank you.

[Peter Ellis]

It is not a task to be taken lightly and may often be cheaper to demolish and rebuild, depending on how far gone it is.
If you are just looking for investment, it can often be better, particularly with cheaper properties, to just buy and sit on it.

To give an example, we had a house on offer in Motovun at Eur28,000. The walls were fairly sound but the floors and roof had both collapsed. We estimated that it would cost Eur 60,000 to reinstate. At the end of a year, after all the usual trials and tribulations associated with building work, it would stand the buyer in, including fees, at a little over Eur 90,000, but be worth Eur 120,000, giving a yield of around Eur 30,000. Alternatively, one could buy it, do nothing and resell it in the same condition a year later for Eur 60,000, giving the same yield, without the effort.
Note that this is hypothetical, as CGT would cut in if the buyer sold either way before 3 years were up.

More substantial ruins or shells can give better returns as it is often the case that managing a small project is just as time consuming as managing a bigger one. There seem to be plenty of tradesmen about, particularly as the German economy is currently in the Doldrums and many Croatian workers who were formerly working in the German building industry have returned to Croatia.

Ruins in urban areas are often subject to restrictions by the building preservation people. For our apartment in Zagreb's Gornji Grad, they insisted on us using traditional inner and outer windows, rather than the sealed double glazing units that we originally wanted.

[Siobhan]

Thanks Peter.
Your information has been really informative and has certainly given us lots to think about!
If one totally demolishes a property, how easy is it to get planning permission to rebuild?
When rebuilding or restoring, does one have to conform to any particular style?
Are there any restrictions on size of build versus plot size?
Regards
Siobhan