Minister Habijan: "At the moment, 36 of the 38 OECD member countries have the possibility of acquiring ownership rights on the principle of reciprocity"

Today, at the 5th session of the Croatian Parliament, the Final Proposal of the Act on Amendments to the Act on Ownership and Other Real Rights, presented by Minister of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation Damir Habijan, was debated in the second reading.

"As you know, this is another in a series of laws that we are amending and have an obligation to amend given our desire and will to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) next year, which is our last most important foreign policy goal", Minister Habijan pointed out at the beginning of his presentation, recalling that in 2017 Croatia sent an official letter of intent to start negotiations with the OECD.

The process itself started in 2022, and what is similar to the process of joining the European Union and what is necessary is the alignment of legislation, policies and strategies with the normative framework represented and evaluated by all OECD member states.

Accordingly, one of the laws that Croatia is obliged to amend, regarding the acquisition of real estate, is the Act on Ownership and Other Real Rights.

Minister Habijan said that there were no changes in relation to the first reading, except for the nomotechnical ones as proposed by the Legislation Committee.

The manner of acquiring real estate envisaged for citizens and foreign legal entities coming from the Member States of the European Union will now also apply to citizens of OECD member states, which is the purpose and goal of the Act in question.

"In terms of concrete figures, this applies to 38 OECD member countries, and what is crucial and what I think is an important figure for the public is that at the moment, for 36 of the 38 countries that are members of the OECD, there is a possibility of acquiring ownership rights on the principle of reciprocity, and reciprocity has only not been established for two OECD members - Mexico and Costa Rica", Minister Habijan explained.

What is relevant in the context of certain reservations and security provided for in paragraph 2 is that it provides for certain measures which, for legitimate reasons such as public morality, public security, health, public order or measures necessary tfor the protection of essential security interests, as well as measures necessary to fulfil obligations related to the maintenance of international peace and security, may limit or set aside this provision for a certain period of time.

"The same is prescribed by the Code itself, specifically Article 3, which lists similar reasons for which restrictive measures may be taken", Minister Habijan said, adding that Canada had already adopted a federal law that limited the purchase of real estate for a certain period of time, and another OECD member, Australia, was also in the process of putting such a measure into effect.

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