More than half a million black burrows dot Croatia, especially the coasts on the Adriatic. The Balkan Wars have been over for over two decades and Croatia is working hard to end cronyism, corruption and tourist overgrowth.
The prices for the dream houses in Croatia are attractive. You can buy a piece of land here and put your house on it. And only pays 20,000 euros. If the authorities take action, illegal buildings will be consistently demolished. Anything was built without building permits cannot be left standing. For many emigrants or holiday home owners, this comes suddenly, but the cases are now increasing. For emigrants who live in an underground building while they retire, they are perhaps unknowingly in constant danger of their dream home crumbling into rubble. The problem is that the office responsible for reviewing these very cases is completely understaffed. And that’s why people come here and just do what they want,” says Silvia Buttignoni from the nature conservation organization Natura Histrica.