Land, parcel, lot

Buying land on the island of Vis is not easy and simple. It is not enough to have money, and there is never enough of it anyway, but you also need to do a lot of research, read, inquire and make logical conclusions. I am a “control freak” by nature, so although I make a decision quickly before I realize it I try not to make mistakes in the steps so that I would not regret it later. Well, I re-examine myself a hundred times if I checked everything and was careful enough.

Let’s be clear, in the whole of Croatia, there are various scams and rumors about the sale of plots and houses, even on the island of Vis. We are simply like that and there is no “help”. You know the one “let’s be honest then if it can’t be otherwise”. It says a lot about our mentality, even though it’s a joke. You have to have “four” eyes open and not trust anyone. Every purchase is a bit risky, and when you do, there is no 100% certainty that there will be no additional tails or difficulties.

That’s how my last year’s search for a piece of Vis’s earthly paradise started. In August 2020, during my stay on the island of Vis during my vacation, I decided to go in two directions in search of land.

The first direction was “Njuškalo“, the most popular advertisement in Croatia, which easily searches the offer of all types of plots and houses.

The other direction was field research, inspecting land that was not advertised for sale in Njuškalo but already has a board with an advertisement on the spot, ie at a specific location. This form of research also included sightseeing of locations that do not even have a board, but are neglected and seem to have been uninhabited for years. In that case, I was thinking of finding the owner and asking him if he would be interested in selling.

I have the alarm option turned on on Njuškalo, so as soon as a new ad appears, I receive a notification on my e-mail to look at their pages about what it is about. Globally, my impression is that the same ads with too high and nebulous prices have been “spinning” for years, as if these advertisers didn’t care to sell their property at all. Of course, I am aware of the state of the island’s mind and that the seller is waiting for a person to come across, usually a stranger, who is ready to “unload a truck of money”. I never contact such ads because it is a waste of time.

But supply and demand dictate the price, and it was clear to me that the supply of construction land on Vis is not large. Here, at the moment I am writing this, only 40 building plots can be found on Njuškalo, while there are 2633 ads in the entire Split-Dalmatia County.

Vis is not cheap, and it is almost impossible to find a plot of land under 150 euros per m2, regardless of the size of the land. This is very illogical to me because the number of buyers who can buy a plot of 2-3 or more thousand square meters is incomparably smaller than those who can buy a plot of land, for example, 300 m2. So isn’t it reasonable then to sell such large plots of land for 100 euros or less? Who knows how I would position myself to sell such a large plot of land? Your grandfather’s land! Probably the same as the current sellers. 🙂

It was an aggravating circumstance for me that the land, which was in my circle of favorites, was unaffordable. The price for such plots ranged from 200 euros and up. These were locations with beautiful and unspoiled sea views which was my condition in search. In fact, I might be able to “financially stretch” to these amounts, but then I would have to “save” on the construction of the facility to maintain the entire project within the planned budget.

In the first row by the sea, I gave up, because to give 400 or 500 euros per m2 I did not consider justified just because I can “pee” into the sea from my “land”. I would rather spend that money on a pool with solar water reheating, so I can swim in it as early as Easter. Admittedly, I can’t pee in it, but better than nothing … hehe

In the next article, I will talk about the specific plots that I checked out.