In recent years there is an evident trend of buying properties in B&H by foreign citizens. Buyers are mostly citizens of the Gulf countries, and they are interested in B&H because of its natural beauty, low prices of real estate, low cost of living, favorable climate and arable land. For this purpose, Business Portal Akta.ba decided to investigate the topic of who may buy property in B&H, and what are the requirements.
“Foreign citizens can buy property in B&H if they have met specific conditions,” said a sales manager at the Agency for Real Estate Prostor Ltd. Sarajevo, Emir Kulovac.
Document of the Federal Ministry of Justice contains a list of countries with which we have or don’t have reciprocity in acquiring property ownership.
Examples of Kuwait and Turkey
It is interesting that the citizens of Kuwait cannot buy property in B&H, nor our citizens can buy properties in Kuwait, because there is no reciprocity between the countries.
As stated in the document, according to the applicable regulations of the State of Kuwait, physical and legal entities from B&H do not have the right to acquire ownership of real estate in the State of Kuwait.
“The provisions of positive legal requirements which regulate this area in B&H provides that a foreigner or foreign legal person, may acquire ownership of real estate in B&H, if there exists the reciprocity with the State concerned, and therefore the physical and legal entities from Kuwait cannot make the acquisition of property rights of real estate on the territory of B&H, ” as stated in the document.
When it comes to reciprocity with the special conditions, citizens of B&H, physical and legal entities, may acquire ownership of real estate in the Republic of Turkey, except in the following cases: in the vicinity of military facilities for special purposes at a distance of 3 to 5 kilometers (applies to all foreigners), by the Act on villages, foreigners cannot acquire property in the villages, in areas where land-farms do not belong to the villages, or in cases where land is larger than 30 hectares, when the approval of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Turkey is needed.
Citizens of the Republic of Turkey can buy real estates in B&H under the identical conditions.
Besides Turkey, we have reciprocity under special conditions, with following countries: Algeria, Iran, Switzerland, Sweden, Slovakia, USA, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Romania, Malaysia, Iran, Austria etc.
Besides Kuwait, we do not have reciprocity with the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Slovenia, Qatar, India, Egypt, Bahrain, etc.
(Source: akta.ba)
