September the 4th, 2022 - Retired Croatian General Ivan Cermak has purchased a villa in Opatija which was owned by Russians. He made the purchase this summer, and it totalled 12.5 million euros.

As Morski writes, Ivan Cermak has bought one of the most beautiful villas on the entire Opatija Riviera, Villa Lenac, from its formerly Russian owners. In an interview with Index Investigation, he confirmed the purchase, but showed little willingness to discuss any numbers or prices. However, Index investigations (istrage) then came into possession of the sales contract, which shows the price of almost 94 million kuna for the villa located at the entrance to Volosko.

It is believed that Ivan Cermak probably paid for the now ex-Russian villa in cash

The previous Russian owners bought the villa way back in 2009 for 5.5 million euros and then renovated it, it spans about 500 square metres, but the complex itself covers 4420 square metres. Part of it is located within a dense pine forest, and it is located on the cape itself, with its own access to the sea and beach. The villa was most likely paid for in cash by Ivan Cermak because there is no loan agreement to speak of.

Villa Lenac was the former residence of JNA general Mirko Lenac, and up until 2009, the Lenac and Cosic families both used that villa, before selling the building to Russian investors. Back at theattime, it was written that the buyer was a Russian national named Ljudmila Rovenska, who purchased the villa through the company Keldan d.o.o. As such, Keldan d.o.o. bought the building and paid an additional two million kuna to the City of Opatija in order to get their hands on a garden plot as well. All together, along with the renovation of the villa, the entire thing cost a little more than 10 million euros.

"It's true, I bought it, but I wouldn't want to sit here and talk about the price"

''I wouldn't want to sit here now and discuss the price, because the price isn't being discussed publicly anyway,'' retired general Ivan Cermak told Index, adding that he is extremely satisfied with the purchase of such a property, which is about only around an hour and a half's drive from the City of Zagreb. ''I'll certainly use it more often,'' Ivan Cermak said at the end.

Although he didn't want to talk about the price, Index managed to get its hands on the villa's sales contract in which the price of 12.5 million euros was indicated, including the movables that are also on the property. It can be concluded from the purchase agreement that Ivan Cermak didn't use any sort of loan, it is also clear that he had to pay the amount within one month of signing the purchase agreement. The sales contract was signed on June the 23rd of this year, and Ivan Cermak's wife Mirjana is also the co-owner of the villa.

Who is Ivan Cermak? From an air conditioner repairman to one of the richest Croatian nationals.

Ivan Cermak was born in 1949 in the City of Zagreb, where he completed his primary and vocational education, and in the early seventies he was engaged in servicing air conditioners. In addition to servicing air conditioners, he later started doing other kinds of jobs, and he even opened a boutique and became a co-owner of The Best disco in the Jarun area of the city.

He got into doing big business back in the 90s, when he entered politics and oil trading. He joined HDZ in 1990, allegedly at the invitation of Franjo Tudjman himself, and helped them organise party rallies and similar tasks. He soon became the vice-president of the HDZ Executive Committee and Tudjman's very own advisor in Pantovcak. He was also assistant to the Minister of Defense from 1991 to 1993 under Gojko Susek, after which he moved to the position of Minister of Trade, Shipbuilding and Energy, but he didn't stay in that position for even one year.

After the Operation Storm (Oluja) was successful, and immediately after the liberation of Knin, Tudjman appointed Ivan Cermak commander of the Knin military district, where his task was to establish normal life after the end of the war operations there. However, serving that function later led him to the docks of the Hague Court. After a multi-year trial, in April 2011, Cermak was finally acquitted, according to Index investigations.

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March the 7th, 2022 - Russian-owned Croatian villas are dotted all along the Croatian coastline, but with harsh sanctions in place and Croatia freezing all such properties related to the Russian regime, what's going to happen next with these luxurious properties?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the fact that Kvarner has been very interesting for rich Russian nationals for years now when it comes to buying real estate is proved by the fact that some of the most beautiful villas there are owned by Russians. Opatija, meaning the entire Opatija Riviera, is truly one of the most sought-after destinations for Russians in Croatia to buy luxury apartments and houses in attractive positions. This was confirmed by some of the large property agencies that have been doing business with Russian buyers for years, Novi list writes.

"When we talk about the number of Russian-owned Croatian villas and other properties, as far as foreign buyers are concerned, Russians aren't in the majority here, but they're in the majority in terms of the number of the most exclusive properties owned. We can say that in the period until 2015, there was a craze of wealthy Russian people coming for the most expensive villas in this part of Kvarner, along the stretch from Volosko to Medveja. In that period, they bought property as residential buyers, namely the most exclusive real estate, which was often located along the first row to the sea or with a beautiful view of all of Kvarner,'' said Vjeran Saina, senior agent of the Remax Real Estate Centre.

He explained that Russian citizens could initially buy real property only if they set up a company here in Croatia, but later the situation was simplified and today they can acquire ownership of property defined by the law of reciprocity, ie reciprocity between Croatia and Russia as individual buyers.

Speaking about buyers from the Russian market, Saina said that in fact, after making a purchase, the Russians, as a rule, did not stay long in their newly acquired villas. In conversations they often mentioned that there is a lack of quality content in the Kvarner area, such as shopping and nightlife, which forces them to spend their money, for example, in neighbouring Italy.

As for the interests of Russian buyers, this real estate agent explained that after 2015, the wave of them buying residential real estate in Croatia subsided.

"Competing countries such as Montenegro, Cyprus, Spain, allowed Russians to enter the country without hindrance, but also through other benefits. For example, when buying real estate in Montenegro above the value of 500,000 euros, buyers from the Russian market get the right to permanent residence. Over recent years we've noticed an increase in the interest of Russian buyers in investing. They're interested in large investments in the area of ​​Liburnia. Several projects were successful, but we could also notice some not so successful investments, which were still too big for our area in terms of planning and implementation, and they were simply not well received by the market. Given the current political situation, we haven't noticed that the Russians are turning to Croatia for the sale of the real estate they own in Kvarner. That property has not been frozen and the Russians aren't expressing concern,'' Saina told Novi list, adding that several Russian investors have been operating in Croatia for many years now and said recently that they were doing business as before.

"As agents who are part of the international brand Remax, we're in constant communication with our colleagues, but also sellers and investors from abroad, and we are waiting for the situation to unfold further," concluded Vjeran Sain in reference to Russian-owned Croatian villas and more.

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