Croatia's Dubrovnik seeks to reclaim city for locals

Reuters Videos
6 個月前

STORY: Croatia's Dubrovnik is famed for its Renaissance palaces and Baroque churches.

The UNESCO World Heritage site sits on the Adriatic's rocky coastline and attracts millions of visitors a year.

But while those visitors bring in much-needed revenue, they also clog the city’s narrow streets and push up rent.

In the early 1990s, some 5,000 residents lived here. Now there's just 1,200.

So, the city plans to lure back locals.

"Young people will leave us, they will go to live in other areas because it will be impossible to live in Dubrovnik,” the city’s mayor Mato Frankovic says.

The city has already begun buying apartments that will be offered to young families under a 10-year lease and will ban the short-term lease of flats in large apartment buildings.

The city council is also expected in April to pass a regulation banning new rental permits in the Old Town and its surrounding area, Frankovic said.

He added that the move is part of the city's obligation to meet certain UNESCO rules.

But not everyone agrees with the move.

(Vedran Miovic)

"I don't think it is necessary to ban or limit the number of apartments (for rent).”

Vedran Miovic is from an estate agency that manages some 150 units in Dubrovnik.

Miovic says private accommodation is much better for the community over large hotels and resorts, which, he says, only benefit big foreign funds.