Islands for sale in Croatia

Zagreb - Half of a Croatian island is on sale for 15.8 million dollars - and it even comes with two houses.

The 59-hectare chunk of Piskera, a rocky outcropping in the Adriatic south of the coastal city of Zadar, is one of about 20 islands in the Kornati archipelago that is looking for a buyer, the Slobodna Dalmacija daily reported Thursday.

Advertisements for the Piskera property caused a sensation in the Croatian real estate market, the paper said.

Part of another island is on sale "for breeding olives and so- called Robinson (Crusoe) tourism."

Although the Kornati National Park is among of Croatia's most treasured sites, residents complain that life there is hard and the government is neglecting them.

By law, real estate in the Kornati has to be offered to the state first.

But since Croatia's government has shown no interest in buying the islands, owners have decided to put them on sale.

Other Croatians, however, are touchy when it comes to selling the country's natural wonders to foreigners, mainly Russians. (dpa)