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According to the report of daily Dnevnik, citizens of EU countries bought only 64 items of property in Slovenia before the country joined the EU, yet, in the two years following Slovenia's EU accession, a total of 1,167 properties have been purchased. Between 1st May 2004 and 28th February 2006, 399 estates were purchased by British buyers, 265 by Italians, 178 by Austrians, 153 by Germans, and the rest by Irish, French, Dutch, US, Swedish and Spanish citizens. The figure does not represent even 5% of all available property. The Slovenian Tax Administration (DURS) has been keeping records on property buyers according to their citizenship since 1st May 2004. According to DURS, foreigners are in particular interested in property in the coastal municipality of Koper (237), Murska Sobota in the northeast (219), followed by the northern municipality of Kranj (181) and Nova Gorica in the west (155). State Properties Reviewed The state owns land and buildings worth more than two trillion tolars (EUR 8.35bn). This is evident from a report on state-owned real estate that the Public Administration Minister's cabinet reviewed. Minister Gregor Virant said that the current data was preliminary as most of the information received was incomplete, but added that a detailed identification of redundant properties could uncover a lot of dead capital. According to the data, the state owns 8,700 plots of land stretching over a total area of 57.9m square metres, and 5,808 buildings with a surface area of 3.1m square metres. Virant noted that the data only covers property managed by direct state budget beneficiaries and as such excludes state-controlled funds, such as the Restitution Fund (SOD) and Pension Fund Management (KAD). He explained the study was a result of the government's assessment that the situation concerning state-owned real estate and its management needed to be addressed, as there was no concrete data available in this field. In order to receive more conclusive data, the government has extended the deadline for submission of the required data by individual state institutions until 10th July. Act on Registration of Property Passed Parliament passed the act on the registration of property in mid April. It is a key piece in the mosaic of the government's efforts to introduce property tax. The centrepiece of the act, which was passed in a 61:6 vote, is the introduction of a real estate registry. Property tax, which will replace the municipal "compensation for the use of building land", which is unique to Slovenia, will be set on the basis of the market value of property. The market value will be determined with the help of a second piece of legislation, a bill on the mass valuation of property, which was passed in second reading today. The bill is to be passed in third reading later at this session, which ends on 3 May. This requires that all properties be valued according to the same standards, so a property registry is required for a fair appraisal in accordance with the bill on mass valuation. Once the act on the registration of property enters into force, it is expected to simplify the entry of properties in real estate records and ensure that the data is complete. The act on the registration of property was passed with bipartisan support. Only the opposition Liberal Democrats (LDS) and National Party (SNS) voiced concerns over the scope of information that property owners will have to submit. The form for registration of property would include questions on the owner; year of construction; type of heating; water supply; sewage electricity, gas, telephone, cable connections; number of rooms; type of garage; air conditioning; total surface area; type of material; and purpose of the property, among others. Meanwhile, lawmakers crossed out questions about whether the property has a swimming pool; the year of roof, fronting, window and installation works; and the number of parking spaces, which the LDS deemed to represent an invasion of privacy. Marko Starman, the state secretary at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, stressed that the registry had nothing to do with personal data, so abuse of the data was impossible.