Is it worth buying property in Montenegro and how is it better to do it?

In childhood, many probably dreamed of having a house by the sea, because it is so romantic to live in a resort. Adult people sometimes buy such a property, not so much to live here permanently or to go on vacation without caring for a reservation, but to earn money on renting out a property. The same Montenegro annually receives several times more tourists than people live here, which means that there will be a constant demand for a well-located apartment in the season and it can quickly pay off.

Studying the features of real estate in Montenegro, it should be noted that apartments and houses in this country can have a huge number of advantages. Consider the main ones concerning the majority of housing for sale.

• Demand for short-term rental housing in Montenegro has been growing rapidly in recent years, and no prerequisites for a drop in demand are expected. In 2017, the number of visitors to the country for the first time exceeded 2 million people and continues to grow steadily. Low prices, in comparison with many other resorts, attract tourists here, and the state has established a visa-free regime with most neighbors and many post-Soviet countries. As a result, 20% of guests come from Serbia, Russia and Ukraine together give the same amount, up to 10% of visitors are provided by Bosnia and Herzegovina, but rich tourists from Western Europe also come here.

• The investment attractiveness of the country's housing sector is good because transparent and real-life rules have been formulated for foreign investors, strikingly reminiscent of the exemplary European Union in this regard. In addition, the country only after gaining independence in 2006 realized how much it can earn on tourism, because there is a huge amount of housing stock built after this date. This means that there are a lot of new buildings built using modern technology, in addition, finding a free apartment for purchase is not a problem.

• If you wish, you can find relatively inexpensive housing in Montenegro - the average price per square meter indicator does not even work here. It all depends on a number of specific characteristics, for example, the historical value of a building raises tariffs, but the presence of a prospective building site nearby reduces the price. As a result, exactly the same housing at a distance of 300 meters from each other can have different costs. In addition, the geographical factor also affects prices - in the prestigious seaside Budva, housing is the most expensive, the rest of the coast is slightly cheaper, but in the outback, prices are much lower, although the mountains here are beautiful too.

• The tax and communal policies in Montenegro also only contribute to buying housing here. For example, when buying an apartment on the secondary market, the tax will be only 3% of the cost, but if the seller is the seller himself, even such an overpayment will not be. The annual tax for owners ranges from 0.1% to 1% of the cost per square meter in this region, but this is a little anyway.

• Investing is not limited to contributions to housing development - larger investors are building infrastructure such as schools with English or Russian language teaching, ports for yachts and many other amenities. Such an improvement in the situation further contributes to the fact that tourists came here in large numbers, which means that renting out housing here will be even more profitable.

• Montenegro is considered one of the cleanest countries in terms of ecology, because there is no serious industry here, and therefore the further growth of tourism potential seems quite logical.

Naturally, certain disadvantages are also present, but they are relatively few and for many people they are insignificant. However, it is for you that they can turn out to be a serious drawback, because we will also consider them.

• Montenegro has the official status of a candidate for accession to the European Union, but so far it has not become, and it cannot be said that this will happen on the spot. For many investors from the former Soviet Union, buying a home abroad is also useful in the context of simplified obtaining a Schengen visa, while also owning an apartment in an EU country, you can apply for a residence permit and then a passport.

• In Montenegro, a provincial socialist past is noticeable - despite the innovations being introduced, the infrastructure, compared to Western Europe, is limping. For example, there is practically no centralized heating anywhere in the country, although in winter, even on a relatively warm coast, the temperature is only 3-7 degrees Celsius.

It is customary for locals to heat the rooms with air conditioning, but there they can already fail with the power grid - outages due to peak loads are still not a curiosity. Among other things, the mentality and training of local staff are only a cross between the vaunted Europe and our unsightly realities, which can frighten off some wealthy tourists.

As noted above, the state organizedly approached the development of tourism infrastructure - at least land was given into the hands of private developers, and those, wanting to recapture the money spent, were quick to erect a huge amount of housing. On the one hand, the abundance of proposals was supposed to lead to a certain decrease in property prices, however, in the case of Montenegro, we see that here the investment has already begun to pay off.

Practice shows that when buying a home in Montenegro, there is a lot of sense in not looking for an object for purchase on your own, but turning to local consultants for help. You yourself are unlikely to even be able to roughly understand why an expensive house costs so much, and choosing cheaper housing, you will not be sure that you know about all the risks of such a purchase.

Experts note that recently, growing demand has been intensively spurring developers and they are striving to complete construction projects as quickly as possible, which inevitably affects the quality of construction. Considering that earthquakes periodically occur in this mountainous country, it’s worthwhile to think twice before buying an apartment in an “uncracked” new building.

In addition, one can often hear complaints that buildings located at the foot of the mountains have an increased tendency to gradual roll and even collapse.

As for the first line, it will be much more difficult to acquire housing here, if only because the demand from especially wealthy foreigners is especially high here. A few years ago, some influential Western media wrote that about 14% of the entire territory of Montenegro has already been bought by foreigners, and it should be assumed that they are primarily interested in the coast. Nonetheless, There are even options here, just be prepared to pay a very significant amount.

The Montenegrin housing market implies a huge variation in terms of prices - too many factors affect pricing. If you take the housing stock at least, you can get an apartment in an old high-rise building, which is no different in principle from a typical Soviet one, or in a relatively new building, built during the time of independence, taking into account all modern building requirements.

Again, somewhere in the mountains or even in the capital Podgorica, prices may be slightly lower than average, but the big question is how much such an investment will pay off, because statistics show that the vast majority of foreign tourists are torn not so much into the mountains as to the sea.

All these factors do not allow determining the average price per square meter - more precisely, it can be calculated, but in practice it does not bring any benefit, because it can be cheaper and much more expensive. If you are still interested and want to have at least a general idea of ​​how much should be calculated, you should know that 40 thousand euros is the minimum capital that allows you to purchase a small studio of 20 squares.

A small family-type apartment with an area of ​​about 50 squares will cost 60 thousand that way.

If you are interested in a house with a land plot, the building will largely determine the cost, and not the territory itself. For example, a 60-meter house in a courtyard of 200 squares can cost approximately 80 thousand euros, but a spacious villa with an area of ​​200 square meters and a plot of another 300 will draw a good 170 thousand.

The difference in prices depends not only on proximity to the sea, but also on a specific geographical location. First of all, the view from the window is very much appreciated in any region, the housing is considered especially impressive, from which the mountains and the sea are well visible.

Naturally, a huge bonus is the presence of a private access to the sea at the local area, ideally - its own beach, where strangers, except at the invitation of the owner, can’t get there.

If we talk about the regions, then among the top places they usually call the Budva Riviera (the vicinity of the resort of Budva) and Boko-Kotorska (the coast of the Bay of Kotor inclusively with Tivat).

You can try to save money by choosing accommodation somewhere on the Barska Riviera or even in the vicinity of Ulcinj. At the same time, you need to understand that the cost of his ulterior motive is lower - there are fewer opportunities for elite relaxation, tourists are not so eager to go there, and therefore the profit is likely to be not so high.

As it becomes clear from the above, Montenegro’s citizenship is not required for acquiring real estate inside the country - in fact, the state is just the opposite, is interested in foreigners investing their money here, and therefore simplified the procedure as much as possible. Moreover, although the prospects and timing of Montenegro's accession to the European Union are still unclear, for many, obtaining a passport from this country already today seems like a good way to soon become a citizen of the European Union.

Another thing is that everything is not so simple here - Montenegro asks quite a lot for the actual sale of a passport. For the purchase of real estate in the wilderness to obtain a document you will have to pay from 250 thousand euros, and in a developed region - from 350 thousand, and another 100 thousand in any case should be transferred to the accounts of the state itself. Moreover, such an option is not offered to everyone - within three years from the launch of the program (2018-2021), it will be necessary to submit an application, and only 2 thousand lucky ones who will be allowed to participate will be selected from all applicants.

In the absence of a lot of money, you can go the longer way, having previously obtained a residence permit in the country. If you bought housing here, you will be issued a temporary residence permit that lasts only a year - during this time you need to gain a foothold and get additional reasons to stay. If you did not find a job and did not marry someone from the locals, you can do without a visa only if the purchased object costs more than 40 thousand euros - then you can extend your residence permit.

Regardless of what type of real estate you decide to purchase in Montenegro - an apartment, a plot of land or a house - your transaction will begin with the so-called preliminary contract. It doesn’t say so much - the terms of the transaction are described (what, where, when, for how much, from whom and to whom), the method and terms of payment are considered, and the amount of the deposit is usually written, which usually amounts to about 10% of the agreed purchase price object. The specified amount of the deposit must be transferred to the previous owner, who is obliged to issue a receipt for this, that he received the money prescribed in the preliminary contract.

After this, the main contract of sale is concluded, the legal execution of which should be addressed only to the state notary offices of Montenegro - these are the country's rules. There are already much more marked points here - in addition to what was described above, it should be mentioned, for example, that the seller agrees to re-register the object to another person.

As stated above when buying housing in the secondary market for citizens of post-Soviet countries, the tax is 3% of the amount. In general, as practice shows, taxes, legal support and re-registration together increase costs by about 5%, so when choosing a property, you must also take into account this extra charge.

The point that the seller will not have anything against renewal is important for the reason that any new owner, logically, should immediately make an acquisition in the state cadastre for himself. However, according to the Montenegrin laws, this can be done not at any time in the future, but in the first 30 days from the date of the transaction. It is better not to experiment with what will happen if legalization does not happen within the proposed period of time, and so that there are no unnecessary problems on the part of the seller, who has “changed his mind” and puts the wheels in wheels, the agreement specifically stipulates his consent to renewal.

If you are buying a free land plot, planning to develop yourself, it is worth considering that in Montenegro, not all lands require further development. There may be many reasons why a particular site, from the point of view of legislation, is not suitable for construction, but you are unlikely to succeed in changing such a status of the territory, and any building that you erected unknowingly or insolently will be considered illegal and may be subject to demolition .

Many of our compatriots, planning to acquire real estate on the Adriatic, decide to sell "excess" real estate in their homeland in order to make money. Dividing one procedure into two stages greatly delays the process and involves a lot of paperwork, which is why some potential investors do not even want to consider such an idea, considering it too difficult to implement. In fact, the problem can be solved a little easier than it might seem.

There are international real estate agencies offering an exchange service, for example, of Russian real estate to Montenegrin. Instead of two separate operations, each of which may be delayed, one is offered rather fast, since you are not looking for either a buyer for Russian property or a seller of Montenegrin real estate - this is, consider, one and the same legal entity. As a result, you may not receive money in your hands, but do not wait until the object you sell is bought - Specialists simply arrive at the specified address and evaluate how much your home or apartment can cost.

Through cooperation with a serious company, the re-registration process can be simplified, even if it “eats” part of the budget. Moreover, such services usually work only for Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities where real estate is in demand.

Answers to questions on the purchase of real estate in Montenegro are given in the next video.