For over a decade people have been saying that Montenegro will soon join the EU. Back in 2016 when I was first making deals there, people were saying 2020. Then it shifted to 2022, then 2025, and now 2028.
I was always very skeptical of this seeing how far behind Montenegro was in completing “EU chapters”.
However, I now truly believe it will happen in the near future.
Why?
The EU as an institution is not doing well and needs to show that it is still in expansion mode. Taking in a small country of 600,000 souls won’t put a dent in the budget, yet will project a strong message of self-confidence. I expect Montenegro to join by 2028, regardless of its progress completing the chapters.
A clear indication is widespread free publicity in the form of effusively positive documentaries about Montenegro appearing on state TV channels all over Europe. Europeans are being prepared for a resumption of EU expansion.
What are the implications of Montenegro joining the EU?
Generally speaking, less freedom. Banking is already becoming a nightmare. Obtaning residency in Montenegro will also become more complicated.
But for real estate this will be positive. Foreigners will increasingly find Montenegro ‘investable.” More capital flows will come once the announcement is made.
And once Montenegro actually joins the EU, even more investment will come. After a few years I would then expect the market to stagnate for a while. But until then it should be a good ride.
A poor 2025 Summer season
Not all numbers are out yet, but the preliminary numbers indicate a 5% drop in tourism in H1 2025 vs H1 2024, driven by less middle class tourists from Europe and the Balkans. Anecdotally, speaking to operators on the ground in Montenegro, it would appear that high-end accommodation continues to enjoy robust rental demand, while cheaper and middle-market properties are struggling.
More catalysts for growth
The government recently passed a law banning the sale of all unlegalized properties in Montenegro. This removes about 80% of the market. And knowing Montenegro, the authorities won’t be quick to legalize the 80%. This means tight supply going forward.
There are also strong rumors of UNESCO potentially imposing a ban on new construction in Kotor Bay, further tightening supply.
In this video with Peter Square Meter we looked at a few properties in Tivat, my favorite region of Montenegro, where I personally tend to spend a fair amount of time.
I wrote a whole report on the real estate market in Montenegro.
Feel free to get in touch with Peter Square Meter.
Pre-construction deal in Tivat
A large local developer I have dealt with in the past let me know of this pre-construction deal.
Anyone who knows the Tivat real estate market understands that there is a lack of supply of nice villas. There is strong demand for such properties due to the international schools, airport, Porto Montenegro, etc.
This development will focus entirely on high-end villas with private pools, etc.
The numbers from a potential capital appreciation point of view are interesting.
Once construction starts in December or January the developer expects to raise the prices significantly. I removed the developer’s projections for the expected value of the completed villas because I felt it was a bit too presumptively bullish.
The numbers look great. Why such a deal?
Because you are the one providing the financing.
The payment schedule is very front-loaded. But this is how you can provide value and score a good deal. Because bank financing for developers is so complicated in Montenegro, they offer deals to investors who are willing to take on risk to get into such projects early.
What about rental income?
I don’t know. These villas will be very rentable but I’d have a hard time estimating the rent in this market for this category two years in advance. I think the play here is rather capital appreciation and/or lifestyle.
If you’re interested in being connected to the developer, hit reply along with your WhatsApp number.
To a World of Opportunities,
The Wandering Investor.
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Transcript of “Where to buy property in Tivat, Montenegro?”
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice from The Wandering Investor. Today, I’m in Tivat, in Montenegro, with Peter Square Meter. Peter, how are you?
PETER: I’m good. Nice to see you again.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yes.
PETER: How are you?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Good. Good-good.
PETER: All right. We arranged nice weather for you. What do you think?
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] Yeah, love it.
PETER: Yeah?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Today, we’ll be doing a slightly different video. We’ll be doing an overview of the Tivat real estate market. We’re not going to go into specifics, saying, “Oh, this apartment’s a great investment, etc.” We’re just going to go and discuss the market, in general, in Tivat, as well as the different neighborhoods, because Tivat is very different from one neighborhood to another. Some have more growth potential than others, some are more established. And Peter, you’ve been here for how long?
PETER: I got here 2005, so getting on for 20 years. This is my 19th year.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right. Two decades of living in Tivat and selling real estate.
PETER: Yeah. My plan was to be here for three years, and then, after two years, I was thinking, like, where else can I go? And I still think, and I just can’t really find anywhere better to be. It’s cost of living, lifestyle opportunities, it’s all here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: When you first came here, I’m pretty sure Tivat didn’t look like this, right?
PETER: No, it didn’t. Actually, we’re going to get to the center soon. You won’t see it, but it was actually that was a horrible black tarmacked kind of car park. It was very rundown and so on. Then, obviously, Peter Munk came over here. He was invited by the President of Montenegro. And then they created this amazing kind of resort. And I think Porto Montenegro has actually spearheaded the luxury tourism for Montenegro, and it continues to grow. And you’ve got other great developments like Luštica Bay and Portonovi, and so on. You’ve got, like, $3 billion worth of kind of luxury resorts in a very small triangle. A lot of growth has already happened, and there’s a lot more potential to come to Montenegro. I think for the next two decades, it’s going to continue to grow.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, there aren’t too many places in the world where you have so many yachts. I mean, here, there are literally a bunch of super yachts, not just normal yachts, but super yachts in the background. From my own balcony, I mean, the apartment you sold to me in 2016–
PETER: Yeah, it was a good buy, wasn’t it?
Porto Montenegro prices per square meter
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] It was an amazing buy. I get to enjoy breakfast and see all of these yachts from right there. It is quite a unique place. Here we are in Porto Montenegro, so this big development. Can you give us an idea of the range in terms of square meter prices?
PETER: Sure. The current range has gone from about €7,000 to €10,000 per square meter. The latest development that they are just about to kind of release will be opened up is called Boka Place. That’s around about €7,500 per square meter. They have a new release, which is called Synchro. Synchro will be in the prime location in Porto Montenegro, and that price range will go from €12,000 to €25,000 per square meter.
LADISLAS MAURICE: €25,000 a square meter?
PETER: Yeah. As expensive or more expensive than Central London.
LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s insane.
PETER: That is insane. But you know what? It’s a very unique place. They’re going to build something on the water. They’re going to have the private beach, the owners of that particular development. There aren’t that many places in the world that sort of, let’s say, the wealthy people can go to, sports stars, and so on and so forth, to have this level of luxury, privacy. And it’s a very relaxed ambiance as well. People can come here and feel at home very easily.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Absolutely. Combined with a low tax regime, so it’s really attracting wealthy people from all over the world.
Tour of apartment in Donja Lastva, Tivat
LADISLAS MAURICE: Then I think what’s interesting is you’re going to take us to the next neighborhood, which is Donja Lastva. I’ve operated some foot operations in the past there, you helped me sell some of my apartments. But their prices, it’s essentially walking distance from that €25,000 square meter development. Walking distance, but prices are much lower, right?
PETER: Yeah. For me, personally, actually, I think there’s a really smart idea. We have our office, actually, which is just over here, it’s in Kalimanj, sort of 10 minutes’ walk from here. I think what to look for if you’re looking to invest in this area and you can’t afford €12,000 to €25,000 a square meter, then be within a 10 or 20-minute walk of Porto Montenegro, or the center, the front is called Pine, in Tivat. Those are the places to look for, because that’s where people want to rent. A lot of people want to put this onto the rental pool on Airbnb, or booking.com, and so on.
We have a few options, which will range from, let’s say, €3,000 to €6,000 a square meter. Good quality buildings, great locations, great potential, and doing very, very well in terms of the rental occupancy and income.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, cool. Let’s go check out one of those properties.
PETER: Let’s go.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Great. Tell us about this place.
PETER: Okay, we’re on a penthouse apartment now. It’s two bedrooms, two bathrooms, with two rooftop terraces, which is quite interesting. Let’s go through and have a look. Go into the living room.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What’s the price point?
PETER: This is around about €6,000 per square meter. If you remember, from Porto Montenegro, we’re talking about €8,000 to €25,000 a square meter. The big benefit of this place here is the location. You’re second line to the sea, the apartment’s just short of 90 square meters. But the terraces, so you have this terrace and another terrace above here, are about 160 square meters of terraces. It’s about 250 square meters in total. The other great bonus as well is that it’s the first sale of this apartment from the developer, so that means no purchase tax. That will save quite a bit. That’ll probably save about €40,000, €50,000 in purchase tax.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Because the price point is how much?
PETER: It’s just short of €800,000. €780,000.
LADISLAS MAURICE: €800,000. Okay, so 90 square meters on the title deed?
PETER: Of the interior space for the living space. And I think it’s 137 square meters, including this terrace. And plus, you have the exclusive rights of the roof terrace as well. The neighbor has his, it’s up. He rented out, by the way, and does a fantastic job. He has outdoor kitchen, pergola, jacuzzis, and so on.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Wow. Okay, cool. Yeah, let’s not spend too much time looking at the apartment itself. Okay, bedroom, bathroom. Cool.
Exclusive usage rights in Montenegro
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, people need to get comfortable with the concept of exclusive usage rights in Montenegro. It scares a lot of people in the sense that, well, it’s not on the title deed, it just says that I have exclusive usage rights.
PETER: It can be written in the contract.
LADISLAS MAURICE: But it can be written in the contract, yeah.
PETER: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: In the past, I’ve done deals where I had parking spots that were exclusive usage rights, and it’s fine. I was able to sell these rights.
PETER: Yeah. Should we go up?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Gosh, beautiful.
PETER: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What would you do here?
PETER: Actually, we sold the other apartment to a South African businessman. And what they did here was jacuzzi, outdoor kitchen, pergola, outdoor living space. Basically, this is pretty much Mediterranean living, indoor-outdoor living. You actually have more outdoor living space than you actually have indoor living space, which is the kind of whole point of it. But I’d do some things where you can actually kind of weather-proof it. I’d get these wonderful aluminum pergolas, which then you can seal the tops and so on, I’d say, kind of kitchen and so on.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Essentially, you can either get an apartment like this with a massive rooftop terrace, or 20 minutes away, in Porto Montenegro, what would you get for that amount of money?
PETER: You would get, at the back in Boka Place, you’d get a maybe similar size apartment, no terraces. There’s only one available, which is for sale now. It does have some limited sea views, but I have the feeling that those sea views will be lost in the future because they’re going to put another building in front of it. Whereas here, you can see everything that’s been built out, and you’ve got panoramic views here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, nothing’s going to be built here, for sure. Donja Lastva is really nice because there’s a nice little waterfront. You can walk, you can go swimming. There’s a bunch of cute little stone houses, cute little Catholic Church. It’s very nice. And didn’t the Beckhams buy a house up here as well?
PETER: It was rumored, but I think it was fake news, actually. [laughs]
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] All right, who’s spreading–
PETER: But you see the villa right on the far right, that’s an €8 million villa. That’s €8 million. It was rumored that they’re going to have there. This is the prime location in Tivat, outside of Porto Montenegro. We’ve just bought a plot upon this hill as well. As you can see, this is where the exclusive villas just outside of the town are being built.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so the Beckhams were rumored to have bought something, but probably never did.
PETER: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right. [laughs]
PETER: Yeah. Just a quick note as well, there’s another couple of apartments that we have in this complex as well. And they, furnished or unfurnished, are between €4,000 and €5,000 per square meter. They’re one-bedroom apartments, and very, very nice. The location is really good here, being within a kind of a 10,12-minute walk of Porto Montenegro. You’ve also got some very, very popular bars here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I don’t think you walk that fast. I think it’s more 20.
PETER: Maybe 20, yeah. [laughs]
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
PETER: Maybe 20, yeah. I’m daydreaming. I’m not thinking about the time, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Maybe after a few beers, it feels like 10, 12 minutes.
PETER: Yeah.
Tour of apartment in Mažina, Tivat
LADISLAS MAURICE: Next neighborhood?
PETER: Next neighborhood is we’re going to go up there, over the hills, directly by Porto Montenegro, an area called Mazina.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Fantastic. Let’s go. All right, here we are. Tell us about this place, Peter.
PETER: Okay, we have a three-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom apartment, quite a central location. What you see is what you get, actually. It’s really good. It’s ideal for a young family. Really good for letting. Very good for long-term rentals. You’re having quite a good market for long-term rental in Tivat now. Tends to be attracting the international crowd, so I hate to use the word expat. This is just ready to buy, move into. Great benefit with this is, because you’re buying from the developer, you’re not paying the purchase tax. The law in Montenegro is, if it’s the first sale from the developer, you don’t pay the purchase tax, which is, on average, around about 5% of the value of the property.
As you can see, Ladislas, here, it’s got the nice terrace.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. And there are a few apartments for sale in this building, right?
PETER: Yeah, we’ve got a couple of apartments here. And also comes with a parking as well. And this one, actually, until something gets built–
LADISLAS MAURICE: This one is outdoors parking, and the previous building we saw was underground parking.
PETER: The other one, which had the penthouse, is the secure underground parking with storage as well. And this has got the outdoor parking, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And the pricing of this place?
PETER: It’s around about €3,500, €3,700 per square meter, so about €290,000, €310,000 for the apartments. They’re both the same size, but, basically, as you go up, you get a slightly better view.
Who is moving to Montenegro?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, this would do well for the long-term market. A lot of people are moving to Montenegro on an either permanent or semi-permanent basis. Typically, people tend to spend here two, three years. Yeah?
PETER: Yeah, I think it’s people with young families are kind of coming here, which is, we’re really attracting a lot of American clients at the moment. But obviously, the last few years, there’s been a lot of Russian and Ukrainians as well. I think things are going phases. There’s been kind of the Turks, and South Africans, and so on. But in general, actually, you find, especially in places like Tivat, very international, very mixed crowd. It’s quite interesting. But it’s also the type of people. It tends to young professionals or entrepreneurs that are coming here.
International schools in Tivat
LADISLAS MAURICE: And what are the options for schools here in Tivat? Because this is a big draw for families and people moving here.
PETER: Sure. Very good international school. You’ve got nice British school, which is the baccalaureate system of qualification education. Nearby, there’s another one, which is Arcadia, is just 20 minutes away, that uses the Cambridge British kind of educational system there. You’ve got the local schools. We have a young boy, actually, he’s at a local kindergarten. To give you an idea of pricing, that’s a private kindergarten, and we’re paying €200 a month. And that’s for transport to and from the kindergarten and breakfast and lunch.
LADISLAS MAURICE: But that’s in Serbian?
PETER: That’s in Serbian, though, yeah. But if the kids are young enough, then they can just adapt very easily.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And the international schools are between €10k and €15k a year, roughly?
PETER: Actually, €12k to €20k. The price has gone up.
LADISLAS MAURICE: €12k to €20k.
PETER: But they’re getting bigger and bigger. The Arcadia, for example, has grown from having 20 kids to about 300 now, so it’s quite substantial.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Wow, that’s growth. Yeah, the next apartment we’re going to go check out in a different neighborhood called Kava, that area is growing so fast that they even have plans to build another local school. Personally, I don’t know too many places in Europe where governments are building local schools, not for immigrants, but for local kids. That’s how much Tivat is growing.
PETER: Sure. I think Tivat is very interesting. And actually, we moved our office from Kotor to Tivat about 10 years ago, because part of my job is actually look at the economics and the growth of things. Could easily see the writing on the wall. Again, Porto Montenegro being the catalyst of it. You could see that a lot of people wanted to come to this Tivat area, so it’s really attracted the best restaurants and bars, and also, a lot of professionals, even if they’re working outside of this area, they want to be here because the families want to be here. Actually, the kids, and not being sexist, but the wives and the kids and whatever, they tend to want to be in Tivat as well. And they have all the functions.
I mean, for example, in Porto Montenegro, you have the new development, Boka Place, and they have a one and only hotel there. It’s called SIRO. And that has amazing kind of wellness sense of that. It’s probably one of the best in Europe. And it’s aimed at attracting professional athletes and people who just want to kind of recoup and exercise, I guess.
Rental yields in Tivat, Montenegro
LADISLAS MAURICE: What would be the gross capitalization rate or rental yields on an apartment like this, roughly?
PETER: On average, we’re not even taking things on unless they’re getting a 5% gross. But something like this, especially if you’re going to put it into Airbnb or something for the shorter term, I’d say that you’re going to get maybe 7% to 10%, if you’re really going to work it, I think doing the things off-season. And I would say that something like this would give you a 6%, 7% kind of a yield for long-term rentals.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, roughly. When you’re looking net, after management fees, after taxes, after common charges, property tax, etc., generally speaking, in Tivat, you can get around between 4% and 5% net on the long-term and also on the short-term. It’s a very dynamic market, so sometimes, the long-term market does better, and then everyone rushes to long-term market, and then the market changes, and then you have to go back to short-term.
PETER: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] It’s a very dynamic market.
PETER: Sure, sure.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Supply just goes up and down depending on what’s happening.
PETER: Yeah. Couple of years ago was a great example, because especially when the Russians and Ukrainians were coming here, a lot of the locals, they just stopped doing the short-term rentals and then just rented out everything long-term. Because they go, “That’s it. I can do the same kind of renting for the same money and no work. Just have one changeover.” But now things are moving over again, because there’s a lot of demand for the short-term. Tivat’s very popular, again, especially because of Porto Montenegro and Tivat Center. People can use this as their base, go to all the beaches, Kotor, Perast, Herceg Novi, Budva, and so on and so forth, come back here and spend the evenings here, having a great time.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And this area is approximately a 15-to-20-minute walk to Porto Montenegro and to the water. The other one was also 15 to 20 minutes to Porto Montenegro, which is a minute to the beach, so a bit different in terms of target markets. Now we shall go to Kava, and I can never pronounce that other place, Mrčeva–?
PETER: Mrčevac.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] Yeah, I can’t pronounce it. And there’s a lot of growth happening there, so let’s go check it out.
PETER: Let’s go. Yeah, why not?
Tour of apartment in Mrčevac, Tivat
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, Peter, tell us about this place.
PETER: New development. This is a resale though, so you would actually have to pay the purchase tax on this. It’s around about a 45-square-meter apartment with a 35-square-meter terrace, which is excellent.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So, one bedroom, one bathroom?
PETER: Yeah, one bedroom, one bathroom. Obviously, sleeps four. You’ve got a nice sofa bed here. The terrace is the big feature of this place. And also, it’s in a complex with a pool as well. And also, you have some outdoor parking and some underground parking as well.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What’s the price point?
PETER: For this, we’re just doing the valuation for this, so we’re going to pitch it around about €150,000. For rentals, we’d expect to rent round about €650, €700 per month, going back to kind of reasonable returns that we talked about earlier. Good thing about this area is that it’s in the area which is going to be gentrified a lot. You mentioned there’s big developments which are going to go down by the waterfront, schools, new roads, walk paths, and all that kind of thing. A lot of new developments are coming in this area as well. As it gets harder and harder to find good land in Tivat, all the developers are coming to areas like this, and so you’re getting all the facilities as well to come with to.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Essentially, it’s just the logical place for growth to come. I mean, you can hear construction. There’s a lot of construction around here. It’s between Tivat Town, so between Porto Montenegro and the airport. The airport is a 25-minute walk away from here. If you live here, you can actually walk to the International Airport, with direct flights to Dubai, to Istanbul, to Serbia, to London.
PETER: Yeah. And I think if you’re living here, you probably adapt to it. It’s not as good as the other apartments in terms of walking distance.
LADISLAS MAURICE: For now.
PETER: But then you’d probably get a bike, or an electric bike, or a scooter, or something like that, and then just nip into Tivat or Porto Montenegro. And obviously, very cheap for the taxi rides. Taxis are still very cheap in Montenegro.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, but unreliable there. It’s hell.
PETER: [laughs] Yeah. In the season, yeah, yeah. That’s right.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. They just don’t show up.
PETER: That’s right. And I say maybe one of the big pluses here is that you have a pool as well. People really like that, too.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Essentially, we’re looking at €3,400, €3,500 a square meter, so little bit cheaper than the other one, but then it comes with a big, big terrace, it comes with a pool, it comes with underground parking, which is better than the other one. But it’s a 30-minute walk to Porto Montenegro, the area is a little less good, but you have some sea views. But the area is growing, so it’s, I’d say for capital gains, this is probably the better play. In terms of lifestyle short-term, it wouldn’t be as nice.
PETER: Sure. And I think it’s also going to fit the budget as well. It’s very difficult to get something, especially with a big terrace like this in Tivat. You wouldn’t get it. You’d get maybe a studio apartment. But this is, obviously, a good size apartment, so great for young professional couple, or something like that, if you want to rent it out. So yeah, I think it’s a good investment.
How to contact Peter Square Meter
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool, fantastic. I wrote a whole article on the real estate market here in Montenegro, analyzing the whole macro picture as well. There’s a link below. And if you’re interested in real estate here in Tivat, Kotor, Luštica, the whole Herceg Novi area, the whole Kotor Bay, then do get in touch with Peter Square Meter. There’s his email right below.
PETER: Yeah. And also, don’t forget to like and subscribe.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
PETER: There you go.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Thank you, Peter.
PETER: Likewise. Yeah, nice to see you again, Ladislas.
