Photo: Montenegro Sotheby’s International RealtyLast year, in the period from January to October, foreign citizens and companies bought property in Montenegro worth 370 million euros, which is significantly more than the year before, according to data from the Montenegro Central Bank.
Data on real estate sales for November and December of last year will be known in March, but, according to expectations, turnover in those months could amount to another 60 to 70 million, so the total value of real estate sold to foreigners could reach 430 to 440 million euros.
In the whole of 2021, foreigners spent 278 million euros to buy real estate in Montenegro, compared with 116 million in 2020, 178 million in 2019, and 182 million in 2018. In the last five years, foreigners bought Montenegrin real estate for 1.2 billion euros.
According to Vijesti's interlocutor, the growth of real estate sales to foreigners last year was mostly influenced by the implementation of the economic citizenship program, whereby by purchasing real estate—apartments in tourist centers in the south for 450 thousand euros and in the north and in underdeveloped municipalities for 250 thousand euros—they acquired the right to obtain citizenship.
The newspaper writes that another reason is that during periods of inflation, as it was last year, many people decide to buy real estate as one of the safer ways to ensure that their money will not lose its value.
Foreigners were drawn to Montenegro as a developing country with great tourism potential and because of a large number of exclusive tourist-residential projects such as Porto Montenegro, Portonovi, and Luštica Bay, because they anticipated that the prices of these properties would not fall, but would only rise as the projects developed.
According to the data of the Monstat Administration of Statistics, the total value of real estate turnover in 2021 was EUR 400 million, and according to CBCG data, foreigners bought real estate worth EUR 278 million, which is 69% of the total turnover. This relationship is such that foreigners mostly buy luxury apartments and villas, which cost as much as ten ordinary apartments. According to CBCG data, most real estate last year was bought by German citizens and companies, worth 57 million euros, while behind them came Russians, who invested 50 million in real estate. In third place are citizens and companies from Serbia with 42 million, and in fourth place are customers from the United States of America (USA) with 32 million euros.
In fifth place are investors from Turkey with 30 million, followed by Ukrainians and Swiss with 15 million each, then citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina with 14 million, British with 12 million, Austrians and buyers from the United Arab Emirates with eight million each, Canadians with 6.7 million, French with 6.3 million, Poles with 5.3 million, customers from Croatia and Kosovo with 5.2 million each, Czechs with five million, Dutch with 4.2 million, Slovenians with 3.1 million, Luxembourgers with 2.9 million, and buyers from Singapore with 2.8 million.
Source: ekapija.com
