Last year, for the period from January to October, foreign citizens and foreign companies bought real estate in Montenegro worth EUR 370 million, which is significantly more than a year earlier, data from the Central Bank show.
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 around 60 to 70 million, so the total value of real estate sold to foreigners could reach the amount of 430 to 440 million EUR. In the whole of 2021, foreigners spent 278 million EUR to buy real estate in Montenegro, in 2020 – 116 million, in 2019 – 178 million, in 2018 – 182 million. In the last five years, foreigners bought Montenegrin real estate for EUR 1.2 billion.
The growth of real estate sales to foreigners last year was mostly influenced by the implementation of the economic citizenship program, where by purchasing real estate – apartments in tourist centers in the south for 450 thousand EUR and in the north and in underdeveloped municipalities for 250 thousand, they acquired the right to obtain citizenship. The newspaper writes that another reason is that during the period 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 value.
Montenegro was interesting to foreigners as a developing country with great tourism potential and because of a large number of exclusive tourist-residential projects such as Porto Montenegro, Portonovi, Luštica bay, because they expect that the prices of these properties will not fall, that is, they can only grow with the development of these projects. 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. A part of this turnover is hidden from official statistics, because builders often enter an apartment under construction as the founding capital of a company, and then sell that company, usually to foreigners. Thus, the buyer is indirectly the owner of the real estate through that company, and the transaction is formally not a real estate but a company.
According to CBCG data, the most real estate last year was bought by German citizens and companies from that country – worth EUR 57 million, followed by Russians who invested EUR 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 EUR. In fifth place are investors from Turkey with 30 million, followed by Ukrainians and Swiss with 15 million each, 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 2.8 million.
