Consultant in Cechodas Housing Europe for Southeast Europe and advisor to the Board of Directors of the Montenegrin Fund for Solidarity Housing construction (CFSSI), Boris Mihailovic, says situation in the property market in Montenegro is worse than at the time before the investment boom.
“Real estate prices in Montenegro are very high, although they have recently slightly decreased. But the price drop is not enough to animate the demand to the extent necessary to make a significant impact on the sector of construction and real estate market, the two components that are inextricably linked”, he said.
He noted a more active role of the banking sector and the Governemnt would be necessary in terms of reducing interest rates, a tactic which is, he said, used developed countries in such situations as well.
According to him, there are no new investments in housing construction, except for a few projects that are generated by participation of municipalities or the result of various forms of social and solidarity building.
He points out the offer is also poor in terms of quality, stressing that the overall picture of the property market of the northern region of Montenero is very negative.
Mr. Mihailovic emphasized it is concerning that successful projects in most cases do not target Montenegrin citizens, which he says is absurd because “the general geopolitical events say it is unrealistic to expect significant foreign demand for the Montenegrin real estate in the coming period”.
Owners of real estate agencies agree there are almost no foreigners interested in buying real estate in Montenegro.
Real estate market in Podgorica
Predrag Marinovic from the “Krstas” real estate agnecy explains the price range of apartments in Podgorica is very large. The difference is there for a lot of factors, such as location, structure, price, whether it is in new or older buildings, quality, hight of the floor, distance from capital infrastructure facilities, the urgency of the sale, etc. He says people tend to prefer newly built apartments.
“The most expensive apartments are in buildings Vectra, Maxim, the glass building across National Television, the new building on the site of the old dairy plant, and a couple of buildings above river Moraca. In these buildings, price per square meter in studios and one-bedroom apartments goes between 1.800 and 1.900 euros. Two, three and four-bedroom apartments cost 1.600 to 1.800 euros per square. Gorica C is an ‘upper class’ neighbourhood where the prices of flats hover around 1.300 euros per square meter, but are rarely sold”, said Marinovic.
Real estate market in Budva
Dusan Rankovic from Kamin, the real estate agency in Budva, said the interest of customers is limited by total cost.
“Buyers are looking for apartments costing up to 70 thousand euros. All of these customers are from the region of former Yugoslavia. There are no more of those who come and say ‘I want a villa or an apartment of 200 square meters!’ Simply, no one wants to invest that kind of money”, he said.
The owner of “Imperija” real estate agency, also from Budva, Dragan Nikolic, says prices in this municipality are dictated mostly by location.
“In particular in Budva, the most expensive real estate is near the sea, of course. Prices during construction go around 1.000-1.100 euros, and for finished flats between 1.500-2.000 euros per square meter”, Nikolic said.
