Discover Montenegro's new luxury holiday homes

Less than three hours flight from London, directly across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, the Balkan state of Montenegro is one of Europe’s youngest countries.

Cathy Hawker

22 February 2016

Created in 2006 from the former Yugoslavia, its brooding beauty has charmed visitors from bad boy poet Lord Byron in 1811 to the 1.4 million international arrivals last year.

Tourism is its fastest-growing sector, and it boasts five National Parks and Europe’s largest canyon. Emerald waters, soaring mountains and Venetian captain’s houses around Kotor Bay rival anything in the Italian lakes and are drawing in high-end investment in second homes along Montenegro’s 190-mile rocky coastline.

“We are seeing growing demand from the UK, Italy, Benelux, Scandinavia and Russia,” says Robert Green of Abercrombie & Kent International Estates.

FOR YACHTIES
The first large-scale development in Kotor Bay, Porto Montenegro in Tivat offers a 400-berth, deep-water marina with boutiques, restaurants, a large pool, tennis courts and sports club. The five-star Regent Hotel opened recently.

More than 200 flats have been built and sold to an international mix of buyers. Phase One prices start from £290,000 for a one-bedroom, 720sq ft flat. A further phase will be released next year with another 70 super-yacht berths (www.portomontenegro.com).

FOR GOLFERS
With Montenegro’s first golf course, Lustica Bay is a 1,700-acre, hilly estate with sandy coves along five miles of Kotor Bay coast.

From £157,500: flats at Lustica Bay, the first golf resort in Montenegro

A 15-year building programme will include seven hotels, 500 townhouses and villas, 1,000 flats, shops, an international school and a 176-berth marina alongside the Gary Player-designed course.

Properties in Phase One’s low-level buildings include waterfront studios to three-bedroom flats of 484sq ft to 1,614sq ft, move-in ready by next year. Prices from £157,500 to £433,000 (www.lusticabay.com).

FOR BEACH LOVERS
The largest and liveliest coastal resort is Budva, a youthful tourist hotspot with a population of 30,000 that doubles at the height of summer.

From £511,500: Dukley Gardens in the tourist hotspot of Budva has one- to four-bedroom apartments on a sandy beach

On a peninsula with a private sandy beach, the gated Dukley Gardens resort is nearing completion, with 202 one- to four-bedroom flats.

There are two restaurants, an on-site concierge and rental management team, and plans for a 70-room hotel with spa and a marina nearby. Over 65 per cent of homes are sold, mainly to Russian families.

Flats start at £511,500 for 861sq ft (www.dukley.com/en/).

FACT FILE

Montenegro Airlines flies twice a week from Gatwick to Tivat.
BA flies from Gatwick to Dubrovnik, 15 minutes from the Montenegrin border.
New builds involve no buying costs. There is three per cent tax on resales.

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