Over recent years, Bar has become one of the most popular cities in Montenegro, where real estate is actively bought. The experts have identified three categories of people who are attracted to this cozy and picturesque town on the Mediterranean coast:

  • Aged married couples who consider buying a property for vacation with the prospect of relocations for permanent residence.
  • Families with children who wish to spend the whole summer or most of the year in an area with a favorable climate.
  • People relocating to permanent residence.

Why exactly Bar, why is it so attractive to real estate buyers? Firstly, Bar is the sunniest town in Montenegro. According to Wikipedia, there are 270 sunny days a year. According to local residents, there are many more.

Secondly, the location has all the social facilities for a full life: hospitals, pharmacies, shops, educational institutions, playgrounds, cafes, restaurants, etc. The town has a beautiful promenade, which is great for long walks near the sea. Also, there is a majestic pine forest on the seashore. The smell of pine needles together with the sea breeze is amazing and very healthy combination.

The Bar area includes many diverse beaches: bulk sandy, pebble, pebble-sand, terrace, buried in green palm trees. Just five minutes from the city there are beautiful beaches with red pebbles. Five kilometers from Bar is the famous picturesque sandy beach of the village of Sutomore with a wide strip about 1500 m long.

But why Bar, not Budva?

One of the most popular resort cities in Montenegro, Budva, in terms of buying real estate is less in demand than Bar. The location is more considered for recreation, rather than for a permanent residence. And one of the main reasons is tourists who come to Montenegro not only in the summer season, but all-year-round. For those who do not appreciate excessive fuss, this will cause a great inconvenience. You will either have to put up with a touristic city life, or to leave during the peak season for the north of the country. But this is not always and not comfortable for everyone. Therefore, connoisseurs of an unhurried pace immediately consider buying a property in a more tranquil location.

In Budva, there have never been problems with selection and purchase of properties. Active development of complexes and apartment buildings in different areas of the city is going. You can find many interesting offers both in new buildings and in the secondary market. However, in the Gulf region and the Kotor community, where a moratorium on construction was introduced, the situation is not so optimistic. Demand far exceeds offers.

Shortage of a comfortable modern housing in recent years has been observed in Bar. New buildings were not enough for everyone who wish to buy real estate here, while the secondary market does not always meet the requirements of modern consumers. As of today, the situation has been improved a bit — in the town there are 15 new developments with multi-apartment houses. Previously, those who wished to buy real estate in Bar, having not found worthy offers, were forced to consider real estate in the nearby settlements.

Due to the fact that demand is constantly heating up the offer, prices for real estate in Bar are kept at the same level with even larger cities in Montenegro. The cheapest offers (upper and top floors) under construction in new buildings are from 1,300-1,400 euros / m². After the building is put into operation, the cost rises to 1,600-1,700 euros / m².

The most popular areas for buying real estate in Bar are the city center, Shushan and Ilino districts located within walking distance to the sea and equipped beaches.

If the situation in Montenegro is clear with new buildings, then it is getting more and more interesting with villas and houses. To begin with, we suggest you to get familiar with this market segment in detail.

In Montenegro, all land is measured not in hundreds, as we are used to, but in square meters. Each square meter is carefully measured and must be taken into account when selling.

The average cost of a plot depends on the following factors:

  • Remoteness from the sea.
  • Availability of convenient access roads.
  • View from the house — the more picturesque the landscape, the higher the cost.
  • Availability of communications — plumbing, sewage.
  • Proximity to infrastructure — educational and medical institutions, shops.

Prices for low-rise buildings intended for living — from 80 euros / m² to 1,000 euros / m². Often, the adjointed area is slightly larger than the area of the house itself. A plot of 500 m² is considered to be quite large.

About 90% of villas and private houses built before 2010 are «Balkan Style» housing with small bedrooms, stove heating, small windows. Wall insulation is also absent, which leads to poor waterproofing. In winter, the house is cold, and in summer it is stuffy and hot. Such buildings lack both internal and external design. Everything is extremely simple and laconic. At the same time, their average cost ranges from 200,000 euros and higher. To bring housing into a presentable form in accordance with personal preferences, you will have to invest much more.

Having carefully analyzed the local real estate market, the experts came to conclusion that Bar is deficient not only new buildings, but also in modern «dry houses». Lack of damp is one of the important factors to select housing in the Mediterranean climate. After all, this means that the house will be warm, comfortable, without excess moisture and mold.

In Montenegro, there are very few houses that would fully meet the requirements of modern consumers. Often, when hunting for real estate on the Mediterranean coast, the buyer imagines everything in a completely different light. Beautiful sea views, panoramic windows, modern heating supply and air conditioning systems, a swimming pool, a Mediterranean garden with fresh exotic fruits — this, according to many, an oceanfront home should look like. But in reality, to find such a property in Montenegro will be problematic.

One of the most attractive areas for buying real estate in Bar is Shushan. On the one hand, the district adjoins the city center, and on the other — to the beach area, about 1 km long. Also, a pine park is located nearby. Shushan has everything you need for a comfortable life: grocery stores, a modern kindergarten and a school. There are many bus stops around and an electric train that follows to the capital of the country — Podgorica. Almost all houses of this area have centralized water supply and sewerage; asphalting of city streets is underway.

In Shushan you can find mostly low-rise buildings — private mini-hotels, apartment buildings and villas. Prices for the new furnished housing depend on many factors: the type and quality of finishing of the homestead land, availability of a private swimming pool, total area of the plot, type and quality of communications. The distance from the sea coast also affects the value of real estate.
If you take the average housing price in Montenegro, then it will be approximately 1,000 m². But it is worth considering the fact that the country has many unique properties built according to the original design. To find a similar property with the same characteristics is unlikely to succeed.

Today, a modern, comfortable club-type village is being built called Lucky Hill in the Shushan district. Real estate here will appeal to even the most demanding buyers. Two villas are already fully ready to move in, one of them is for sale with furniture and appliances. Each house has a garden, pool, parking, relaxation area with barbecue. Lucky Hill is unique — there are no analogues in the location and equipment in Montenegro yet. It is about this class of real estate that anyone who plans to buy a house in Montenegro dreams of.

Photo: Envato