Real estate in Montenegro, a target of Russian oligarchs

Not only do they make up more than 15 percent of tourists visiting Montenegro, and that 380,000 of them vacationed in the record year 2019 (compared to 60,000 who visited Montenegro in 2006), but Russians also bought real estate in Montenegro worth up to one billion euros. Another five hundred million they have invested, mainly in tourism and industry.

It is not known how many properties are owned by Russian citizens, but according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are about 7,000 Russians in Montenegro, on the basis of permanent, temporary or extended residence, and several hundred more applications are pending.

They are engaged in real estate, hotels, catering, construction, but also some other, “smaller” jobs.

In addition to the one and a half billion-euro investment, it is assumed that the Russians spent much more money in Montenegro over the last 15 years, given that in the tourist record year 2019 alone, they accounted for 15.3 percent of tourists and were first in terms of consumption. That year alone, Montenegro earned 1.1 billion euros from tourism.

During this year, as announced by the Central Bank of Montenegro, most foreign investments came from Russia – 95.56 million euros. Out of that, the largest amount (EUR 37.94 million) refers to real estate bought by their citizens in Montenegro, followed by the so-called intercompany debt of EUR 30.21 million, and EUR 27.17 million was invested in Montenegrin companies and banks. During September, the Russians spent 6.48 million on real estate alone.

Many Russians choose to live in Montenegro because it is much cheaper than in Russia, but there are also a large number of those who buy luxury apartments.

For Russian citizens, Tivat is one of the favorite cities in Montenegro, both for investment and for living. The Russians own a large number of real estates in this city. They have invested and still do so in tourism, and are engaged in service activities. Thus, in the settlement of Lustica Bey, out of 300 apartments and suites, as many as this luxury residence has, most of the owners are citizens of Russia, in about 70 apartments. Otherwise, in this settlement the owners of real estate are from 42 countries, it was said for our portal, unofficially, by the company Lustica Bey.

Russian citizens living in Tivat are engaged in a lot of service activities, such as cosmetic services, holding yoga classes, selling teas, healthy food and the like.

When it comes to “bigger” businesses in Tivat, it is said that the informal owner of the group “Mimoza”, who owns the land in the most attractive part of the Tivat center, in the park of the former hotel “Mimoza”, is a famous Russian businessman Valery Zadorin, owner of “Aroma”, one of the largest companies trading in luxury products. According to earlier media reports, in Tivat, several other Russian businessmen are mentioned as owners of companies, ie valuable real estate, such as Mikhail Slipencik, Oleg Khulkl, Sergei Voronkov.

The interest of Russians to buy apartments in the luxury seaside resort of Porto Montenegro in Tivat has declined, where 213 apartments of various structures are being built, from studios to penthouses, and where the lowest price of an apartment is 190,000 euros. While in the completed part of Porto Montenegro, the Russians were in the first place for the purchase of apartments. As we were told by this company, there are several reasons for this and those are the lack of scheduled flights between Russia and Montenegro, Putin’s travel restrictions and similar.

Currently, for the purchase of apartments in Boka Place, the completion of which is scheduled for April 2023, as regards the former Soviet republics, the citizens of Ukraine and Kazakhstan are showing more interest than Russians, while potential buyers are also citizens from the countries of the region and some other European countries.

In addition to the Montenegrin coast, the Russians are also very interested in Podgorica real estates.

Zana Popovic from the Pronova Real-estate agency told The Geopost, that Russians continue to buy apartments and houses, as well as land for the construction of residential buildings.

“Russians who buy real estate in Montenegro do it for living with their families, not to resell or rent it out, so in addition to apartments, they also buy houses with yards, as well as land to build houses”, said Popovic and adds that the situation regarding the coronavirus epidemic, as well as the political developments did not have any negative impact regarding the the purchase of real estates by Russians.

“Montenegrins and Russians have a lot in common in the way of life, the climatic conditions suit them, and there is the possibility of easy understanding. They see Montenegro as a safe country”, says Popovic. Therefore, she expects that the trend of Russians interest towards the real estate in Montenegro will continue in the near future.

The Geopost