Montenegro Property Cost Index: Q4 2026 Edition

This index answers one question with numbers: what does a foreign buyer pay, by law, to buy a home in Montenegro and to hold it? It puts the charges that sit in different statutes into one place, computes them for set purchase prices, and dates every figure. We update it every quarter. This is the first edition, published 9 November 2026.

It covers statutory charges only: the real estate transfer tax, the notary's fee, and the annual property tax. Agent commission, legal fees and financing are outside it, and are listed at the end.

The headline figures, Q4 2026

The gap in the second line is the single most useful number in the index. A first sale of a new building by a VAT-registered seller is not subject to transfer tax at all; the VAT is already inside the developer's price. A resale between private persons carries the full transfer tax.

Index 1: what it costs, by law, to buy a resale flat

Reference purchase: a flat bought from a private seller, one buyer, no exemption claimed, the agreed price taken as the tax base, a notarial deed with no surcharges.

How each column is built:

• Transfer tax. Article 11 of the Real Estate Transfer Tax Act sets three bands, in force since 1 January 2024: 3% up to €150,000; €4,500 plus 5% of the amount above €150,000, up to €500,000; and €22,000 plus 6% of the amount above €500,000. The buyer is the taxpayer (Article 7). The return is filed within 15 days, with payment at the same time (Article 16). If the agreed price is below market value, the tax authority can assess the base itself (Article 10), which is why the declared price is not a place to save money.
• Notary fee. The Notary Tariff published in Official Gazette 49/2026 has applied since 9 April 2026 and repealed the 2012 tariff. Tariff number 1 charges €480 for a deed worth €80,000 to €119,999.99, then €13 more for every started €15,000 above that, capped at €8,000. VAT is charged on top (Article 12(2)). The tariff is binding: a notary may not agree a lower or higher fee (Article 13). The parties are jointly liable for it unless they agree otherwise (Article 15), so the contract should say who pays.

The share of price rises with the price because the transfer tax is progressive. The notary fee is close to flat.

Index 2: resale against new build, at the same price

Article 6 of the Transfer Tax Act takes out of its scope the acquisition of newly built buildings on which VAT is paid. Since 1 April 2026 the same applies to building land sold with VAT (amendment in Official Gazette 33/26). The VAT itself is the developer's to charge and is in the price. Two conditions decide whether a purchase is on the right-hand side: it must be the first transfer, and the seller must actually charge VAT on it. A flat bought from a developer's company that is not VAT-registered, or bought from the first owner a year later, is a resale.

Index 3: annual property tax on a second home, by municipality

Most foreign owners pay the second-home rate. Under Article 11 of the Property Tax Act a dwelling is secondary unless it is the owner's only dwelling in Montenegro and the owner has registered residence here; a dwelling owned by a company is always secondary.

Rates from each municipality's decision as amended, checked on 28 September 2026; the decisions and every amendment are listed in our table of property tax rates by municipality.

Three rules turn a rate into a bill:

• The rate applies to an assessed value, not to your price. The municipality builds the value from an average price per square metre, the area, a location coefficient and a quality coefficient, less 1% per year of age up to 60% (Articles 5 and 6a to 6g). In 2026 the coefficients moved more than the rates: Kotor cut its municipal coefficient from 1.10 to 0.95 without touching its rate.
• The owner on 1 January pays the whole year (Article 4). Buy after 1 January and the current year's tax is assessed to the seller, unless your contract shares it; your own first assessment is for the following year.
• You must file a return within 30 days of acquiring the property (Article 16), whatever the notary files. The assessment comes by 30 April and is paid in two equal instalments on 30 June and 31 October (Article 15).

Index 4: what the official price series says

MONSTAT's series is the average contract price of new flats sold for the first time, weighted by floor area; resales are not in it. At the coastal average for Q2 2026, €250,000 buys about 88 m² of new build. That is arithmetic on an average, not a valuation: individual prices sit well above and below it. The full series since 2018 is on our page of official property price statistics. MONSTAT had not published Q3 2026 when this edition went out.

What changed in 2026 for a buyer

Adopted but not yet applying: a new VAT Act (Official Gazette 104/26) applies from the day Montenegro joins the EU; until then the existing Act and its 21% rate continue.

What the index leaves out

These are real costs of a purchase, but they are not set by statute, or they depend on the file:

• the estate agent's commission, which is negotiated;
• legal fees and due diligence;
• a court interpreter at the signing, which the parties pay (Notary Tariff Art. 17) and which the tariff surcharges;
• the cadastre registration fee, set by government decree;
• mortgage, valuation and bank charges;
• building maintenance contributions and utilities;
• tourist tax if you let the property, which each municipality sets (see our tourist tax table by municipality).

Method and editions

Every figure is computed from the primary text named next to it: the Real Estate Transfer Tax Act (Official Gazette 36/13, 3/23, 28/23, 33/26, 132/26), the Notary Tariff (49/2026), the Property Tax Act (25/19, 49/22, 152/22, 118/25, 133/25) and the municipal decisions under it, and MONSTAT's quarterly release. Amounts are in euros, rounded to the cent. Where the law leaves a choice to the parties, such as who pays the notary, the index states the rule rather than a market custom.

The index is updated every quarter, in February, May, August and November, and each edition keeps its date. A change of law between editions is added to the table above when it is published, with its date. Laws that do not touch a buyer's costs are tracked in Montenegro's new laws of 2026.

The next edition is due in February 2027, after MONSTAT's releases for the third and fourth quarters of 2026.

Pricing a specific purchase? The bands above are the law; the file decides which line applies to you, whether an exemption is available, and whether the price you are shown is a resale or a VAT sale. Our real estate service checks those points before you sign, and the detail behind each line is in our guides to transfer tax and VAT, property tax for foreign owners, and whether foreigners can buy property in Montenegro.