Montenegro Property Prices: The Official New-Build Price Series From MONSTAT, 2006 to 2026, by Region

Most figures quoted for Montenegrin property prices come from listing portals and agents: asking prices, for whatever happens to be advertised. The state publishes a different number. MONSTAT, the statistical office, calculates the average price per square metre of new apartments actually sold, from the sale contracts themselves, every quarter since 2011 and every half-year before that. It is the figure municipalities use when they calculate property tax, and it is the only official series.

This page sets out that series as MONSTAT publishes it, explains what it measures and what it does not, and adds the official count of new dwellings approved for construction. It was taken from MONSTAT's data file on 28 September 2026. The latest quarter, Q2 2026, is marked provisional by MONSTAT.

What the number measures

MONSTAT's methodology (December 2025) is specific:

• New dwellings only. It covers apartments sold for the first time by the investor, under a signed sale contract. Resales from the existing housing stock are outside it, and so are commercial premises and land.
• Contract prices, not asking prices. The source is the sale contract. MONSTAT states that the survey does not reflect supply and demand on the market, only prices from concluded contracts.
• Weighted by floor area. Each price is weighted by the apartment's area, so large apartments count for more.
• Two sellers inside one average. The national average includes commercial developers and "solidarity housing", apartments sold by housing cooperatives and public bodies on favourable terms. Since 2018 MONSTAT publishes the developers' average separately. When solidarity housing is a large share of a quarter's sales, the overall average falls; that is part of why 2020 looks so low.

The annual series by region, 2018 to 2026

MONSTAT groups municipalities into regions: the coastal region is Bar, Budva, Herceg Novi, Kotor, Tivat and Ulcinj; the central region is Cetinje, Danilovgrad, Nikšić, Tuzi and Zeta; the northern region is the thirteen municipalities from Andrijevica to Žabljak. Prices are in euros per square metre.

On these figures the national average for new apartments rose from €1,122 in 2018 to €2,200 in 2025, and the coastal average from €1,397 to €2,412. The regional figures move more from quarter to quarter than the national one, because each region has fewer sales; the central region's Q2 2026 figure rests on a small number of contracts.

The quarterly series, 2023 to 2026

The longer view, 2006 to 2017

Before 2011 MONSTAT published half-yearly figures, and before 2018 it reported Podgorica, Bar, Budva and Nikšić separately instead of regions, so the older years are not directly comparable with the table above. At national level the annual average was €1,087 in 2006, reached €1,530 in 2008, fell back to €1,250 in 2009, and stayed between €1,011 (2016) and €1,307 (2011) until 2017, when it was €1,111. The national figure did not pass its 2008 level until 2023.

New dwellings approved for construction

MONSTAT also counts the dwellings in building permits issued each year. The series changes in 2018, when the count drops from over a thousand permits a year to a few hundred, so years before and after 2018 should not be compared.

Why this number matters beyond the market

The same MONSTAT average feeds the annual property tax. Article 6b of the Property Tax Act points municipalities to the average price of new dwellings published by the statistics office for the previous year as a starting point for the market value they tax, corrected by the municipality's own coefficient. Facing a 2025 average well above 2024's €1,844, Kotor lowered its coefficient from 1.10 to 0.95 in March 2026 to soften the rise in bills. The rates each coastal municipality then applies are in our table of property tax rates by municipality, and the mechanism in property tax for foreign owners.

What the series cannot tell you

It is not a price for any particular apartment. It says nothing about resale prices, which are what most foreign buyers pay, and nothing about a specific building, street or view. It does not include VAT treatment, transfer tax or fees, which are set out in Montenegro tax rates 2026. For what a price does and does not buy legally in a given town, our market notes on Budva, Kotor and Tivat describe the legal character of the stock rather than the price.

Whose side we are on, and how we are paid

Every other professional around a Montenegrin transaction is paid out of the transaction. The agent's commission depends on the sale completing. The developer's sales team belongs to the developer. The notary owes duties to the act, not to you. That is not a scandal; it is simply how those roles are funded, and it decides what each of them is able to tell you.

We take no commission from sellers, developers, agents or brokers. None, in any form, on any file. The fee you pay us is our only income from your matter, and it does not increase if you sign. That single fact is the whole difference: because our position does not move when the deal moves, "do not buy this one" costs us nothing to say.

What that looks like in the file, rather than in a slogan: we obtain the register extracts ourselves instead of accepting the copies handed over by the seller or the agent; we read the contract against your position rather than against completion; we put in writing when the answer is that the matter should not proceed; and where a defect can be cured, we tell you what it costs in time before you commit money.

One boundary we state plainly. We are lawyers, not licensed investment advisers or valuers. This page reports official statistics; it does not say whether prices will rise or fall, or whether any property is worth its price. What we protect is your legal position: the title, the contract, the registration, the status, and the deadlines that decide all four. That is the service the fee buys, and paying for it directly is precisely what allows it to be given without regard to whether you sign.

Before you buy

A price is a question for a valuer and for you. Whether the apartment behind the price has a clean title, a use permit and a contract that protects your money is a question for us. Send us the listing and the draft contract before you pay a deposit. Property matters sit with our real estate practice.