Welcome to Boka Bay Properties
If you are thinking about a home in the sun, let us introduce you to Montenegrin coast and Bay of Boka Kotorska, its exciting region.
We will offer you a professional and friendly advice and help you choose a location and property to suit you. We’ll also advice you about all the administration, legal matters, servicing and finance, leaving you to enjoy your asset with confidence. It is not only the range of properties we have available on our books; everything we sell is backed up by our professional expertise and commitment.
 |
|||||||||
| Type of property: Building Land Price: 185,000 E |
|||||||||
.............................................................................................................................................................................
Last news
| ARTICLE ON MONTENEGRO PROPERTY IN MONEY OBSERVER PROPERTY SPECIAL |
08.08.2009 |
| Europe’s bay of plenty An ambitious new marina development for the super wealthy in Montenegro could signal a return to the good times Barely a month ago, in the small Adriatic republic of Montenegro, a group of impressively wealthy investors launched a multi-million dollar marina facility, Porto Montenegro, to cater to luxury super yachts. Heading a gang of five key backers is Peter Munk, an 81-year-old Canadian multi-billionaire who is chairman of gold miner Barrick Resources and a one-time property mogul. Fellow investors include Lord Rothschild, his son Nathaniel, Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and Bernard Arnault, the LVMH tycoon. In nautical terms, the marina is a major initiative. There is a shortage of Mediterranean berths for super yachts, and the new port will accommodate boats of almost any length. Centres such as St Tropez and Monaco outstrip Montenegro in style and glamour. However, berthing at Porto Montenegro will be relatively cheap, while its setting in Kotor Bay, a vast, beguiling fiord that is widely acknowledged to be one of the world’s most scenic stretches of water, is peerless. ‘Owners of super yachts like to be seen,’ says Oliver Corlette, chief executive of the project, ‘but we will offer berths at a fraction of the price of the glamour spots.’ Also, many existing marinas can’t cater for the new ‘size is everything’ yachts recently launched – or about to be completed. Over the next year, more than 1,000 new luxury vessels, of varying lengths, will hit the water. The shaky world economy does not worry Corlette. ‘The slowdown is the best thing that could have happened to us. Owners of a large number of yachts will have to reduce their spending.’ Corlette, an Australian, formerly with the New York private equity side of Goldman Sachs, is offering juicy incentives, including heavily discounted berths, to those who buy an apartment in phase one of the project. Those who do not need berths can arrange to have them leased, but Corlette suspects few will take this option. Prices for the first offerings range from €185,000 (£160,053) for studios, to €1.5 million for four-bedroom duplexes and penthouses. ‘This is a fraction of what you would pay for waterfront marina properties elsewhere in Europe,’ he says. These prices reflect the astonishing, and controversial, bargain that Munk struck. He paid a paltry $5 million (£3.10 million) to buy the vast 24-hectare (59-acre) site – albeit a polluted one – that boasts almost 900 metres of waterfront. Prices also reflect the fact that jetties are already in place. ‘But the marina is the easy part,’ says Corlette. The immediate challenge is the waterfront, where dwellings will co-exist with a vast hotel, retail, bars, restaurants and much else. This could take five years to develop. Four Seasons has been named as operator of the five-star hotel. However, doubts over this deal have emerged. ‘I believe they have pulled out,’ Livio Ranza, manager of the exclusive Aman hotel at Sveti Stefan, reveals. ‘Oliver [Corlette] asked me if Aman wanted it. I said no.’ Other teething problems could beset the project. An international school and an entire village, extending up the hillsides, will be constructed, but the size of the development is uncertain. Corlette envisages a maritime community, with yacht captains and crew taking up permanent residence with their families. Like the waterfront project, the extended development will have winding, cobbled alleys and small piazzas – a mirror image of Montenegro’s world heritage Venetian towns, places such as Budvar, Perast and Kotor. ‘Everything will look like it has been there for ever,’ says Corlette. ‘But internally, it will be all luxury.’ Porto Montenegro’s speculative investment attractions, now and in future, are obvious. It is likely that a large number of investors will be Russians, dozens of whom ordered super yachts during Russia’s great oil-fuelled boom. Their compatriots arrived in hordes three years ago, fuelling the amazing Montenegrin property boom which, regrettably for some, is now just a fading memory. ‘The whole market is now a mess,’ says Ana Zlokovic, managing director of estate agency Bokabay. She has dealt almost exclusively with a small, yet significant minority – UK buyers and speculators. ‘The English were clever. They came in first and bought land at between €1 and €20 a square metre. They sold it for 20 times that amount.’ Zlokovic says apartment prices have fallen by 50 per cent in a year. Independently, one woman from Surrey says she bought at the top and curses the day she crossed the border from Croatia looking for a bargain. ‘The prices here were going up by the hour when I took the plunge. I might now get ¤550 a week rent for the two summer months.’ London-based fund manager Richard Penny, however, expresses the satisfaction of an early investor. ‘Prices doubled in five years, and I reckon are down 40 per cent in the last year, so I’m still ahead.’ Montenegrins deal in square metres. Around parts of Kotor Bay, prices for apartments with grand views are now €2,500 a square metre. ‘You can get a finished place for €300,000,’ he says. ‘Compared with Croatia, it’s still cheap.’ Estate agents are now thin on the ground and a glut of apartment properties, some half-finished, hang over the market, especially in overbuilt coastal towns such as Budvar and the other high-density areas of Becvici, Petrovac and Ulcinj, where four-bedroom apartments are widely available for €500,000. The invasion from the north effectively means Montenegro is now an extension of Russia. Incomers have bought an estimated 90 per cent of all properties in the past three years. ‘They paid cash and never tried to negotiate lower prices,’ says Zlokovic. Svetlana Samardzic, an agent who prospered hugely from the Russian buyers, says: ‘We like them here. Like most of us, they are Orthodox. Unlike the British, who might come twice a year, they’ll come three or four times.’ Religious bigotry touches the lives of all Montenegrins and this Orthodox link is crucial. Muslims and Catholics are very much a minority and wartime atrocities are still a vivid memory. Montenegro, barely the size of East Anglia, does not have capital gains tax or council tax. A good lawyer, readily found, is essential for conveyancing and arranging payment of the 3 per cent stamp duty. There are pitfalls to look out for but none that a good lawyer couldn’t spot. Most potential dangers relate to planning permission. Some foreign buyers, who rushed into boom-time deals without legal guidance, were duped into buying land, even completed houses, in areas designated as ‘green belt’. Where the Montenegrin property market now goes from here is anyone’s guess. But one way of looking at a Montenegrin property investment is that it is a de facto side bet on the Russian economy. Montenegro has become Russia’s paddling pool, its benign climate a similar lure to that of Spain for Britons. Once Russia’s economy recovers, new property buyers will, in all probability, return. In the meantime, Zlokovic believes she has identified a potential winner – for the patient investor – in the form of Durmitor, one of Montenegro’s four national parks. ‘It is undeveloped and just being discovered. Land prices start at €20 a square metre and rise to €100 for the best. A nice wooden four-bedroom cottage would cost €30,000 to build, and it would be offered for rent at €150 a day, [winter and summer],’ she says. The park includes Montenegro’s main ski resort, Zabljak, plus the famed Tara Canyon. This is a popular, year-round attraction, especially for summer hikers. EU-funded roads, she says, will eventually allow easy access from Dubrovnik in Croatia and the Adriatic coast. ‘Land prices in the park are cheap. You can still buy small stone cottages, 10km from the coast, for €45,000.’ Sam Barrett | |
| Read all news |
Money Observer, August 09 |
"Quick Move-In" Home - SPECIAL PRICE
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
.............................................................................................................................................................................
Our properties are located in Boka Kotorska. The area is unspoilt, not overrun by tourists and retains its character. Beaches are surrounded by orange, olive and pine trees, with a mountain backcloth. You should really visit this undiscovered idyllic area of Montenegro before you reach your final decision.
We offer a wide selection of new and resale beach and inland houses,
and superbly sited beach apartments, with a comprehensive price range
to suit most budgets. Whether you are interested in overseas property
for investment, retirement, leisure, or just pure self indulgence, with
a selection like ours you don’t have much of a choice!
