The Russians are...going? New buyers and investors lured to Montenegro prior to EU accession

Dubai money aims to lure new markets to buy at Porto Montenegro in Balkans' glorious Bay of Kotor

Investment Corporation Of Dubai (ICD) is backing the high-end Porto Montenegro development, anchored by the Regent Hotel, SIRO Hotel and 480 berth marina

Port paradise regained

THE exclamation ‘the Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming’ has been a chilling rhetoric since the Cold War, gaining traction in pop culture as a movie title. It is back with a chill in parts of Eastern Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine in spring 2022.

Reds sail in the sunset

However, pivoting towards ‘the Russians are Going’ might be the likes of the tiny Balkan state of Montenegro (formerly part of Yugoslavia, just south of favourite Irish holiday destination Croatia/Dubrovnik). 

Here, as the country works towards 2028 EU accession, sanctions have been applied to Russian investment locally and along the lines of EU and other Western countries.

Porto Montenegro Marina can take craft up to 250m long

While the success of sanctions against Russia’s super-wealthy and oligarchs is likely to be uneven, a very visible example is the presence of the €250m superyacht Luminosity tied up at the upscale 48-berth marina in Balkan beauty spot Porto Montenegro since 2022.

Also there, dramatically, is the 350ft, three-masted superyacht (one of the world’s largest floating palaces with sails) Black Pearl, the subject of a recently deceased Russian oligarch’s internal family ownership dispute.

Dark sails in the sunshine as  sanctions bite on Russian oligarchs and their offshore assets (pic shows Black Pearl)

Between those two mega-valuable floating assets, and the assorted ‘lesser’ gin palaces of the internationally mobile, high-net worth individuals, there’s real cachet to the high-end (and, pitching even higher) cosmopolitan destination of Porto Montenegro.

Porto Montenegro's Regent Hotel, owned by the Investment Corporation (ICD) of Dubai  which has ambitious on-going plans for the former Yugoslav naval shipyard site

That’s thanks to investment by owners the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), who took over this multi-strand Adriatic resort with hotels, marina, residential developments, and commercial/retail in 2018 from Canadian initiator Peter Munk for c €200m. It is currently multiplying that investment in multiples and scale over the next five to 10 years.

The ICD, that state’s sovereign wealth fund (one of the world’s largest with $320bn in assets), is leading the move of Gulf emirates, which are diversifying wealth from oil to other sectors. Other United Arab Emirate (UAE) funds and investors (eg billionaire Mohamed Alabbar) are also pouring investment in to proudly independent and EU-aligning Montenegro.

Porto Montenegro 

Billed as one of Mediterranean/Adriatic’s upcoming hotspots, on the back of its platinum-grade, large-scale, 480-berth marina (able to take boats of up to 250m, but few of this scale yet exist), Porto Montenegro, which fringes the town of Tivat, is a transformative development on the site of a former Yugoslav naval shipyard, with some display submarines still forming part of its visitor attractions.

The mountainous country (population 600,000) has spectacular scenery and attractions, dropping to the sea here on the fjord-like Bay of Kotor, where the ancient Kotor city is UNESCO-protected, and a popular cruise ship destination. It’s short boat ride from Porto Montenegro.... if your own craft is swift enough.

Bay of Kotor has a UNESCO town and cruise ship berths

Up to now, Russians have been the largest category of property investor in Montenegro (one report has them owning 19,000 properties in the state, perhaps understandably, given its former Iron Curtin heritage and Riveria-like appeal). It stands at over 32% in Porto Montenegro, followed by the UK (11%) and Ukraine (8%), but since 2022 that’s shifted firmly to the West for future investment and profile.

Gulf-based owners ICD are spending a further €60m on marine investments at their unabashedly luxurious Kotor bay homeport, and have taken over a shipyard now branded as Adriatic 62 at Bijela, across the waters of the bay for repair, and for servicing refits of premier and luxury superyachts.

Porto Montenegro already employs 1,000 in season, and the c300 employees and sub-contractors coming on board for the boat-refit investment are already putting further pressure on available accommodation, says Porto Montenegro’s MD, David Margason, on a recent UK/Irish press trip to the location. (300 days a year of sunshine is another lure for less well-heeled mortals.)

Delivered since c 2016 on the c 70-hectare west-facing, town-based former naval-base site is headed by the Italianate-style Regent Hotel (with 61m infinity pool) and residences.

Regent Hotel and marina

(The UK Reform party Nigel Farage’s side-kick, George Cottrell, reportedly has a suite here) Just opened in 2025 is a second hotel, the more contemporary Siro (with keen focus on health-and-wellbeing facilities) at a completed section called Boka Place, and there’s also extensive high-end retail doing branded goods; 600 residential units to date; international school with day and boarding facilities; and sports, cultural and entertainment facilities.

Porto Montenegro's Boka Place

The ICD’s additional spend, so far, is north of €600m, with major new land-based and sea ‘legs’ to follow.

Next selling to all-comers — EU, Irish, US and UK — it’s anticipated , and with a very low tax take for investors, are two more contemporary buildings: Vero with 155 apartments; and Versa, with 47 residences.

The prices range from €390,000 and €416,000 for studios/one-beds, up to €1.9m and on to €3.18m for vast suites, with rental/management options for all. There’s flight options via Dubrovnik just over the border in Croatia (c three hours from Dublin) or, more seasonally and locally to adjacent Tivat. They’re cheaper than many of the yachts tied up alongside at the marina...

portomontenegro.com