Residence through property: what changed in 2026
· 5 min read
Ownership of property in Montenegro has been grounds for a temporary residence permit for years, and for most of that time the law set no minimum value. A village ruin and a marina penthouse opened the same door.
That ended on 17 January 2026. The amendments to the Law on Foreigners, published in the Official Gazette at the start of the year, attached a number to the route — and exempted a large group of buyers from it.
The €150,000 is not the price you paid
The threshold is a tax-assessed value: the figure the Tax Administration sets in its decision on real estate transfer tax. It is not the price in your sale contract, not the asking price, and not a valuation you commission.
That distinction decides cases. A property bought at €160,000 can be assessed below the threshold, and one bought cheaply from a relative can be assessed above it. If residence is part of why you are buying, the assessed value is a question for before the offer, not after completion.
The government originally proposed €200,000 in November 2025. Parliament settled on €150,000, which is where it stands.
Who does not have to prove it
Nationals of EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are exempt from the value requirement, and so are their family members regardless of their own nationality. For them the route is unchanged.
Everyone else — including British, American, Turkish, Russian and Gulf buyers — must meet it. This is the first time Montenegrin residence law has drawn a line of this kind through the property market, and a good deal of published advice has not caught up with it.
If you already hold a permit granted on this basis before 17 January 2026, you can renew without proving the value. The change does not reach backwards.
What the permit is, and what it is not
It is issued for one year and renewed annually for as long as you continue to meet the conditions, with no ceiling on the number of renewals — which is the part that distinguishes it from the ordinary temporary permit.
It is not a work permit. Residence on this basis lets you live here; employment requires its own ground. It is also not a step on a path: time accumulated under a property permit does not count towards permanent residence, so treating it as a runway to citizenship is a misreading that costs people years.
Renewal is applied for before expiry, and the conditions include continuing ownership and settled property tax. The full document list, fees and timings are on our purchase page, which is kept alongside the agency’s own practice.
What this means when choosing a property
For a non-EU buyer the threshold quietly reshapes the bottom of the market. Below roughly €150,000 of assessed value, a purchase is a purchase and nothing more; above it, the same money also buys the right to be here. Buyers who would have looked at a studio are looking at one-bedroom apartments instead.
On the coast this is less restrictive than it sounds. Assessed values on newer stock in Tivat, Budva and Kotor frequently sit above the threshold on their own, which is why buyers with residence in mind tend to concentrate there rather than inland.
The rule is eight months old, and most of what is written about Montenegrin residence online predates it or repeats the €200,000 figure from the draft. If an agent tells you any property will do, ask them which gazette they are reading.
Figures on this page are calculated from the live portfolio and change with it.
Informational guide based on Montenegrin legislation as of 21 September 2026. Transactions are finalized via licensed public notaries.