This article was taken from Mail Online By Richard Webber (Last updated at 12:44 PM on 4th May 2009):
We want to do the full Montenegro! A nudist resort and a holiday letting business, two reasons why these British couples are banking on the Balkans
Eight years ago, Montenegro was still embroiled in the Balkan dispute, deemed an aggressor through its union with Serbia and suffering the effects of United Nations sanctions.
But after holiday-home buyers hailed Croatia as the 'next big thing' in 2004, it was not long before attention turned to its cheaper neighbour to the south, whose border lies ten miles from Dubrovnik airport.
British and Russian developers began exploiting this tiny nation's real-estate potential, and its emergence featured in property programmes such as Channel 4's One Year To Pay Off Your Mortgage.
What it lacks in size - it's no bigger than East Anglia, with a population of 670,000 - it makes up for in natural beauty, including stunning beaches along its 180-mile Adriatic coastline, seemingly impenetrable mountain ranges and historic towns. Today, it's a year-round home to about 300 British citizens.
But it was never entirely unknown. The mini-island hotel of Sveti Stefan in President Tito's time was visited by movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren and Kirk Douglas. More recently, supermodel Claudia Schiffer has holidayed there.
Next month easyJet resumes flights to Dubrovnik, which is served all year by BA and Flybe from Birmingham, and a fair number of passengers will head south to Montenegro, which split from Serbia in 2006.
Serbian speaking, Orthodox and with a far more casual view of government than Croatia, Montenegro experienced a mini property boom between 2006 and 2008, when prices doubled.
Like elsewhere in Europe, Montenegro has its share of halffinished building sites as the recession grips, but construction has not ground to a complete halt.
'There are some unfinished apartment buildings, but that's always been the case - projects are often started with minimum thought regarding financing the entire build,' says Matt Lane, 36, a former software development manager, who has been living in Montenegro with his partner Amy, 38, since 2005.
'But lots of properties are also being finished.' Matt's holiday business offers kayaking trips around the country's coast and rivers and he also runs property development company Blenheim Consulting (www.blenheimconsulting.com).
'There's nowhere like Montenegro for the range of scenery and opportunities,' he says.
'In early spring, there can be several feet of snow in the mountains, just 20 minutes' drive away, yet it is warm enough for the beach.' Home for Matt, Amy and their daughter Grace, two, is a twobedroom villa in the northern hilltop village of Suscepan, with expansive views of the deep-blue Adriatic below.
The house is on the market for €150,000 (£132,000) as the couple, who are expecting another baby, want to build a bigger home with rentable apartments.
Montenegro remains one of the poorest nations in the region and its infrastructure is in need of improvement. But modernisation is underway, thanks to European Union funding, with £26.5million spent on building a mains water and sewerage system down the entire coastline.
Another couple similarly charmed by Montenegro are former IT technician Steve Boyton- Jennings, 48, and his wife Denise, 38, a human resources manager.
They sold their three-bedroom house in Watford to move to Montenegro in May 2006 with plans to open a naturist resort - the former Yugoslavia having been a haven for Europe's nudists since the Fifties.
With a £200,000 budget, they bought a two-acre plot for €100,000 (£88,400), close to the Croatian border and Dubrovnik airport. Against a backdrop of the Orijen Massif Mountains, it has sweeping views of the Sutorina Valley.
But their vision to build timber cabins for their naturist clientele suffered a fatal blow last Christmas when the government announced plans for the Montenegrin section of the Adriatic Highway, which will link Greece with the rest of Europe.
'The proposed route cuts right through our land,' says Denise, who was reduced to tears when she heard the news.
'Building our resort was going to be an expensive project, so the risk of compulsory purchase orders and having everything pulled down was too great,' says Steve.
They have scaled down their plans to open the Club Full Monte in August (www.full-monte.com), an eco-friendly, clothing-optional campsite on the same plot.
Despite news of the six-lane highway, Steve and Denise, who rent a three-bedroom property overlooking picturesque Boka Bay in the northern town of Herceg Novi, remain upbeat about their future.
'The road will be fantastic news for Montenegro, even if it means our campsite lasts only a decade.
'The irony of our eco-camp eventually being prime land for un-eco things like roads and petrol stations isn't lost on us,' says Steve.
He feels that tumbling property values - between 20 and 50 per cent in some cases - will simply return house prices to a more realistic level.
Jelena Cvjetkovic, of Savills Montenegro (www.savmontenegro.com), acknowledges that some prices have dropped by as much as half.
Andrea Marston, of Montenegro Prospects (www.montenegroprospects.com), says there isn't a pattern to which areas or types of properties have reduced the most.
'Some sellers, including British people who bought three years ago when the euro was weak against sterling, can afford to drop prices significantly and still come out on top,' he says.
Marston is marketing the Jaz apartments, three miles from the coastal town of Budva, with two-bedroom penthouses going for €110,000 (£97,300), and one-bedroom apartments for €60,000 (£53,000).
'They were double that last year, but the Canadian developer wants to sell and move on.'
She is also selling a £220,000 two-bedroom frontline apartment in Dobrota, close to Kotor, which last year was priced at £398,000
SOURCE: Mail Online
Eco Camping Naturally Wrapped - Camp Full Monte
Flickr: dblgiggles' Photostream
Camp Full Monte (campfullmonte) on Twitter
Denise Boyton-Jennings on Vimeo
