How to Sell an Apartment in Montenegro: The Complete Guide

How much tax do I pay when I sell my apartment? Capital gains tax is 15% on the difference between the sale price and the acquisition price, but it is not due if the apartment was your only and main place of residence. The transfer tax is paid by the buyer, not by you.

Search for how to sell an apartment and most of what comes back is written for another country: tax advice for Serbia, Croatia or Bosnia, or guides for buyers rather than sellers. For an owner selling in Montenegro that is risky: the tax rate, the name of the competent office and the legalisation deadlines are not the same here. This guide follows the order in which a sale actually happens and sticks to Montenegrin rules.

One thing is skipped most often in practice and costs the most: a sale does not start with the price or the photos but with the property's legal status. If the status is not clean, a buyer appears and then walks away at the notary.

Step one: can you sell at all

Check your title extract (list nepokretnosti) before you publish anything. These are the situations that come up most often in Montenegro and what each of them means:

Two items need a closer explanation, because that is where most mistakes happen.

Illegal structures and the 14 August 2027 deadline

The legalisation law (Zakon o legalizaciji bespravnih objekata) entered into force on 14 August 2025. The deadline to initiate registration in the cadastre was first six months, so until 14 February 2026; in February 2026 it was extended to twelve months, and by the August 2026 amendment (117/2026) to twenty-four, which means until 14 August 2027. The same August amendment moved the cost of the commission's on-site inspection onto the owner.

Three consequences sellers usually do not know:

• Registration in the cadastre does not mean the structure is legalised. They are two separate procedures, and a buyer who reads the documents carefully sees the difference.
• Structures that are not visible on the satellite and aerial imagery of July 2025 cannot be registered, unless the owner proves with a survey report and an expert's finding that the structure stood before July 2025. If the construction or the extra floor is later, the deadline does not help you.
• Until the legalisation decision, an illegal structure cannot be sold (Article 33 of the legalisation law). The February 2026 amendment allows only exceptions: a mortgage, a lease, inheritance, gifts and division among first-order heirs, transfers based on a court decision or in enforcement, and an apartment carrying the note "nema upotrebnu dozvolu" can be sold if it was built in line with the building permit.

Fijaka is a classifieds platform and does not give legal advice. If your property is in this zone, check the procedure and the documents with the competent authority; the official description of the procedure is on the government page on the legalisation procedure.

Mortgage and co-owners

An apartment under a mortgage can be sold, but not by keeping quiet about it. The bank has to know, and the way the loan is closed from the purchase price has to be agreed, with the mortgage then deleted from the title extract. A buyer almost never agrees to pay the full amount before the deletion, so the payment is split into tranches through the notary.

With several co-owners, every one of them has to sign, or give a certified power of attorney. If a co-owner lives abroad, prepare the power of attorney at the start, not in the week before signing.

Documents to prepare before the listing

The basic document is the title extract (list nepokretnosti) issued by the Cadastre and State Property Administration. It is obtained from the regional unit where the property is located, with a form and payment of the administrative fee and the service fee. The official instructions with the form and the payment accounts are in the guidance for citizens on obtaining a title extract; the amounts in that notice were published in 2021, so check them with the regional unit before paying.

Alongside the title extract, prepare an ID card or passport, proof of how you acquired the property (the old purchase contract, an inheritance decision, a gift contract), and proof of paid bills and surtax if the buyer asks. If the apartment is in a building with a building manager, also get a confirmation that there are no arrears, because unpaid shared costs pass to the new owner as a practical problem.

Taxes: who pays what

This is where most confusion arises, because rates from neighbouring countries are carried over to Montenegro. The split is as follows:

For the seller only the third row matters, and it carries good news many people do not know. The capital gain is the difference between the sale price and the acquisition price, with the sale price reduced by documented renovation costs and the costs of the sale. But a capital gain is not taxed if the property served the seller as their only and main place of residence. There are also exemptions for transfers between spouses and for gifts to first-degree relatives.

In practice this means: if you sell the apartment you were registered at and lived in, and it is your only property, you usually pay no capital gains tax. If you sell a second apartment, a holiday home or a property bought as an investment, you pay 15% on the difference and report it in the annual tax return, by the end of April for the previous year.

That is why the paperwork on the acquisition price is valuable. The old contract showing what you paid directly reduces the tax base. If you received the property as a gift or an inheritance, the acquisition price is the price at which the donor or the deceased acquired it.

How to post the listing yourself: ten steps

If you sell without an agency, you write the listing yourself, and it is twenty minutes' work if the documents are ready. On Fijaka a property listing has ten steps, checked on the live site: Category, Listing Type, Location, Details, Overview, Features, Equipment & Features, Photos, Description and the final Preview. In the first step you choose Real Estate and a subcategory (Apartments, Villas, Penthouses, Stone Houses, Land or Commercial), and in the second whether the listing is For Sale, For Rent or Both.

In the Details step you enter the Listing Title, Price, Currency and Seller Type. The Overview step asks for the fields buyers actually filter on: Property Type, Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Living Area, Total Rooms, Floor and Total Floors; property type, bedrooms and living area are required. The Heating Type is chosen in the Features step. Every field you skip is a filter your apartment will not appear in, so fill them all in, even the ones that seem unimportant.

A few things separate a listing that rings from one that sits:

• Area and floor in the first line of the description. They are the two facts that most often stop buyers from calling.
• Photos in daylight, without people and without furniture in the frame that is not included. An empty room is better than a cluttered one.
• State the legal status openly. Registered, registration in progress, under a mortgage. Buyers who read it at the start do not walk away at the notary, and that is the only kind of buyer you want.
• Write the price. Listings without a price get "how much" messages, not viewings.

You post the listing on the create a listing page; to see what published listings look like, browse the real estate category and, for the coast, the Budva real estate page.

Notary, payment and transfer of ownership

A property purchase contract in Montenegro is concluded before a notary. The order that protects both sides looks like this:

1. Agree the price and the payment method, and put them in a preliminary contract with clear terms for returning the deposit.
2. The notary drafts and certifies the purchase contract, checking identity and documents.
3. The buyer files the transfer tax return within 15 days of the tax liability arising. The base is the market value of the property; if the agreed price is lower than the market value, the tax authority sets it by assessment.
4. The buyer registers the right in the cadastre. Ownership passes with registration, not with the signature. Until the registration is done, the deal is not finished.
5. You, as the seller, keep a record of the price and costs for a possible annual capital gains return.

The most common mistakes

• Listing before checking the title extract. The buyer does that check instead of you and walks away.
• A mortgage or co-owner kept quiet. It comes out at the notary, at the worst moment.
• Declaring a lower price in the contract. If the price is below market value the tax authority assesses it anyway, and a lower recorded price later increases the buyer's capital gain on the next sale and can cause them trouble if they need the value for a residence permit.
• A listing without area, floor and price. It does not show up in filters and gets no calls.
• Waiting until the last month of the legalisation deadline. A survey report of the as-built state is not produced in a week.

Frequently asked questions

Can an apartment that is not registered be sold? Not in an orderly way. The buyer cannot register a right that does not exist in the cadastre, and without registration ownership does not pass. Registration is sorted out before the sale.

Can an illegally built structure be sold? Not in ordinary trade. Until the legalisation decision, Article 33 of the legalisation law prohibits disposal, with exceptions such as inheritance, gifts within the family and court decisions. The deadline to initiate cadastral registration has been extended to 14 August 2027, but registration by itself does not mean legalisation. An apartment with the note "nema upotrebnu dozvolu" that was built in line with the building permit can be sold.

How do you sell an apartment under a mortgage? With the bank's consent and an agreed way of closing the loan from the price, with payment through the notary in tranches and the mortgage deleted from the title extract.

Can I sell without an agency? You can. You post the listing yourself, and the legal part of the work is done by the notary anyway. Commission is a matter of contract, not a legal obligation.

What if the apartment is owned by several people? All co-owners have to sign, or give a certified power of attorney. One co-owner cannot sell the whole property alone.

Sources

Legalisation and registration procedure: Government of Montenegro, legalisation procedure. Obtaining a title extract: guidance for citizens. The transfer tax rates have been progressive since 1 January 2024, and the capital gains exemption for the only and main place of residence is set by the Personal Income Tax Act.

The legalisation deadlines were changed twice in 2026. Before you start the procedure, check the date and the required documents with the regional unit of the Cadastre and State Property Administration.