Visit-Montenegro.com : Zavala is a Joke in Comparison to Skocidjevojka

Podgorica – Egyptian investors from “Joud Real Estate Fund” and their affiliate “Monte Mena” from Podgorica have advertised the selling of the total of 160 flats and 23 villas, which will be built at the attractive location in the vicinity of Sveti Stefan.

Egyptians have announced that they would also build a hotel with a conference center at the same location, as well as the night club, marina for mega-yachts, spa-center…

Project is entitled “Royal Montenegro Grand Resort”. Its’ advertising started only a short while ago. Judging by all the information available, only a small portion of this resort will have to do with the tourist contents, while around 70 percent of the capacity will comprise of apartments and villas which will be offered to the market.

As far as Skocidjevojka is concerned, Egyptians are offering four premium residential villas, with their price ranging between Euro 9,8 and 10,8 Million, seven huge cascade villas at Euro 4,6 Million, 12 cascade villas between Euro 2,6 and 2,7 Million. These are the highest prices for similar objects ever to have been advertised in Montenegro.

On offer is also 160 apartments, which will be built on the coast in four residential blocks, at the prices ranging between Euro 800,000 and 2 Million, depending on the position and level they would be on. Four residential blocks, which would have between seven and 13 floors, have been named Royal Sea, Royal Diamond, Royal Gold and Royal Sun.

Total market value of these villas is estimated to Euro 106 Million, while the value of apartments comes up to Euro 202 Million. This means that, if everything is sold at the announced priced, Egyptians would earn more than Euro 308 Million from these villas and flats. In that case, they will probably be able to fully cover the expenses of the hotel which would have the capacity of 250 rooms.

In many tourist countries, investors also build apartments and villas, which are sold in advance, as a company to future hotels. Buyers are, in majority of case, very rich people, who spend little time in those objects.

Many countries allow the investors to build apartments and villas for sale parallel to hotels, as this provides profit and motivates the investors to build tourist complexes. In such cases, investors are mostly interested in selling of real-estate, which brings genuine profits. Tourism is their side activity, as it is not so highly profitable.

Skocidjevojka and Zavala are simply current examples, as similar ventures are also planned along Budva’s Riviera, in Tivat, Ulcinj, etc.

Milovac: Beaches Covered with Concrete

According to the Spatial Plan of Budva’s Municipality, locality at Skocidjevojka is envisaged for the tourist valorization, with “complementary activities”, which would be further developed through the Spatial Project, that is the Study of the Locality.

Spatial Plan envisages further development of two locations: Spatial Project for low-density tourist zone “Skocidjevojka” and Study for the Locality of Skocidjevojka.

According to the data in this plan, and contrary to its’ title, first document envisages exclusively building of tourist contents, while the other also allows low-density objects for tenants. First document, according to the information from the Plan, covers the surface on the immediate coast, while the other also includes area in its background.

“According to its’ nature, this project is quite similar to the project ‘Astra Montenegro’ at Zavala, which has, at first, been presented exclusively as the tourist complex. As the construction works progressed, it turned out that all the villas which had been built were only and exclusively made for the real-estate market.

One cannot even discuss the so called elite tourism and the creation of new jobs and other categories which are so eagerly mentioned by Budva’s top-officials”, coordinator for the Network for the Affirmation of the Civil Sector (MANS) has told “Vijesti.”

“There is an increasing tendency to categorize building of such objects, even in the planning documentation, as the ‘apartment settlements of the residential type.’ Translated to a more common language, this means nothing other than the building of flats for the market, without any investments to high-quality tourism.

The real-estate market, that is the selling of apartments and villas is far more profitable for all the investors who invest to the Municipality of Budva than are the investments into tourist capacities, which may bring certain profits after some time, but not even close to the amounts which can be earned by the selling of the real-estate”, Milovac emphasizes.

He finds that Montenegro and Budva, in particular, are interested to the foreigners not only as the tourist destination, but also as the market for the real-estate.

“It is relatively easy to cover Montenegrin landscapes with concrete and turn it into clear profits, without any long-term and sustainable investments into tourist industry, market development, infrastructure and all those other things which need to be done in order to make the profit from tourism at reach for the local population”, Milovac has concluded.

Who are the Investors?

Investors at Skocidjevojka are “Joud Real Estate Fund” from Egypt and their affiliate in Podgorica, “Monte Mena.” Website also reads that their partner is famous Egyptian company “Orascom”, which has recently been the only company to have submitted an offer for the purchase of land at Lustica.

As it has been stated recently, “Joud Real Estate Fund” is an Egyptian Fund ran by Osoul Fund Management, which is one of the most successful residential, commercial and tourist investors in the region of the Middle East and North Africa.

Company “Monte Mena” was founded in 2007, with its’ headquarters at Podgorica. Its’ founder is off-shore company “Montenegro Real Estate Investment Company Limited” from the British Virgin Islands.

(29 October 2008)

By: Z. VUČINIĆ