Montenegro’s example in regulating the property market

I am analysing Montenegro’s property market, and my first impression has been very positive: I have been struck by its current standards, its commitment and the seriousness with which it approaches the future.

The local administration gives licensed professional agents the tools to prevent unqualified operators from entering the profession and to provide security for buyers.

I have also become acquainted with Albania’s emerging property market, which is experiencing steady growth thanks to its investment incentives and attractive prices. Markets saturated by high prices will have to adjust in the face of these new competitors.

In Mallorca and Ibiza, licensed agents registered with the government body that oversees us face, on the one hand, competition from traders who, however surreal it may seem, can sell refrigerators and houses at the same time; and, on the other, from many foreign agents who do not even speak either of the two co-official languages: Spanish and Catalan. As a result, the latter live in a small expat world, with no connection to the local community.

To work as an estate agent in Montenegro, you must take an examination in the local language.

Spain should look to Montenegro’s regulatory policies as a reference for strengthening oversight of the property sector. In the Balearic Islands, however, the central government demanded that the estate agents’ register, made compulsory by Law 3/2024, become voluntary. I believe that requiring professional training, professional liability insurance and surety insurance is necessary to provide greater protection for buyers and the community as a whole.

We are no longer asking that those who come to work in Mallorca and Ibiza speak Spanish, let alone Catalan; we ask that they at least hold a licence and provide criminal record certificates from Spain and their country of origin.

Spain’s biggest problem today is access to housing for its population. This is even more acute in the Balearic Islands, where, over the past ten years, caravan settlements have multiplied, along with cases of people who work in luxury hotels but sleep in cars, as happens in Ibiza.

As licensed agents, we recognise the fear and understandable mistrust felt by international buyers. Many of these clients have had bad experiences with rogue agencies or foreign sales agents operating in the Balearic Islands without knowing local laws or the language, and without establishing their residence here. When these transient agents eventually leave the islands, clients cannot even locate them. This creates a feeling of being completely unprotected.

Online property listing platforms should be the first to help oversee the market. Over these years, they have become wealthier and grown exponentially without applying controls to rogue agencies or carrying out even the most basic checks on the personal details of individuals who place advertisements. Meanwhile, over those same years, local people have seen access to housing become impossible. If platforms at least required those posting listings to hold a licence and cross-checked their details with the public administration, illegal listings would fall substantially.

I will try to attend the BNA Tirana Conference on 14 November, organised by Business Network Albania. This business gathering in the Albanian capital will include sessions on tourism and the property market, and I hope it will be an opportunity to meet fellow professionals and exchange experiences.

It is not very difficult. It takes political will on the one hand, and corporate social responsibility on the other. Platforms would continue to make money; they would help improve the market and establish a regulatory framework suited to the environment in which we work.