Montenegro: Kotor appeals to nature-seeking nomads

Kotor and the municipalities around the bay — Perast, Tivat, Herceg Novi — combine an exceptional natural setting, listed heritage and a cost of living well below Western European levels.

The euro is used there, adopted unilaterally by Montenegro, which removes any currency risk for a French resident and makes prices immediately readable.

Internal distances are short, and Tivat airport is a few minutes from Kotor — a rare asset for a destination of this size.

The country has also created a permit for digital nomads, issued for up to two years and renewable once, for a total of up to 4 years¹.

The official portal states that the temporary residence permit is issued within up to 40 days² of submitting a complete application.

It should be noted that the permit is reserved for people working for an employer or clients located outside Montenegro. Working for a Montenegrin company is excluded, which is the common rule for such schemes and limits the options for changing career locally.

The Bay of Kotor is one of the most touristic areas of the Adriatic. In high season, it receives cruise ships and visitor numbers out of all proportion to its permanent population.

This seasonality has three concrete effects on living there year-round. Annual leases are hard to obtain, as landlords favour summer letting, which is far more lucrative.

Services — restaurants, shops, transport — run at a slower pace out of season, and some close. Daily life from October to April has nothing in common with summer.

Finally, international flights are seasonal and few outside summer, which significantly lengthens journeys to France for much of the year.

An applicant should therefore visit in February as well as in August. It is the most useful advice that can be given about this destination, and the least followed.

We do not publish rent levels or a typical monthly budget for Montenegro: we have not found an official series measuring a basket of spending comparable to an expat's.

Montenegrin law treats as resident a person whose habitual residence is in the country or who stays there for at least 183 days³ during a tax year.

A continuous stay under a nomad permit therefore crosses this threshold in the first year. Unlike the Croatian scheme, Montenegro does not exclude remote work income from its tax base.

The scale is short: an initial exempt portion, then from 9%⁴ on the middle band and 15%⁵ above. These levels are among the lowest in Europe.

A foreigner can buy a built property without prior authorisation. Two checks are essential on the coast: the legality of building permits, property by property, and connection to utilities, particularly sewerage, whose coverage is uneven.

As owning a property has traditionally opened a temporary residence permit, part of the market is sold on that argument. It should be checked that the target property actually meets the conditions.

• Seasonality is the decisive parameter for living in the bay year-round.
• The nomad permit can last up to up to 4 years¹, which makes it a scheme for settling.
• It leads automatically to Montenegrin tax residency, with no income exclusion.
• The legality of coastal buildings must be checked property by property.
• The euro is used there although the country is not part of the euro area.

Finally, Montenegro is a candidate for European Union membership. This process requires regulatory and tax convergence whose effect on current rates is uncertain: a project of a few years can live with it, a fifteen-year project must factor it in.