Where to live in Albania: Tirana, the coast or the lakes

How to choose where to live in Albania

Albania is small, three hundred kilometres from north to south, but it packs in a capital with a nightlife district, an Adriatic coast of wide sandy beaches, an Ionian coast of steep cliffs and clear water, and an inland of lakes and mountains with real winters. The four questions that sort people into the right place are: do you need year-round life or is a quiet winter fine, how close must a hospital and an airport be, do you want sea or mountains, and how much house do you need for your money. The Albania hub has a page for each of sixteen places with live prices; this article is the short version for people deciding where to live.

Living in Tirana

Tirana is the only place in Albania that is fully alive twelve months a year. It has the best hospitals, international schools, coworking spaces, the airport twenty minutes away and a restaurant scene that has improved faster than anywhere else in the Balkans. Summers are hot, winters mild and wet, and the mountains behind the city are a short drive. Housing runs from older blocks at the lower end to new towers in Blloku and along the ring road at €1,756 per square metre median. Traffic and construction noise are the honest downsides. It suits families, remote workers and anyone who wants a city first and the sea second; see apartments for sale in Tirana.

Durrës and the Adriatic coast

Durrës is a working port city of around 200,000 with a long sandy beach, a hospital, a university and Tirana thirty minutes away. South of it the Golem, Qerret and Kavajë strip is almost entirely new holiday complexes: cheap to buy, full in summer, half empty in winter. Durrës itself keeps its shops and cafés open year-round; the strip does not. It suits people who want a beach, a real town and the airport all within reach, and buyers on a tighter budget: the lowest entry prices on the Albanian sea are here. Start with apartments for sale in Durrës.

Vlorë: the city on the Ionian

Vlorë is where the Adriatic becomes the Ionian and the water turns from sandy green to deep blue. It is a city of 80,000 with a long new promenade, a hospital, year-round life and the new airport at Vlorë a short drive away. Prices per square metre sit between the Durrës coast and Sarandë. The town is less pretty than the Riviera villages to its south but far more practical to live in. It suits people who want the Ionian sea with a city behind them; see the Vlorë page.

Sarandë, Ksamil and the Riviera

The Albanian Riviera from Dhërmi through Himarë to Sarandë and Ksamil is the country’s postcard: clear water, steep mountains, olive groves and the highest property prices in Albania at €1,919 per square metre median around Sarandë. Sarandë is a real town with shops, clinics and the Corfu ferry; Ksamil and the Riviera villages are resorts that close down between November and April. The Riviera suits retirees who want the warmest winters and the most beautiful sea, and part-year residents. It suits year-round working families least, because services and schools are limited. The Sarandë page and Himarë page go into the districts.

Shkodër, Shëngjin and the north

Shkodër is the cultural capital of the north, a low-rise historic city by a huge lake, with Montenegro and the Albanian Alps on its doorstep. Prices are among the lowest in the country and life is slower and more traditional. Shëngjin, twenty minutes away, is the north’s beach resort, cheaper than the south and growing quickly. The region suits people who want mountains, four seasons and a house rather than an apartment for their money; see Shkodër and Shëngjin.

Pogradec, Korçë and the lakes

Pogradec sits on Lake Ohrid, one of the oldest lakes in Europe, at 700 metres above sea level: cool summers, proper winters, trout on the menu and the cheapest lakeside property in Europe. Korçë, an hour away, is a handsome inland city with a French-built old town, a beer festival and the lowest apartment prices in Albania at well under the national median. Both suit people who want a quiet, inexpensive life with seasons, and who do not need the sea. See Pogradec and Korçë.

Side by side

Year-round city life, best services

Tirana, then Durrës and Vlorë

Warmest winters and clearest sea

Sarandë, Ksamil and the Riviera

Lowest prices on the sea

Golem, Qerret, Kavajë and Shëngjin

Mountains, lakes and four seasons

Shkodër, Pogradec and Korçë

Families with school-age children

Tirana, with Durrës as the beach option

Part-year residents and retirees

Sarandë, Vlorë, Durrës

Whatever you choose, buy after a winter visit, not only a summer one, and buy a registered, finished home unless you can absorb the risks of off-plan. The checks are in is it safe to buy property in Albania, and the live picture of prices in every town is on the Albania hub.