How much does property by the sea in Albania cost? The short answer
On 31 October 2026 an apartment on the first line of the Albanian coast, within 100 metres of the water, asked a median of €150,000 and about €2,000 per square metre. Between 100 and 300 metres from the shore the median was €118,000 and €1,600/m²; between 300 metres and a kilometre it was €95,000 and €1,400/m². The sea itself, in other words, is worth about €600/m² on the Albanian coast as a whole, and almost all of that premium is paid in the first 300 metres.
Those are national figures and they hide two very different coasts. The Adriatic coast around Durrës, Golem, Qerret and Shëngjin is flat, sandy, built up with new blocks and cheap: a first-line apartment there asks €1,500 to €2,000/m² and a flat a few streets back under €1,400/m². The Ionian coast from Vlorë to Ksamil is steep, pebbly and dear: Vlorë asks €2,500 to €2,800/m² near the water, the Riviera villages around Dhërmi and Himarë €3,000 to €3,700/m², and Sarandë about €1,900/m² whether you are 50 metres from the sea or 800, because the whole town is a hillside facing it.
Houses follow the same shape with bigger numbers: a house within 300 metres of the sea asked a median of about €680,000, a house 300 metres to a kilometre back €400,000, and a house one to three kilometres inland €285,000. Everything in this guide is an asking price from our own database, not a transaction price, and the distances are measured from each listing’s coordinates to the coastline, which is explained below.
- Apartment on the first line (under 100 m), median
- €150,000 · about €2,000/m² · 76 m²
- Apartment 100 to 300 m from the sea
- €118,000 · about €1,600/m²
- Apartment 300 m to 1 km from the sea
- €95,000 · about €1,400/m²
- House within 300 m of the sea, median
- About €680,000 · 270 to 290 m²
- House 1 to 3 km from the sea
- €285,000 · about €1,050/m²
- Cheapest coast
- Kavajë and Golem: half of the apartments within 300 m of the beach ask under €100,000
- Dearest coast
- Riviera (Dhërmi, Himarë, Borsh): apartments €3,200/m², houses €4,900/m²
- What a listed sea view adds, same distance
- About 30% per m² (€2,000 against €1,560 within 300 m)
In Durrës bay the sea is worth about €600 per square metre. Walk ten minutes inland and that is the whole premium.
First line, 300 metres, one kilometre: how the price falls with every step from the beach
The table below takes every apartment for sale within three kilometres of the coast and sorts it by its distance to the water. The pattern is clean up to a kilometre and then breaks, and the break is worth understanding. The band from one to three kilometres asks more per square metre than the band just before it because it is a different kind of place: the centre of Durrës, the hill districts of Vlorë and the Riviera villages above the road are all more than a kilometre from the water and are priced as town centres and viewpoints, not as beach flats. The cheap band, 300 metres to a kilometre, is where the holiday complexes of Golem, Mali i Robit and Qerret stand in rows behind the first line.
Apartments further than three kilometres from the sea but still in a coastal municipality, in Kavajë town or the villages behind Durrës, ask under €900/m². That is the price of an ordinary Albanian town flat; the beach is a drive, not a walk.
- First line, under 100 m
- Median €150,000 (middle half €115,000 to €219,000) · about €2,000/m² · 76 m² · half listed with a sea view
- 100 to 300 m
- Median €118,000 (€94,000 to €165,000) · about €1,600/m² · 72 m² · three in ten with a sea view
- 300 m to 1 km
- Median €95,000 (€76,000 to €133,000) · about €1,400/m² · 69 m² · one in six with a sea view
- 1 to 3 km
- Median €130,000 (€89,000 to €180,000) · about €1,500/m² · 80 m² · town centres and hillsides, not beach flats
- More than 3 km, coastal municipalities
- Median €95,000 · under €900/m² · 87 m²
How the distance is measured
Where the seller stated a distance to the sea in the listing, we used it. For every other listing we measured the straight-line distance from the listing’s map position to the OpenStreetMap coastline. Measured this way, a building on the beach road comes out at 60 to 120 metres, because the coastline is drawn at the water’s edge and the map pin sits on the building, so our first line, under 100 metres, means the row of buildings that faces the beach with nothing in front of it. Where we could compare the seller’s stated distance with our measurement, the two agreed to within a street. Sellers, predictably, round down: a flat they call 200 metres from the beach is usually 300 to 400 by the map.
Apartments by the sea, coast by coast: Shëngjin, Durrës bay, Vlorë, the Riviera, Sarandë
Albania has about 360 kilometres of coast, and for a buyer it divides into five stretches that behave as separate markets. From north to south: the Shëngjin and Velipojë beaches near Lezhë; the long sandy bay of Durrës with Golem, Mali i Robit, Qerret and Spille south of the city; Vlorë, where the Adriatic meets the Ionian, with Orikum and Radhimë beyond it; the Riviera proper from Dhërmi through Himarë to Borsh, reached over the Llogara pass; and the far south around Sarandë and Ksamil, opposite Corfu. The table gives the median asking price of an apartment on each stretch, then what the first line and the second row ask there.
- Riviera: Dhërmi, Himarë, Borsh
- Median €308,000 · about €3,200/m² · 93 m² · within 300 m about €3,500/m², 300 m to 1 km €3,400/m², 1 to 3 km €2,800/m²
- Vlorë (city and Uji i Ftohtë)
- Median €226,000 · about €2,550/m² · 92 m² · first line €2,800/m², 100 to 300 m €2,700/m², 300 m to 1 km €2,300/m², hills 1 to 3 km €1,800/m²
- Orikum, Radhimë
- Median €204,000 · about €2,500/m² · first line €3,100/m², 300 m to 1 km €1,700/m²
- Sarandë, Ksamil
- Median €155,000 · about €1,900/m² · 80 m² · first line €1,900/m², 100 to 300 m €1,900/m², 300 m to 1 km €1,800/m²
- Durrës city (Plazh, Currila, Iliria, centre)
- Median €116,000 · about €1,550/m² · 72 m² · first line €2,050/m², 100 to 300 m €1,700/m², 300 m to 1 km €1,450/m², 1 to 3 km €1,350/m²
- Shëngjin, Velipojë
- Median €113,500 · about €1,550/m² · 74 m² · first line €1,650/m², 100 to 300 m €1,550/m² · almost all new build
- Golem, Mali i Robit
- Median €93,000 · about €1,350/m² · 68 m² · first line €1,550/m², 100 to 300 m €1,450/m², 300 m to 1 km €1,300/m²
- Kavajë coast: Qerret, Spille
- Median €93,000 · about €1,600/m² · 60 m² · first line €1,700/m², 100 to 300 m €1,600/m², 300 m to 1 km €1,600/m²
How to read the table
The Durrës bay is the volume market and the value market: it holds roughly four in five of all the apartments for sale on the Albanian coast, most of them new, and it is the only stretch where the first line costs €2,000/m² or less. Inside the bay the gradient is steep in the city, where a first-line flat on the Plazh beach road asks 40% more per square metre than a flat ten minutes’ walk back, and flat in Golem and Qerret, where everything is a block of holiday flats within a kilometre of a wide, shallow, sandy beach, and the whole stretch sits between €1,300 and €1,700/m².
The south is a different country. Vlorë asks €2,500 to €2,800/m² near the water and is the only southern market where distance works the way it does in Durrës: the hills behind the city, a kilometre or two up, are €1,800/m². The Riviera asks the highest prices in Albania for apartments, above €3,000/m², and almost all of it is new build sold from plans by a handful of developers. Sarandë has no gradient at all: the town climbs a steep bowl above the bay, the sea is visible from most of it, and an apartment 800 metres from the water asks the same €1,900/m² as one on the promenade. In Sarandë you pay for the view and the floor, not for the metres to the beach.
Shëngjin, in the north, prices like Durrës with a smaller choice: almost everything on sale is new, within 300 metres of the beach, at €1,550 to €1,650/m², and the town is about an hour’s drive from Tirana airport.
Houses and villas by the sea in Albania: what the first row costs and where houses near the beach are still affordable
Houses are a smaller market on the coast than apartments, about one listing in ten, and they are concentrated where there is still land to build on: the villages and hills around Durrës, the slopes above Vlorë, the Riviera and a few in Golem, Kavajë and Sarandë. A house within 300 metres of the sea asked a median of about €680,000 and €1,900 to €2,300/m²; a house 300 metres to a kilometre back €400,000 and €1,600/m²; one to three kilometres inland €285,000 and about €1,050/m²; and beyond three kilometres, in the villages of the Durrës and Kavajë plain, €220,000 and €700/m².
Durrës is where a house near the sea is still a realistic purchase. Around the city and its hinterland the median house asked €330,000; within 300 metres of the water about €500,000 to €550,000 and €2,000/m², mostly new villas on the hills of Currila and in the complexes of Gjiri i Lalzit to the north; a kilometre or more back, in Shkozet, Spitallë and the villages, €200,000 to €270,000 for a two- or three-storey family house of 270 to 290 m². In Golem and on the Kavajë coast new villas in complexes a few hundred metres from the beach ask €300,000 to €450,000.
Vlorë and the Riviera are the top of the market. A house within a kilometre of the sea in Vlorë asked a median above €1,000,000 and €2,800 to €3,400/m²: these are modern villas on the Uji i Ftohtë slope and towards Radhimë, most of them new, almost all with a view. Two kilometres up the hill the same town lists houses at €300,000. On the Riviera the few houses for sale, stone houses in Dhërmi and Vuno and new villas above Himarë, asked a median of €945,000 and €4,900/m², the highest price per square metre of any property type anywhere in Albania. Our guide to house prices in Albania covers the inland markets and what a villa listing actually means.
- House within 300 m of the sea, all coasts
- Median about €680,000 · €1,900 to €2,300/m² · 270 to 290 m² · half listed with a sea view
- House 300 m to 1 km
- Median €400,000 · about €1,600/m² · 240 m²
- House 1 to 3 km
- Median €285,000 · about €1,050/m² · 290 m²
- House more than 3 km, Durrës and Kavajë plain
- Median €220,000 · about €700/m²
- Durrës, within 300 m
- About €500,000 to €550,000 · about €2,000/m²
- Durrës, 1 to 3 km
- Median €270,000 · about €900/m²
- Vlorë, within 1 km
- Median above €1,000,000 · €2,800 to €3,400/m² · Uji i Ftohtë and Radhimë villas
- Riviera: Dhërmi, Himarë
- Median €945,000 · about €4,900/m² · 184 m²
- Golem and Kavajë coast, new villas in complexes
- €300,000 to €450,000 · 200 to 235 m² · one in four with a pool
What a sea view adds, and why “sea view” in an Albanian listing is not the same as “by the sea”
Half of the apartments on the first line are listed with a sea view and half are not, and the ones that are ask about 30% more per square metre at the same distance: €2,000/m² against €1,560/m² within 300 metres of the water. The difference is orientation. On the Durrës and Golem beachfront the buildings are deep blocks, and only the flats on the sea side of the upper floors see water; the rest see the building across the street. Thirty metres further from the beach on the fourth floor is often a better view than the first line on the first floor.
In the hill towns the logic reverses. In Sarandë, Vlorë’s Uji i Ftohtë and the Riviera villages, half of all apartments on sale are listed with a sea view regardless of distance, because the towns face the sea from a slope, and there the premium is paid for the open line to the water and the floor height, not for the walk to the beach. If what you want is to see the sea from the sofa, a flat 500 metres up the hill in Sarandë delivers it more reliably than a first-line flat in Durrës.
Two practical consequences. First, treat the words sea view in a listing as a claim to verify from the balcony, in daylight, and ask what can be built on the plots between the building and the water; on the Durrës and Golem beachfront the answer is often another block. Second, if the view matters more than the beach, search by town and floor rather than by distance, and read our guide to the best places to buy property in Albania, which compares the towns by character rather than price alone.
- First-line apartments listed with a sea view
- About half · about €2,000/m²
- First-line apartments without a sea view
- About half · about €1,560/m²
- Share with a sea view, 300 m to 1 km from the beach
- One in six on the Durrës bay, about half in Sarandë and Vlorë
- Houses listed with a sea view
- Median €760,000 · about €2,850/m² (see the house prices guide)
The cheapest way to own a place by the sea in Albania
The cheapest coast is the stretch of the Durrës bay south of the city. On the Kavajë coast at Qerret and Spille, half of the apartments within 300 metres of the beach ask under €100,000, and the cheapest tenth asks under €66,000, typically for a 45 to 60 m² flat in an older or simpler block. In Golem and Mali i Robit, 45% of apartments within 300 metres of the beach ask under €100,000 and the cheapest tenth under €68,000; this is where the new holiday complexes with pools are, so a budget of €85,000 to €100,000 buys a new 60 to 70 m² one-bedroom flat in a complex two to five minutes’ walk from the sand. In Durrës city a quarter of the first 300 metres is under €100,000, and in Shëngjin a similar share.
South of Vlorë the same budget buys nothing within reach of the beach. The cheapest tenth of apartments within 300 metres of the sea asks about €115,000 in Sarandë and Ksamil, €145,000 in Orikum, €160,000 in Vlorë and €230,000 on the Riviera, and almost nothing under €100,000 is on sale within a kilometre of the Ionian at all. A buyer with €100,000 who wants the south has two honest options: a studio or small flat above the town in Sarandë, or an apartment sold from plans in a Vlorë or Riviera project, with the deposit risks described in our guide to buying off-plan in Albania.
A word about what the low prices on the Durrës bay buy. The beach is wide, sandy and shallow, which families like and which is why Albanians from Tirana and Kosovo fill it in July and August. It is also the most built-up stretch of coast in the country: the complexes stand in rows, the sea side of the road is almost continuous building, and in winter, as our post on Albania in winter describes, much of Golem is empty. Cheap by the sea in Albania means Golem, Qerret or Shëngjin; it does not mean a quiet cove.
- Kavajë coast (Qerret, Spille), within 300 m of the beach
- Half of listings under €100,000 · cheapest tenth under €66,000 · typical flat 60 m²
- Golem, Mali i Robit, within 300 m
- 45% under €100,000 · cheapest tenth under €68,000 · new complexes with pools
- Durrës city, within 300 m
- One in four under €100,000 · cheapest tenth under €77,000
- Shëngjin, within 300 m
- One in four under €100,000 · cheapest tenth under €86,000
- Sarandë, Ksamil, within 300 m
- Almost nothing under €100,000 · cheapest tenth about €115,000
- Vlorë, within 300 m
- Nothing under €100,000 · cheapest tenth about €160,000
- Riviera, within 300 m
- Cheapest tenth about €230,000 · middle of the market €320,000 to €420,000
Land by the sea in Albania: what a plot costs and what a foreigner can buy
Plots are a large part of what is on sale on the coast, mostly in the Durrës plain and the hills behind it, and their price per square metre says more about a stretch of coast than any apartment price. Around Durrës a plot asked a median of about €50 per square metre of land, with the middle half between €32 and €100, for a typical plot of 3,000 to 4,000 m²; on the Kavajë coast about €40/m²; around Vlorë €55/m². Golem, where the plots are smaller and closer to the beach, asked about €100/m². The south is an order of magnitude dearer: the Riviera about €180/m² for plots of around 1,500 m², and Sarandë and Ksamil about €300/m² for building plots of 500 to 600 m² inside the town. For comparison, land around Tirana asked about €90/m² and land inland about €35/m².
For a foreign buyer land is where the rules bite. A foreigner can buy a built apartment or house anywhere on the coast directly and register it in their own name. Bare and agricultural land is different: agricultural land is not open to direct purchase by foreign individuals, and plots within roughly 200 metres of the shoreline are held through an Albanian company or on a long lease rather than bought outright. The cadastral classification of the plot decides which case you are in, and a plot marked as construction land with a permit is a different purchase from an olive grove with a view. Our guide to buying property in Albania as a foreigner sets out the rules and the usual structures, and the due diligence guide lists what to check on the title.
- Durrës and hinterland
- About €50/m² of land (middle half €32 to €100) · plots 3,000 to 4,000 m²
- Kavajë coast
- About €40/m²
- Vlorë and surroundings
- About €55/m²
- Golem
- About €100/m² · smaller plots near the beach
- Riviera
- About €180/m² (middle half €140 to €220) · plots around 1,500 m²
- Sarandë, Ksamil
- About €300/m² (middle half €180 to €360) · building plots 500 to 600 m²
- For comparison: around Tirana, inland Albania
- About €90/m², about €35/m²
Buying a holiday home by the sea in Albania: season, winter, rental and running costs
Most foreign buyers on the Albanian coast are buying a second home, and the numbers that matter for a second home are not the purchase price but the season, the empty months and the cost of keeping a flat you are not in. The beach season runs from June to mid-September on the Adriatic and a little longer on the Ionian; by late October the Golem complexes are shuttered and the Riviera villages are back to their small year-round populations. Sarandë, Vlorë and Durrës are real towns that stay open all year. Our post on Albania in winter describes what each stretch of coast is like from November to March, how you get there once the charter flights stop, and what a flat costs to heat.
If the plan is to let the flat when you are not using it, read the yields as a full year, not a peak season. The 8 to 12% gross figures quoted for holiday lets on the south coast are July and August numbers; over twelve months, after empty weeks, cleaning, management and the flat 15% tax on rental income, the realistic figure is 4 to 6% net, and on the Durrës bay a long-term tenant at about €500 a month on a €100,000 flat gives much the same result with less work. Our guide to investing in property in Albania works through the arithmetic, and our guide to rents in Albania gives the yearly and seasonal rents actually asked on the coast.
Running costs are low but not zero. The annual property tax is a fraction of a percent of value, building charges in a complex with a pool and a guard run to a few hundred euros a year, electricity is cheap per unit but a flat that is heated in winter to keep the damp out or cooled all August uses a lot of it, and a flat on the first line lives with salt, wind and the occasional winter storm against its windows. Budget for a local person or agency to check the flat, air it and deal with the building, and ask the complex what the yearly charge actually covers before you sign.
- Beach season
- June to mid-September on the Adriatic, a little longer in the south
- Open all year
- Durrës, Vlorë, Sarandë; Golem, Qerret and the Riviera villages largely close
- Holiday-let yield, south coast
- 8 to 12% gross in peak season; about 4 to 6% net over a full year
- Long-term let, Durrës bay
- About €500 a month for a one-bedroom flat; similar net result with less work
- Tax on rental income
- 15% flat
- Getting there in winter
- Tirana airport all year (40 min to Durrës, 2 h to Vlorë, 4 to 5 h to Sarandë); Corfu ferry to Sarandë once a day
What to check before buying by the sea in Albania
- Measure the distance yourself, on the map and on foot. Sellers round down; a flat sold as 200 metres from the beach is often 400, and on the Durrës beach road a busy street may lie between the building and the sand.
- Stand on the balcony. A listed sea view is a claim about one orientation of one floor; check it in daylight and ask what can be built on the plots in front.
- Price per square metre against the band in this guide for the same stretch of coast. A first-line flat at €1,300/m² in Durrës or €2,000/m² on the Riviera is either not first line or not finished.
- For a new complex, the use certificate and the developer’s track record before any deposit, and a contract that fixes the completion date and the penalties; see the off-plan guide.
- For a house or a plot, the cadastral classification of the land, the legalisation status of the building and the 200-metre coastal rule for bare land; see the foreigner and due diligence guides.
- For a holiday let, the net full-year yield with empty months and the 15% tax, not the peak-season gross, and someone local to look after the flat.
- Closing costs of about 4 to 7% on top of the price, as set out in our guide to the [cost of buying property in Albania](guide:cost-of-buying-property-in-albania).
Key takeaways
- On 31 October 2026 a first-line apartment on the Albanian coast asked a median of €150,000 and about €2,000/m²; 300 metres to a kilometre back the median was €95,000 and €1,400/m². The sea is worth about €600/m², almost all of it paid in the first 300 metres.
- The Durrës bay (Durrës, Golem, Qerret, Shëngjin in the north) is the cheap, flat, sandy, built-up coast at €1,300 to €2,000/m²; the Ionian south is dear: Vlorë €2,500 to €2,800/m² near the water, the Riviera above €3,000/m², Sarandë €1,900/m² at any distance.
- Half the apartments within 300 metres of the beach on the Kavajë coast and in Golem ask under €100,000; south of Vlorë almost nothing within a kilometre of the sea does.
- A listed sea view adds about 30% per m² at the same distance; in Sarandë, Vlorë and on the Riviera the view and the floor matter more than the metres to the beach.
- Houses within 300 metres of the sea asked about €680,000, falling to €285,000 one to three kilometres inland; the Riviera asks €4,900/m² for houses, the highest in Albania. Coastal land runs from €40 to €55/m² around Durrës, Kavajë and Vlorë to €300/m² in Sarandë, and bare land near the shore is held by foreigners through a company or a lease.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an apartment by the sea in Albania cost?
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How much more does the first line cost than a flat a few streets back?
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Can a foreigner buy property on the Albanian coast?
Is Durrës or Sarandë better for a holiday apartment?
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See property by the sea in Albania
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- Median asking price per square metre of apartments for sale, by location, EURPNG, publication version, numbers only
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Full reports
- Apartment prices in Albania, Q3 2026: prices flat, supply up 9%
- Property prices in Albania, September 2026
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Author and media contact: Mateusz Sawicki, founder of BalkanHome.eu · contact@balkanhome.eu
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Verify current rules with a qualified Albanian attorney or notary before you buy.