Property prices in Albania, September 2026

Albania vs Montenegro: the same Adriatic, prices 1.6 to 2.5 times lower

The most telling comparison for the Albanian coast is not Poland or Italy but Montenegro. Both countries sit on the same stretch of the Adriatic, both use the euro, both serve a similar profile of tourist from Central and Western Europe, and the Ulcinj–Shkodër border separates them by a few dozen kilometres.

Apartment asking prices in Montenegro's coastal towns in Q2 2026 range from €2,797/m² in Bar to €4,391/m² in Tivat, with a national average of €2,970/m² (averages from 16,111 active listings, source: Estitor).

For comparison, in Albania (September 2026): the whole strip within 5 km of the sea is €1,726/m² on average, €1,513/m² median (N = 3,302), Golem €1,353/m² (median, N = 1,327), Durrës €1,577/m² (median, N = 686), Sarandë €1,904/m² (median, N = 142). The most expensive location among those with a sample of at least 30 listings, Dhërmi, has a median of €3,074/m² and an average of €3,387/m² (N = 95).

To make the comparison like for like, we also give the average: the average asking price within 5 km of the sea in Albania is €1,726/m². That is below the average in Bar (€2,797/m²), the cheapest of Montenegro's coastal towns, and half the figure for Budva (€3,309/m²). Both sides are averages of asking prices. The Albanian median is €1,513/m²; 75% of coastal listings are priced below €1,986/m².

A counterpoint from an official source: MONSTAT, Montenegro's statistical office, which measures only transaction prices of new apartments actually sold by developers, reports €2,838/m² for the coastal region in Q2 2026. That is a lower figure with a narrower definition, yet even it remains around 64% above the average asking price on the Albanian coast. For reference, MONSTAT reports €2,557/m² for Montenegro as a whole and €2,510/m² for Podgorica — making the coastal region the most expensive market in that set.

Coastal supply in our database is dominated by the Bay of Durrës: Golem, Durrës and Qerret account for 76% of listings within 5 km of the sea. This is the most intensively developed and most mass-market stretch of the Albanian coast, and the median for the whole strip reflects that structure. The more expensive stretches — Sarandë (€1,904/m²) and the Riviera with Dhërmi (€3,074/m²) — are far less represented in the database.

Note: for our own sample we report both medians and averages of asking prices. Estitor figures are averages of asking prices; MONSTAT figures are averages of transaction prices for new-build only. All multiples are calculated average-to-average on both sides.

Price map: apartments for sale

We publish locations with a sample of at least 30 listings that lie on the coastal strip or in the Tirana metropolitan area. Inland towns (Pogradec, Korçë) are omitted as markets outside the scope of this report — their values are available in the attached CSV file. Alongside each median we give the sample size and the quartiles, so the real spread of the market is visible rather than just the midpoint.

The spread between the most and least expensive published locations is more than threefold. Dhërmi on the Albanian Riviera prices a square metre higher than Tirana despite being a village of a few hundred permanent residents, a result of very limited buildable land on a steep stretch of coast. At the other end of the scale is Kamëz on the edge of Tirana, at a median of €946/m², while on the coast Golem and Qerret, the new-build apartment belt on the Bay of Durrës, offer a square metre at €1,350–1,500. Farkë, on Tirana's southern edge, is in practice a villa-and-apartment district with noticeably larger floor areas than the capital.

A reference point for readers in Poland: the median asking price per square metre of a new-build apartment in Warsaw in August 2026 was 17,400 PLN, about €4,030 (Otodom Analytics; converted at the NBP rate of 4.3179 PLN/EUR from 4 September 2026). A square metre in Golem therefore costs about a third of the Warsaw figure, and in Qerret just under 40%.

What beach proximity costs

For every listing we calculated the straight-line distance to the nearest mapped beach, using real OpenStreetMap geometry (not a simplified coastline model) and projecting coordinates into the metric EPSG:32634 system.

The Adriatic coast, apartments for sale by distance from the beach:

Bands are measured against the nearest mapped beach, not the coastline, so they do not sum to the coastal sample (N = 3,302). The remaining 17 listings lie 3–5 km from a beach — below the publication threshold.

Bay of Durrës (the Durrës–Golem–Qerret–Kavajë strip):

The Riviera with the Bay of Vlorë (the Vlorë–Radhimë–Orikum–Dhërmi–Himarë–Sarandë–Ksamil strip):

The pattern is clear on the Bay of Durrës: the first hundred metres from the beach cost 13.5% more there than the 100–300 m band, which in turn costs almost 15% more than the 300 m – 1 km band. Beyond a kilometre, distance stops ordering prices. On the Riviera the effect does not appear at all — the 300 m – 1 km band is more expensive there than the 100–300 m band. On the southern coast, price is driven by the specific location and the exposure of the site, not by distance to the beach. The Bay of Durrës accounts for 76% of the coastal supply analysed, so the pattern visible in the table for the whole Adriatic coast is first and foremost the pattern of that bay.

A regression model controlling simultaneously for zone, floor area, construction status and declared sea view yields, across the whole coastal strip (N = 3,197, R² = 0.46), a fall of about 20% in price per square metre for every tenfold increase in distance from the beach, and about 17% between 100 m and 1 km. The model estimates a single common slope for the entire coast, in which Durrës Bay dominates — zone fixed effects level the price bands, not the slope. The result should therefore be read as an effect observed in Durrës Bay, not as a rule for the whole Albanian coast.

Methodological caveat: we measure straight-line distance to a mapped beach, not the actual walking route or the right of access to a particular stretch. Nor do we assess beach quality.

Sea view

In the database, 12.85% of the apartments for sale analysed (n = 765, N = 5,954) carry a “sea view” flag. Within 5 km of the shore, listings with the flag have a median of €1,997/m² (N = 761; p25 = €1,550, p75 = €2,638) versus €1,485/m² for the rest (N = 2,541; p25 = €1,286, p75 = €1,743). After controlling for zone, floor area, construction status and distance to the beach, the view flag is associated with a price about 15% higher.

We treat this as an observed difference, not a verified valuation of a view. The attribute comes from three sources at once: manual selection by the advertiser, automatic keyword mapping when listings are imported, and additions based on the listing text. A missing flag may mean “not declared” rather than “no view”. For that reason we do not publish a breakdown of the premium by location.

What a given budget buys

Apartments for sale within 5 km of the sea (N = 3,302):

The distribution shows where the market actually sits: 40% of coastal listings fall under €100,000, and the largest band is €100,000–150,000. The segment above €300,000 is just under 6% of supply and is concentrated on the Riviera and around the Bay of Vlorë.

Houses: from €250,000 to €1.2 million

The house analysis covered 1,046 listings. We publish locations with a sample of at least 30 listings.

A median of €1.2 million in Dhërmi with an upper quartile close to €1.5 million shows that the Albanian Riviera has a premium segment, aimed at buyers whose alternative is Italy or Greece rather than the local market. The same table also contains Durrës with a median of €250,000, a spread of almost fivefold within a single country.

Caveat: in the house segment, finishing status is recorded inconsistently and some listings in the lower price bands may be shell-and-core buildings. The wide interquartile range in Durrës (€177,500 – 367,500) reflects this.

Where the interest comes from

Share of countries in cumulative listing views registered from 18 June to 6 September 2026:

Poland accounts for the largest share of listing views on BalkanHome.eu. The site is available in 11 languages. Until July 2026 we ran no paid activity targeted by language; since August 2026 we have been running an advertising campaign aimed at Poland, and the shares presented are cumulative from 18 June 2026 and include that period.

Caveats: these are cumulative shares from 18 June to 6 September 2026, not a measurement within a defined time window; they cover listings with recorded view statistics. We do not publish absolute figures. The country of a view is not the same as the buyer's nationality or place of residence.

Buying property in Albania: costs, taxes, residency

Foreign buyers can purchase residential property in Albania outright. Detailed guides, updated independently of this report, cover:

• the transaction costs of buying
• taxes on acquiring and owning property
• residency and residence permits

Methodology

Data source. The BalkanHome.eu listings database as of 6 September 2026 (14,384 listings of all types, including sale and rental, apartments, houses, commercial premises and land).

Samples. Apartment sale price analysis: active listings of type “apartment”, offered for sale, with a non-empty price and floor area, after filtering outliers below €200/m² and above €10,000/m², N = 5,954. Houses: N = 1,046 (same outlier rule). The outlier filter removed n = 5 listings below €200/m² and n = 3 above €10,000/m².

Geolocation. Each listing is assigned to a zone by its coordinates: the nearest zone centre within a maximum radius of 12 km, using the haversine formula. We do not use the free-text city name supplied by the advertiser. Zone centres were reconstructed from OpenStreetMap place nodes. “Location” here means a zone defined as the area nearest to a given OpenStreetMap place node, not an administrative boundary. 124 listings (2.1%) found no zone within 12 km — they enter the national and coastal aggregates but not the location tables.

Distance to beach. Coastline and beach geometry from OpenStreetMap (Geofabrik country extract), with no geometry simplification; calculations in the metric EPSG:32634 system. Distance is measured in a straight line to the nearest mapped beach; it is not a walking route or an assessment of beach access or quality. We excluded inland beaches from the dataset; the analysis covers the Adriatic coast only.

Model. OLS regression: log(price per m²) ~ log(distance to beach + 50 m) + zone + log(floor area) + view flag + construction status, on listings within 10 km of the shore; N = 3,197, R² = 0.46. The 50 m offset in the distance term avoids a singularity for listings directly on the beach. The results describe a statistical relationship, not causation. The model is estimated on listings within 10 km of the shore (N = 3,317), after excluding 120 listings not assigned to any zone — zone enters the model as a fixed effect — which gives N = 3,197; no observation was dropped for missing control variables. The wider strip and the exclusion of unassigned zones are the only reasons the model N differs from the sample sizes in the location tables. The R² of 0.46 applies to the whole model, including the location fixed effects, not to distance from the beach alone.

Publication thresholds and significance. We publish only cells with a sample of at least 30 listings. In the location tables we further publish only locations on the coastal strip or in the Tirana metropolitan area; inland towns (Pogradec, Korçë) are omitted as markets outside the scope of this report — their values are available in the attached CSV file. For comparisons between groups we computed 95% confidence intervals by bootstrap (1,000 resamples); comparisons whose interval includes zero are not presented as confirmed.

Duplicate control. We checked for the same property listed by different agencies: candidate duplicates (coordinates within 25 m, floor area within ±2%, price within ±3%, different sources) make up 3.1% of the analysed pool (n = 185). After reducing them, no published median changes by more than 5%.

Sea view attribute. The flag comes from manual selection by the advertiser, keyword mapping at import, and additions based on the listing text; it is set for 12.85% of the apartments analysed (n = 765, N = 5,954). A missing flag may mean “not declared”.

Comparison data. Montenegro, asking prices: Estitor, Q2 2026, 16,111 active apartment listings, average values. Montenegro, transaction prices: MONSTAT, Q2 2026, preliminary data, only new apartments sold for the first time by a developer, average values. Warsaw: Otodom Analytics, August 2026, median asking price on the new-build market; converted at the NBP rate of 4.3179 PLN/EUR from 4 September 2026. For comparisons with Estitor asking-price data we also give the arithmetic mean of our own sample, computed the same way: €1,726/m² for the strip within 5 km of the sea (N = 3,302) and €2,009/m² for Tirana (N = 1,849). None of these sources uses a methodology identical to this report; the comparisons show the order of magnitude of the differences.

Currency. Prices are presented in euros. Listings priced in Albanian lek make up 0.1% of the analysed pool (n = 6); the conversion uses the NBP cross rate (table B for ALL from 2 September 2026 and table A for EUR from 4 September 2026), 0.0108868 EUR per 1 ALL. Listings originally priced in euros keep their nominal value.

Currency of the data. As of 6 September 2026. Only listings active in the database at the time of the snapshot were analysed — listings withdrawn by the agency or removed from the import feed are excluded. For 11.0% of listings (n = 656) we additionally recorded a data refresh from the source within the preceding 30 days; the frequency of these refreshes depends on each agency's data delivery cycle, not on how current the listing itself is. As with any dataset of asking prices, some listings may relate to properties that have already sold.

Nature of the data. All figures are asking prices, not transaction prices. The median is our default measure; we report the arithmetic mean where we compare against sources that publish averages. The report is a cross-section of the market at a single point in time and contains no trend analysis; that requires a series of measurements, which we are building.