Buyers pay for the view, and the view depends on rules they rarely read: how far the house must stand from each boundary, how high it may rise from a slope, where the public shoreline strip begins, and what the plot in front is allowed to build. We have watched buyers pay a premium for a view that the plot below was entitled to remove, and we have watched others pass over a plot whose rules in fact guaranteed the view for good. This guide explains the rules that govern a sea view plot and how we read them before a client decides.
Where do the setback rules come from?
Each planning document sets, for each zone, the minimum distance a building must keep from the parcel boundaries and from the road, together with the share of the parcel that may be covered and the maximum height. The urbanistic technical conditions for a parcel extract those figures and apply them. A buyer who wants to know how the rules affect their plot reads the conditions, as explained in our guide to the urbanistic technical conditions.
The setbacks are not large in absolute terms, but on a narrow parcel they take a strip off each side and leave a buildable area much smaller than the plot. A long thin parcel running down a slope towards the sea, which is the shape many old family parcels have, is the one most affected.
How does height work on a slope?
On a flat plot height is a number above the ground. On a slope the conditions define how the terrain level is taken and whether the lower floor on the downhill side counts as a storey. The difference is a whole floor of villa with a sea view, and it is the question we ask an architect to answer on every hillside plot before the viewing.
Two neighbouring parcels can resolve it differently depending on their gradient. The steeper parcel may fit a floor below the entry level that opens onto the garden and the pool, while the gentler one may not, and the planning conditions and the survey with levels together decide. Our guide to plot surveying and boundaries explains why the levels are measured rather than guessed.
Where does the shoreline strip begin?
A strip along the coast is public and administered separately, and private building is not the norm on it. Sea-front parcels often extend below the line of the strip, and the portion below is not buildable in the ordinary sense. The planning conditions show where the buildable area begins, and the price of the parcel should reflect which part can carry the house and which part can carry only a path or a garden.
Above the strip, the conditions may add a further distance from the shoreline that the building must keep, varying by zone. A buyer who pictures the terrace at the water's edge should look at the line in the conditions before picturing anything.
What protects the view from below?
Nothing in the rules protects a private view as a right. What protects it is the combination of the slope and the limits on the plot in front. If the plot below is in a zone that allows a single storey and the slope between the two is steep, the view is safe in practice. If the plot below is in a zone that allows three storeys and the slope is gentle, the view is a question of when, not whether.
We therefore read the planning conditions for the parcels in front of a view plot, not only for the plot itself, and we tell the client what the plot below may build. The plot we list at Kotor Bay is priced the way it is in part because of what lies between it and the water.
What about the plot above and the neighbours either side?
The plot above can build to its own limits, and a tall house uphill takes the morning or the afternoon light rather than the view. Neighbours either side affect privacy more than view, and the setbacks between parcels are what keep terraces from looking into each other. A buyer who values privacy as much as view should look at the side setbacks on the neighbouring parcels and at the orientation of their likely terraces.
Where the parcels either side are already built, the question is settled and visible. Where they are empty, the conditions for those parcels tell the story, and we obtain them when the client is serious.
How do the bay and the open coast differ?
The Bay of Kotor contains old settlements with strict rules on form, height, materials and roofs, designed to protect the character of the place, and the zones around them carry some of that protection outward. A plot near one of these settlements may be limited to a form and a height that preserve the view of the village from the water, which also preserves the view from the plot. The open coast from Budva to Ulcinj is zoned with more variety, including tourist zones where larger buildings are permitted, and a view plot next to a tourist zone needs the conditions of that zone read with care.
The difference means that a buyer's wish list, say two storeys, a flat roof and a pool on the terrace, may be entirely possible in one municipality and not in another. We say which early, before the client has fallen for a plot where the answer is no.
Can the rules change after I buy?
Planning documents are amended from time to time, and an amendment can raise or lower the limits on your parcel and on the parcels around it. The rules in force when the permit is issued govern the house; the rules in force later govern what the neighbours may add. A buyer cannot fix the future, but a buyer can know whether an amendment is in procedure, which is a matter of record at the municipality, and we check it for every view plot.
How should a buyer judge a view plot?
Read the conditions for the parcel and for the parcels in front. Measure the slope. Place the buildable envelope on the survey and stand where the terrace would be. Ask whether the limits below, together with the gradient, keep the view, and for how much of the terrace. Then compare that with the price asked for the view.
That reading takes a few days and turns a feeling into a fact. For the plots on our listings it is already done, and for a plot you have found yourself, send us the parcel number and we will read the rules around it before you commit.