Ask three people in Montenegro what it costs to build a villa per square metre and you will get three figures that differ by half, each of them honest, because each of them counts different things. The number is only useful once you know what is inside it. This guide breaks a villa budget into its parts, explains which parts the plot decides before the design exists and shows how we build an estimate for a client before they commit to the land.
What is inside a cost per square metre?
A builder's figure typically covers the house: the foundations on reasonably flat ground, the structure, the roof, the external walls and windows, the internal walls, the installations and a standard level of finishes. Everything that is not the house is often outside it, and on a Montenegrin plot everything that is not the house can be a large share of the whole:
- Groundwork: excavation in rock, retaining walls, terracing and drainage on a slope
- External works: the pool, the terraces, the garden walls, the driveway and the parking
- Utilities: the cable, the pipe, the pump, the tank or the septic system from the gate to the house
- Professional fees: the survey, the geotechnical report, the design, the permit and the supervision
- Fit-out: kitchen, wardrobes, air conditioning, lighting and furniture to the client's standard
A buyer who compares two quotes needs to know which of these each one includes. We quote all of them in one table so that the comparison is between finished villas, which is what the client is buying. The service that manages the chain is described on our why Montenegro page.
Which parts does the plot decide?
The groundwork and the utilities, before any architect has drawn a line. A flat plot on soil near the road, with the services at the gate, carries little of either. A steep plot on limestone two hundred metres above the main, with the view that justifies its price, carries a great deal: cut and fill in rock, retaining walls that are structures in their own right, a long trench for the cable and the pipe and often a pump for the water.
That is why the planning conditions, the survey with levels and the geotechnical survey come before the purchase in our method. They tell the engineer what the ground will cost, and the ground is the part of the budget that cannot be designed away. Our guide to building on a coastal plot goes through the rock, the slope and the access that set this part of the figure.
How does the design move the number?
Once the plot is known, the design sets most of the rest. The items that move the figure most, in roughly descending order:
- The floor area and the number of floors, which the planning conditions cap
- The pool: its size, whether it is cut into rock, and whether it is on a terrace that needs its own structure
- The glazing: large sea-facing openings cost more to buy and more to shade and insulate
- The roof form: a flat roof with a terrace, a pitched roof with local tiles, or in protected settlements a prescribed form
- The structure: the engineering on a slope and for the seismic rules that apply along the coast
- The finishes: stone cladding, joinery, floors and bathrooms at the standard the client wants
A good architect designs to a budget as well as to a brief, and the first design meeting is where the two are reconciled. Clients who come with a reference photograph and a figure, and are open about both, get a house that matches both.
What do finishes and fit-out cost relative to the shell?
The shell of a villa, its structure and envelope, is a fairly predictable part of the budget for a given size and ground. The finishes and the fit-out are where the range opens, because a kitchen can cost what a car costs or what a flat costs, and the same is true of bathrooms, floors and lighting. We ask clients early to choose a reference standard, and we price the finishes to it, so that the figure per square metre at the start is still the figure at the end.
Salt air and summer heat make some choices practical rather than aesthetic: marine-grade joinery, stainless fixings, render systems made for the coast and shading that works. They cost more than the inland equivalents and save their cost in maintenance within a few years.
How do fees, permits and supervision fit in?
The survey, the geotechnical report, the architectural and engineering design, the permit fees and the independent supervision during the works are a modest share of the total and the share that most protects the rest. A design that reads the planning conditions correctly avoids a redesign at permit stage; a supervisor who checks the reinforcement before the concrete is poured avoids a wall that has to come down. We do not quote a build without them and we do not advise a client to build without them.
The connection fees and the works for utilities sit in the same part of the table, and our guide to connecting utilities explains what moves them.
How long does a build take, and what does time cost?
A villa with a pool on a coastal slope takes a building season or more from the first excavation to the keys, depending on the groundwork, the size and the finishes, after a design and permit phase measured in months. The calendar matters to the budget because prices of materials and labour move, and a build that stalls for a season costs more than one that runs. The custom build service plans the calendar from the planning conditions onward, and the contract with the contractor fixes the price for the scope at the start.
How is a build paid for from abroad?
In stages, against work completed and confirmed by the independent supervisor, under a contract with a registered contractor. The client's funds are released stage by stage as the supervisor signs off, which protects the client from paying for work not done and the contractor from waiting for work done. The arrangements for client funds are described on the why Montenegro page.
How do we build an estimate before the plot is bought?
From the planning conditions, which give the maximum house; from the survey with levels and the geotechnical survey, which give the groundwork; from the utilities at the gate; from a reference standard for the finishes; and from the current prices of a contractor we have worked with. The result is a budget for the whole, with the plot price on top, which the client compares with finished villas in the same place.
On that comparison a plot such as the one we present at Kotor Bay makes sense or it does not, and we say which. For a plot you have found elsewhere, send us the parcel number and we will prepare the same estimate, so that the figure per square metre you carry into the negotiation is one that includes everything.