Portonovi & One&Only: Buyer’s Guide

Quick answer: Portonovi is a purpose-built luxury marina resort at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor, anchored by the One&Only Portonovi hotel and a small collection of One&Only-branded villas. It's one of the standout addresses in Montenegro real estate today, offering three broad ownership tiers, Marina Residences, Village Residences, and branded villas, with no restrictions on foreign buyers and a moderate tax structure across the board.

Most of Montenegro's coast grew organically, with fishing villages, Austro-Hungarian villas, and Yugoslav-era apartment blocks all layered on top of each other. Portonovi was designed from a blank canvas, and that single fact explains almost everything buyers notice first. Every building, walkway, and marina berth was planned as one cohesive project rather than assembled over decades.

That matters practically. Construction quality is consistent across the resort rather than varying block by block, which is often not the case in older coastal towns. Utilities, parking, and building management are centralized. And because the resort sits at the mouth of the Bay of Kotor in Herceg Novi, owners get a genuine bay-and-open-sea position rather than a spot tucked deep inside the fjord.

Buyers who choose Portonovi are usually not shopping for a fixer-upper with character. They want a finished, managed, secure environment where the hard decisions, who runs the marina, who maintains the grounds, who staffs the restaurants, have already been made for them.

One&Only Portonovi is the resort's anchor hotel, and its presence changes the calculation for anyone buying nearby. A globally recognized hospitality operator on-site does three things for a residential buyer: it sets a maintenance and service standard for the whole community, it gives the address instant international recognition, and it supports rental demand from guests who want more space than a hotel room but still want hotel-level service nearby.

A One&Only-branded address is, in effect, buying into a global hotel brand's standards, not just a floor plan. That branding tends to carry weight at resale, particularly with international buyers who already know the name from Aman, Six Senses, or other resort markets elsewhere in the world.

Portonovi's residential offering breaks down into three clear tiers, and knowing which one fits your goals matters more than the marketing name attached to any single listing.

Marina Residences sit closest to the water and the working marina, generally first-line to the sea, ranging from compact one-bedroom apartments up to multi-bedroom marina-view units and penthouses. This is the segment most closely tied to the yacht and marina lifestyle; buyers here tend to want to watch boats come and go from their own terrace.

Village Residences are set slightly further back from the working marina around a pedestrian village square. These units trade a small amount of water proximity for more space and, in several cases, private gardens or rooftop terraces, a natural fit for families and buyers wanting a quieter footprint inside the resort.

One&Only branded villas sit at the top of the market: fewer units, larger footprints, and direct hotel-brand affiliation, reflecting genuine scarcity within the resort. Unit sizes across all three tiers span a wide range, from efficient one-bedroom layouts up to expansive multi-bedroom duplex penthouses with private pools, so there's real variety within what “Portonovi” means as an address.

Portonovi's investment case rests on four factors: a genuinely prime waterfront position at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor, a limited and fixed number of units (this isn't a resort that can simply expand), an internationally branded hotel operator maintaining the standard of the whole community, and sustained demand from lifestyle buyers across Europe, the Middle East, and beyond who already know the One&Only name.

That said, not every unit in a well-known resort performs the same way at resale; the specific location within Portonovi matters as much as the resort's name. A unit facing a service road will not appreciate or rent the way a first-line marina residence does, even if both carry the same Portonovi address. Before treating any purchase as an investment, weigh the exact position, view lines, layout quality, and whether nearby development could change what you're looking at in five years.

Rental demand exists for both short-term and long-term lets, driven by the marina lifestyle and the hotel's own guest overflow, though actual yield depends heavily on unit type, furnishing, and how actively it's marketed and managed.

Buyers frequently shortlist both, and the honest answer is that they serve different moods rather than different budgets.

Choose Portonovi if you want a calmer, more private atmosphere, refined waterfront living without a constant social buzz, ideal for buyers who want their coastal home to feel like a retreat.

Choose Porto Montenegro if you want more energy, a genuine “marina city” in Tivat with a denser concentration of restaurants, boutiques, and year-round activity, popular with active yacht owners who want more going on around them.

Neither is objectively better; the right one depends on whether you picture your mornings there as quiet coffee on a private terrace or a walk through a bustling marina promenade. Many clients only settle the question after visiting both in person, worth building into any Montenegro property trip.

Buyers weighing a third option often also look at Budva Riviera, which trades resort-style calm for a livelier beach-town social scene, useful context if you're still deciding what kind of coastal life you actually want before narrowing in on a specific address.

Montenegro places no restrictions on foreigners buying residential real estate, which removes a barrier that trips up buyers in many neighboring markets, one of several reasons covered in our broader look at why Montenegro appeals to international buyers. The country's tax framework is deliberately moderate, not an afterthought bolted onto an otherwise closed system.

Property transfer tax is applied on a progressive scale, generally ranging from 3% to 6% depending on the property's value, and is a one-time cost at purchase. Annual property tax is charged at a low rate based on location, size, and assessed value , a recurring but modest cost of ownership. There is no inheritance tax and no wealth tax tied to the property itself, which matters for buyers thinking generationally rather than just transactionally.

For buyers considering relocation or restructuring finances around the purchase, Montenegro applies a flat, progressive personal and corporate income tax generally in the 9%–15% range, and standard VAT sits at 21%. Montenegro's participation in SEPA also simplifies euro-denominated payments and cross-border transfers, which matters in practice when you're wiring a deposit from London, Zurich, or Dubai.

One more point worth flagging directly, since it's the question we're asked most often: property ownership in Portonovi may support a residence permit application, subject to applicable regulations, which is relevant for buyers wanting extended stays or a long-term presence in Montenegro rather than a purely seasonal one. As with any residency-adjacent question, the specifics depend on current regulations at the time of purchase, so confirm the latest requirements with your broker and legal advisor before treating it as a g

Even inside a well-managed, master-planned resort, due diligence doesn't disappear; it just shifts focus. Before signing anything, confirm:

Below are the questions we hear most often from prospective buyers. For broader questions about buying in Montenegro generally, see our full FAQs.

Ready to see current availability? Browse Portonovi listings or compare them against Porto Montenegro directly, or explore the full property listing portfolio across Montenegro. For a curated shortlist based on your budget and lifestyle goals, contact the Montenegro Sotheby's Realty team, or follow ongoing listings on Instagram and YouTube.

About the Author

Niko Lakovic is the local partner of Montenegro Sotheby's Realty and founder of Luxury Homes LLC, with 15 years of experience brokering property across Montenegro's coast, including Porto Montenegro, Luštica Bay, and Portonovi. He co-leads the brokerage alongside Hunter Milborne, dubbed the “Dean of Condos” by Canadian Business, with more than 100,000 units sold over the course of his career, giving Montenegro Sotheby's Realty clients direct access to Sotheby's International Realty's global network of over 26,000 sales associates across 1,100 offices in 85 countries.