Thousands of square meters of Serbian resorts in Montenegro are empty - and worth millions!
These resorts have long been abandoned, occupying attractive locations where at least taxes can be collected
Another season is passing by and while our numerous Adriatic resorts are empty, unused. In that way millions are locked in, and the profits that could have been earned are lost, never to return.
At this moment, no one can say for sure how much the assets of Serbian companies and their resorts in Montenegro are worth. Neither has the Property Directorate answer that question for us.
There are only estimates that the value is over one hundred million euros, but this has long been taken as the only data and those who know real estate will tell you that the number is much higher.
That it's been time for a long while now to resolve the issue is mentioned occasionally - but perhaps the tax that the Montenegrin authorities are planning to impose on unused facilities may also force to action. According to initial estimates, the tax could be draconian.
The resorts of large Serbian companies of yesteryear, as well as hotels with thousands of beds that were once modern, are now neglected, receiving little maintenance in Montenegro, and are only used for three summer months a year, or are awaiting privatization.
The fact that the Budva Riviera is hiding s true small fortune of ours is also an assessment of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
The EPS and Epsturs hotel complex near Slovenska beach in Budva - below Cape Zavala, where the elite settlement Dukljanski Vrtovi has sprung up - is one of the most valuable locations that Serbia owns by the sea. It occupies 25,000 square meters where the two-star Park Hotel with 300 beds was built five decades ago.
A little farther away in the settlement of Podkosljun there are 16 villas owned by the same company that are 15,000 square meters total. The building have about 1,000 beds in total.
The plan is to build a hotel complex with 800 beds, and many accompanying facilities in the place where the Park Hotel stands today. The new hotel would have seven floors and a complex of 90,000 square meters. The Municipality of Budva will not charge any utilities for such facilities, as promised.
Other facilities in exceptional locations owned by Serbia include the Sumadija Hotel in Becici, which covers an area of 13,000 square meters, the Beograd Hotel also in Becici, which is owned by the Serbian Ministry of Interior, Vrmac Prcanj, a part of the Belgrade Rehabilitation Institute, with 179 rooms. The state of Serbia also owns a part of the Dr. Simo Milosevic Institute in Igalo.
The National Bank of Serbia has six buildings measuring 128 square meters in Budva and three more sized 81 square meters in Igalo.
Serbia has earned 11.7 million euros from the sale of a part of the Ineks Zlatna Obala complex in Sutomore, but there are still many hotels and company resorts waiting to be sold or further invested in, so that they can be put to proper use.
In 2012, a commission was set up to make an inventory of the Serbian real estate assets in Montenegro, but it ended up doing nothing, so there is no precise list of what's "ours."
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(Telegraf Biznis)