Even if you’ve never played a round of golf in your life, you can tell the moment that you step onto the freshly laid green that The Peaks is going to be something special.
Montenegro’s first golf course sits the Luštica peninsula, and each hole will have a view of the South Adriatic — putting it in the rarified international club of golf courses with sight lines of the sea from each hole. When the sun sets, the black mountains that give the country its name are rendered in stark silhouette.
With warm weather year round and a wildly scenic course under construction, developer Orascom is hoping to tee off Montenegro’s coastline as a family golfing destination.
To cater to second home owners looking for the ultimate door-to-putt experience, The Peaks will include a series of brand new hillside neighbourhoods. Apartments, townhouses and villas will be built in between the golfing greens, along with swimming pools and a social hub in the form of a club house.
Currently under construction is Botanika, a neighbourhood designed to integrate with the natural landscape. Infinity pools and sunken fire pits will line the grounds of three- and four- bedroom villas of up to 440 square metres.
Townhouses covering 215 square metres will have their own pools and outdoor dining areas, while apartments will have access to a communal outdoor pool. The architecture style promises a contemporary take on traditional Montenegrin design, with local stone used for the facades and a lush planting scheme.
The Peaks will be perched above Luštica Bay, an already established — and thriving — seaside resort town. Mediterranean-style holiday apartments and five-star hotel The Chedi overlook a marina ringed by shops, bars and restaurants. Purchasing a home in The Peaks affords access to all of Luštica Bay’s amenities, including private sandy beaches, the Kids Club, and regular events held along the promenade.
As it’s tricky for foreigners to get a mortgage in Montenegro, Orascom is offering a plan for buyers at The Peaks to pay in interest-free instalments over four years.
As soon as they get the keys, residents may also rent out their own property to other holidaymakers through Luštica Bay’s in-house programme, potentially creating a nice little earner.
The course itself has been designed by Gary Player, the gregarious pro golfer who is still swinging his clubs at 88 years old. Aware that golf is getting a rep for being thirsty and land-hogging, the developers are committed to developing this greenfield site sensitively with regard to water-saving and habitat protection. A golf academy will also provide free lessons for local young people at the country’s inaugural course.
Only two decades ago the area was a largely uninhabited military training zone. Orascom has been intentional about each part of the wider project, which represents one of the largest greenfield developments in southeastern Europe transforming a five kilometres stretch of coastline.
Further inland is Centrale, an intentional town with banks and a school, a central piazza and apartment complexes that back onto garden squares, and streets that are safe for children to wander round.
As the tenth smallest country in the world, Montenegro has begun punching above its weight as a holiday destination, luring travellers with incredible scenery and affordable luxury stays.
For those looking to get beyond beaches and rounds of golf, The Peaks is well positioned for day trips to the historic towns and islands that cluster round the Bay of Kotor aka Boka Bay — Montenegro’s much warmer answer to the fjords of Norway that’s a designated UNESCO World Heritage site.
There’s the medieval walled city of Kotor, where churches and mosques rub shoulders with each other in narrow streets ruled by cats so photogenic they have their own calendar. If you’re looking to dodge the crowds of grockles on day release from the obscenely large cruise ships that pull alongside Kotor, you can climb the hundreds of steps lined by votive chapels and make an offering at Our Lady of Remedy, built to save the city from the Black Death.
Accessible only by boat is Our Lady of the Rocks, a church on an artificial island built by seafaring Montenegrins to celebrate the safe return of sailers. Intricately etched silver and tin votive plaques commemorate shipwreck survival stories put down to the intervention of Our Lady herself.
While the sandy beaches and cultural attractions are popular in summer, the arrival of The Peaks could boost Montenegro’s off season tourism – the most favourable temperatures for a round of golf will be outside of the July to August high season, where temperatures can hit 39 degrees Celsius.
With direct flights from London to Tivat in under three hours, it’s a tempting property opportunity for beach lovers, golf fanatics and the golf-curious. Fore!
