Porto Montenegro has approval to go from 480 berths to about 850

The capacity

Porto Montenegro currently runs about 480 berths taking vessels from 9 to 250 metres. David Margason, chairman of the adjacent refit yard Adriatic42, told SuperyachtNews in an interview published on 17 July 2026 that the approved expansion takes the marina to roughly 850 berths, and that the site is barely fifty per cent of the way through its total allowable built area with something like fifteen years of development still to run.

Occupancy at the top of the range is already meaningful. Margason puts a typical season at 15 to 20 yachts over 60 metres and three or four above 100 metres. Adriatic42 next door handles refit and repair work on vessels in the 60 to 80 metre range, which is the part of the fleet that has the least choice of yard in the eastern Mediterranean.

Why it matters to an owner looking for a base

Med berth supply for yachts over 60 metres has been the binding constraint on where large yachts spend their winters for a decade. The alternatives are a handful of ports on the Riviera and the Italian coast where a long-term berth is inherited, not bought, and where the annual cost is among the highest in the Mediterranean.

Montenegro is outside the European Union, which changes the customs arithmetic for a non-EU owned yacht. A winter spent there is not a winter spent inside the Union, and for a yacht working under temporary admission that is directly relevant to the 18-month clock. The country is a candidate for accession, so this is a feature of the present position and not a permanent one.

What has actually been built

The development began in 2007 and the first residences were occupied around 2009. Over the past year the marina has added the Boka Place district, which includes 215 apartments, a SIRO-branded five-star hotel and a health centre of more than 2,000 square metres. The yacht club has been redeveloped, and a day club and a nightclub are operated under the management of Dubai's Sunset Group.

The less photogenic infrastructure is the part that decides whether a family actually stays. There is an International Baccalaureate school on site with around 350 pupils, up from about 100 in 2017, a medical centre, a three-screen cinema and roughly forty new shops and restaurants. No investment figures for the expansion have been disclosed.

The rest of the Adriatic is moving too

Montenegro is not adding berths in isolation. Albania has become the most active builder on this coast, with Vlora Marina planned to open in the middle of 2027 with 438 berths for yachts up to 50 metres, and the far larger Durres Yachts and Marina scheme, led by Eagle Hills and partially operational since March 2025, designed eventually to take vessels up to 120 metres.

In Croatia the growth is coming through the marina groups. D-Marin, which changed hands in July 2026, operates in both Croatia and Albania as part of a network of 28 marinas across nine countries. The effect over the next few seasons is that the eastern Adriatic stops being a cruising ground you visit and starts being one you can base in, which is a different proposition for an owner deciding where the yacht spends October to April.

The reservation

Fifteen years of remaining development is a long time to have builders on the other side of the quay. An owner committing to a long-term berth is committing to a construction site that will be finished long after his current boat is sold, and the sequencing of that work is not published.

The other question is depth of service. Adriatic42 covers 60 to 80 metres, which leaves anything larger travelling for major work. For a yacht in that band the marina and the yard sitting side by side is the argument. For a 100-metre yacht it is a berth with a good winter school, and the refit still happens somewhere else.