Albania Property Market - Buyers Guide

ALBANIAN PROPERTY - BUYING PROCESS

Buying on the Albanian primary market (offplan)

Choose your apartment
Engage lawyer (who will arrange the contracts and perform checks)
Pay legal fees
Sign reservation contract and pay reservation monies (sometimes this step is missed out goes straight to step 5)
Sign Future Purchase contract and pay deposit monies (minus reservation monies)
Around 6-8 months before completion arrange a mortgage (if required)
Pay any stage payment necessary before completion
On completion sign Purchase contract (with lawyers help) and pay remaining monies (perhaps with mortgage help)

Buying on the Albanian secondary market (resale)

The process is broadly similar to the above, except that there is usually only a reservation contract and no future purchase contract to worry about.
Also, if you require a mortgage you may need to perform the process more quickly (eg within 3 months).

ALBANIAN PROPERTY - BUYING COSTS

Albania has a medium level of buying costs.

Percentage wise the costs are a little higher than one would expect because the property prices are relatively low.

Some costs to consider are:

Legal fees - typically 1,000 Euro
Purchase taxes and notary costs typically come to around 1% of the purchase cost
Mortgage costs - can be around 2% of the property value