With easyJet launching two new routes from London Gatwick and Manchester to Tivat this summer, Montenegro is fast emerging as one of the hottest European destinations for international investors.

Montenegro is one of Europe’s newest countries, created in 2006 from the former Yugoslavia. It lies south of Croatia and directly across the Adriatic Sea from Italy and although it’s small, it packs in five National Parks, three ski resorts and the Balkans' largest lake.

Most buyers focus on the rocky, 190-mile Adriatic coastline and in particular the protected waters of fjord-like Kotor Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of outstanding natural beauty. British poet Lord Byron was so moved by the steep mountains plunging down to crystal waters that he described Kotor Bay as ‘the most beautiful encounter between land and sea’ and the city was recently named as one of Lonely Planet’s must-see cities for 2016.

Around Kotor Bay five-star hotel brands have moved in and several developers are building golf courses, high-quality marinas and ambitious residential resorts aimed at sophisticated international buyers.

Tivat, home to an international airport, has become the focus for much of this new development with plenty of sleek super-yachts on show in the impressive marina at Porto Montenegro. Montenegro’s position in the Mediterranean provides hundreds of islands nearby to explore by boat and a little further afield, Venice, Corfu and Croatia.

As well as modern apartments and villas in these new sports and leisure resorts, buyers can opt for renovated old stone houses and apartments around Kotor Bay. Pretty towns like Perast and medieval Kotor are the best known of several romantic waterfront villages and towns.