Albania property reference prices vs market prices 2026: the gap, city by city

Market prices are above the official reference price in every Albanian city we compared, but the gap varies widely: in Tirana, the Keydata Albania index puts the market 1.52 to 1.62 times above the middle reference price (Q2 2026), while asking prices on hyrja.al are 2.11 times the reference in Durrës, 2.78 times in Vlora and 3.12 times in Saranda, on few listings. This article is the comparison; how to find the reference price for your area is explained in the guide to the reference price. The ratio measures the distance between a tax value and market prices. It is not proof that anyone declares less.

Figures last updated on 4 November 2026. Exchange rate: €1 = 91.00 lek, the official rate of the Bank of Albania on 4 November 2026.

Tirana: Keydata against the median reference zone, Q2 2026

1.52 to 1.62 times

Within Tirana: former Blloku and Unit 6, Keydata against the act

1.18 to 1.88 times

Saranda: hyrja.al asking median against the reference price, n=14

3.12 times

For €1, official rate of the Bank of Albania, 4 November 2026

91.00 lek

What is the gap between the reference price and the market in Tirana?

In Tirana, the market is about one and a half times the reference price. This is the only comparison where both sides share the same map: the act (Council of Ministers Decision no. 457/2023, known as VKM 457/2023) divides the city into 11 units and 32 zones, and the Keydata report published in the newspaper Shekulli on 4 August 2026 uses the same zone codes (2/4, 5/3 and so on). Joint Instruction no. 34/2023 places "Komuna e Parisit" street in zone 5/3, and the Keydata report places it there too.

Keydata publishes prices by unit only, not by zone, so a 32-row table cannot honestly be built. What can be compared is each unit with its zones. The former Blloku is the exception: Keydata calculates it separately and the report mentions it under zone 5/1, but the boundaries of the two areas may not be identical.

Unit 1 has no ratio. The act gives it 97,200 and 102,800 lek per m², but Shekulli assigns it €2,116/m² and a 115% rise, exactly the figures Publik.al gives for the whole of Tirana. This looks like a publishing error, so we do not use it, as in apartment prices in Tirana by zone.

For the city as a whole, Publik.al reports from Keydata a mean of €2,116/m² and a median of €1,982/m² in Q2 2026. As the city's reference we take the median of the 32 zones, 119,050 lek or €1,308/m², the same one used by the Tirana apartment price page. This gives the ratios 1.62 and 1.52.

How far are asking prices in the other cities?

Outside Tirana, asking prices are two to three times the reference price, because the act has only one value for a whole city. The table below uses hyrja.al listings only: published apartments, 20 to 400 m², first listed from 1 October 2026, as of 4 November 2026. These are asking prices from one month of listings, a small sample, not sale prices and not the market as a whole.

Golem has 7 listings, with a median of €1,150/m², but no ratio: the act has no line for it and gives only the rule "up to 35% less" than the nearest zone, which is not a figure. Listings priced in lek were converted to euro at a working rate of 92 lek (22 of 89 in Tirana, 2 of 24 in Durrës, 4 of 13 in Vlora, none in Saranda). The official rate is 1.1% lower, so these prices come out slightly higher in euro; we have not recalculated them.

Photo: anastasiia_akh / Magnific

What do other published sources show?

Other sources give the same picture: in most cases the price is 1.5 to 3 times the reference, but most are agents' ranges, not means. Numbeo relies on volunteer contributors. We use it only for Durrës and Vlora, where the site does not flag few contributors.

Numbeo's figures move with contributions: in the Tirana or Durrës comparison, checked on 10 October 2026, Durrës stood at about €1,600 and €1,000/m². For other market statistics, see Albania property market statistics.

Why is the ratio not a clean comparison?

The ratio is an approximate indicator, because the two sides are not measured the same way. Five cautions change how you read it.

Floor area. The tables in Annex 1 are in "Lek/m2 sipërfaqe shfrytëzimi" (usable floor area), while the title of the same annex says "për metër katror sipërfaqe ndërtimi" (per square metre of construction area). Usable floor area is the table's term, but the text of VKM 457/2023 does not define it. Instruction no. 34/2023 multiplies the reference price by the apartment's area without specifying the type. On hyrja.al, the guidance for uploading listings asks for gross area, and the Keydata reports we read do not say which one they use. If the market price is per gross m² and the reference price per usable m², the ratio comes out lower than it really is: as an example, with a usable area 15% smaller, Durrës's 2.11 becomes 2.48.

Asking prices run above sale prices. According to the survey in the Bank of Albania's Financial Stability Report for the first half of 2026, most sales closed at the asking price or up to 5% below it. At 5% less, Durrës's 2.11 becomes 2.00. Keydata writes that it calculates its means from apartments "që janë në shitje" (that are for sale), and that most are resales.

Age. When the tax is calculated, the reference price is reduced by 1% for each full year since the first title, up to 30%. We use the full reference price, without this reduction. For an older home the true ratio comes out higher.

New construction. Annex 2, point dh, says that for new buildings registered after the decision took effect, the price "do të indeksohet me koeficientin 0.2" (will be indexed by a coefficient of 0.2) higher for the first 5 years. We have not applied it, and for these homes the ratio comes out lower.

Exchange rate. The reference price is in lek and the rate has moved. At 92.03 lek per euro, the rate of 1 October 2026 in the reference price article, every ratio comes out about 1.1% higher.

How we calculated it

Ratio = market price in €/m² ÷ (reference price in lek per m² ÷ 91.00). We read the reference figures again on 4 November 2026 in the text of VKM 457/2023 on the website of ASHK, the State Cadastre Agency. For the Tirana units we used the simple mean of the zones, for the city the median of the 32 zones. Neither is weighted by transactions, because such data is not published. The hyrja.al median is for apartments, using each listing's price per m²; we do not publish medians from fewer than 5 listings. Ratios are rounded to two decimal places.

What does the gap mean when you sell or buy?

When you sell, the reference price is a lower limit for tax, not the price of the property. Under Law no. 29/2023, article 17, point 5, the sale price is assessed at the higher of the contract price and the reference price, and the tax is 15% of the gain. The details are explained in the article on the 15% tax.

An example for an 80 m² apartment in Vlora, with a first title in March 2016, sold in November 2026. After 10 full years, the reference price is 61,800 × 90% = 55,620 lek per m², so 4,449,600 lek for 80 m². In both cases the contract states the true price.

For the seller, a high ratio does not lower the tax: when the true price is above the limit, the tax is calculated on it. For the buyer, the registered value matters later, because under point 3.1 of the instruction it becomes the purchase value when you sell the property. That is why the contract must state the price actually paid.

The gap also shows in the annual tax. According to the article on property tax, when there is no higher registered value, the base is the reference price: for 80 m² in Vlora, 61,800 × 80 × 0.05% = 2,472 lek a year. The reference price does not tell you what a home is worth. For that, see the free property valuation and the price pages for Durrës, Vlora and Saranda. If your question is rental yield, the comparison is in rental yield by city, while overvaluation is covered in the article is there a property bubble in Albania.

Will market value change the tax base?

It may, but as of 4 November 2026 we found nothing adopted. The draft law "Për taksën mbi pasurinë e paluajtshme" (on the tax on immovable property) was published for consultation in June 2026 and, according to the public broadcaster RTSH, the market-value tax would start in 2029 for buildings and in 2031 for land parcels, at a rate of 0.1% to 0.2% for homes. The details are in the article on the draft law. The higher the ratio in a city, the more the tax base would move if this system is adopted.

The new reference prices for the districts are separate. According to Vox News and Monitor, the Ministry of Finance published them for consultation in July 2025, and Noa reported on 6 March 2026 that the proposal "nuk është miratuar ende" (has not yet been adopted). For Durrës, Noa writes of 13 zones from 45,000 to 200,000 lek per m². Sources give different numbers of zones, because the draft was revised. These figures are not in our tables.

The Official Gazette (qbz.gov.al) could not be opened by our tools on 4 November 2026. Our last check there was on 1 October 2026, when VKM 132/2018 had last been amended by VKM 457/2023. Before taking any step, ask a notary or ASHK which act is in force.