Shëngjin: holiday apartment or investment? Prices and areas

An apartment in Shëngjin costs less than one in Vlora or Saranda: the median asking price in listings was about 1,550 € per m² in July 2026, or about 114,000 € per apartment. As an investment for short-term rentals, Shëngjin lags behind Vlora, Durrës and Golem, at about 510 € a month per apartment from January to June 2026. It makes more sense as a holiday apartment for families from Kosovo and northern Albania, who use it themselves in summer and rent it out for the remaining weeks.

Main photo: Aldo Vukaj / Unsplash

Median asking price per m² in listings, July 2026

About 1,550 €

Monthly short-term rental income per apartment, January to June 2026 (AirDNA)

About 510 €

From Pristina by car, about 3 hours 10 minutes without traffic

226 km

Reference price per m² of housing in Shëngjin (VKM no. 457/2023)

56,000 lek

Where is Shëngjin and how far is it?

Shëngjin is an administrative unit of the Municipality of Lezha, about 7 km from the town of Lezha, 13 minutes by car. According to the National Tourism Agency (AKT, Agjencia Kombëtare e Turizmit), the beach stretches west of Lezha, from Shëngjin in the north to the mouth of the Drin of Lezha, near Kune Island. Near the town centre is the port, which according to AKT brings life to Shëngjin.

From the centre of Tirana it is about 65 km, roughly 1 hour 10 minutes, and from Tirana Airport about 52 km, just under an hour. From Pristina it is about 226 km, 3 hours 10 minutes, and from Prizren about 150 km, 2 hours 17 minutes. These times are without traffic, calculated with OpenStreetMap; in summer, the Milot-Lezha stretch slows down traffic heading north, according to tour operators quoted by Monitor (19 September 2026).

How much does an apartment in Shëngjin cost in 2026?

Per m², the asking price is around 1,550 €, according to an analysis of active listings on a property portal published on 20 July 2026. The median price per apartment was about 114,000 €. These are prices sellers ask for, not prices of closed transactions, so you may get a lower price by negotiating.

For taxes and fees, the state does not use the market price but the reference price. For Shëngjin, Council of Ministers Decision (VKM) no. 457/2023 sets it at 56,000 lek (ALL) per m² of housing, about 610 € at the exchange rate of early October 2026, the same as for the town of Lezha. How this price affects the notary and the tax is explained in the article on the reference price.

For an apartment at the median price, the calculator below works out the buying costs at the notary and at ASHK (the State Cadastre Agency, Agjencia Shtetërore e Kadastrës). The full list of items is on the buying costs page.

The areas: the centre, the beachfront and the hill

Shëngjin is small, and its areas differ more by how close they are to the sea than by neighbourhood:

• The centre and the port. The most urban part, with shops and services that stay open outside the season. For living there all year round, this is the most practical area.
• The beachfront towards the south. The buildings along the beach are more in demand for holidays and short-term rentals. In resorts such as Golem, the first line asks for noticeably higher prices than the streets behind it, as the guide to Golem shows.
• The hill and Rana e Hedhun. The sand dune on the slopes of Mount Renci, about 4 km to the northwest, has a quieter beach but is further from services.

Who buys apartments in Shëngjin?

The main buyers come from Kosovo. In June 2025, the mayor of Lezha, Pjerin Ndreu, said on the programme "Opinion" that Albanians from Kosovo made up about 65% of the clientele and that within a year and a half they had bought about 1,200 apartments, while foreigners had bought about 500. According to him, Shëngjin then had about 25,000 beds (Telegrafi, 13 June 2025).

The main reason is distance: of the places compared in the guide to holiday apartments, Shëngjin is the closest to Pristina. If you are buying from Kosovo, the documents and the payment are explained on the page on buying property from Kosovo.

Holidays or investment: how much do short-term rentals earn?

As a pure short-term rental investment, Shëngjin earns less than the central and southern coast. According to AirDNA data published by Monitor (15 August 2026), from January to June 2026 a night cost an average of 41.7 € and an apartment brought in about 510 € a month. Total short-term rental income in Shëngjin stayed below 500,000 € in the first half of the year.

Monitor describes Shëngjin as a market with a strong seasonal pattern: low prices in winter and an immediate jump in June. Together with Korça, it is the market where apartments have the most free days.

A simple calculation: 510 € a month for 12 months gives about 6,120 € a year, about 5.4% of a 114,000 € price. The figure is only an illustration: the average does not include July and August, which bring in more, but it also leaves out building fees, cleaning, platform commissions and tax. How short-term rental income is declared is explained in the article on Airbnb and the 15% tax, and you will find the comparison of towns in the article on short-term rentals.

For resale, the Bank of Albania's survey of real estate agents gives a positive signal for the coast: in the first half of 2026, the average time to sell a home in coastal areas fell to 8.2 months, from 9.9 months in the previous survey.

What is life like in Shëngjin outside the season?

Outside summer, Shëngjin is a small town. In the 2023 Census, the administrative unit had 6,963 residents, while across the whole Municipality of Lezha 38% of homes and 56% of apartments in residential buildings were unoccupied at the time of the count, in September 2023.

Photo: Albert Hyseni / Unsplash

Unoccupied homes include holiday apartments, which stand empty for most of the year. For you, this means half-empty buildings in winter and little demand for long-term rentals. According to tour operators, in 2026 the season stretched into the first ten days of October, but on the northern coast it remained shorter (Monitor, 19 September 2026).

For the hospital, offices and larger shops, the nearest centre is Lezha. In the June 2025 interview, the mayor called traffic the main problem of the summer and said he hoped construction of a bypass road for Shëngjin would begin; as of 10 October 2026 we found no official announcement that work had started. Why summer 2026 did not change much for coastal property is explained in the analysis after summer 2026.

What should you check before buying in Shëngjin?

Before paying a deposit, check the property documents, the building permit and what is around it. For buildings under construction, the biggest risk is floors added beyond the permit: an apartment on such a floor may not be registrable. How to verify the project is explained in the guide to buying off-plan.

Shëngjin, Golem or Durrës?

Shëngjin is worth it when you use the apartment yourself in summer and come from Kosovo or northern Albania. If your main goal is short-term rentals, Durrës, Vlora and Golem earned more per apartment in the first half of 2026. If you want to live there all year round, Durrës and Vlora are bigger towns that do not depend on summer alone.