The much-delayed construction of the first golf course in the Balkan state of Montenegro may be a step closer.

Local sources are reporting that the Montenegrin government has given the go-ahead for the course, to be built on a site in the municipality of Budva. 

Belgian businessman Jean-Luc Dumortier bought sixty hectares of land on a hill above the Adriatic town of Budva six years ago and announced the Royal Montenegro golf development, but the project has been held up in planning since then. Now, it seems, a deal has been done between the developer and the local municipality by which his land and another parcel of publicly-owned land will be merged to provide a 100 hectare site for the golf course and associated developments, including hotels and villas.

Budva is Montenegro’s most important tourist destination and is among the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast, believed to have been founded almost 3,500 years ago.