Property investment in Georgia

Yes. A foreigner buys an apartment, house or commercial property in Georgia in full freehold personal ownership, with no residency, no permit and no local bank account required, the title is registered directly to the individual regardless of citizenship. One exception applies - agricultural land: it cannot normally be sold into ownership to a foreign individual or foreign company. There are only two exceptions: land a foreigner acquires by inheritance, and a Georgian entity under foreign control that buys the plot under an investment plan approved by a separate decision of the Government of Georgia - changing the partner to sidestep this rule is banned by law, and if the plan fails the land must be sold within a year. Residential and commercial property is not covered by this restriction at all.

Yes, the deal can be completed without personal presence via a notarised, apostilled power of attorney to a representative or lawyer in Georgia, issued at a Georgian consulate or before a notary in the buyer's home country with a subsequent apostille. Title registration with the National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR) takes, according to industry sources, from one to four working days, with expedited and same-day options available for a higher fee. The registry's separate remote video service, Smart Contract, is available only to Georgian citizens with a national ID, so a foreigner's route is via a power of attorney to a representative.

There are no specific currency-control restrictions on transfers into Georgia: the National Bank of Georgia and commercial banks are fully integrated into the SWIFT network, and there are no limits on the number of bank accounts individuals or companies may hold. Every incoming transfer, including a property payment, is screened for the origin of funds under the central bank's requirements. A visa or local account is not formally required for the deal itself, a valid passport is enough, but in practice settling through a Georgian bank account is easier, since transfers are checked for payment purpose and prices are legally quoted in lari, which floats freely with no peg.

There is no one-off tax on a purchase in Georgia, no stamp duty and no purchase tax, the one-off cost is the ownership registration fee on the NAPR tariff: 150 lari for the standard service, 270 for expedited, 350 for same-day filing (roughly 55 to 130 dollars, depending on how fast you need it). A separate notary tariff applies for certifying the sale contract under Government of Georgia Resolution No.507: for a two-party deal, for example, 362.50 lari at a price of 100,000 lari, 1,162.50 lari at 500,000 lari and 1,662.50 lari at 1,000,000 lari, half that for a one-party deal. Income from long-term rental is taxed at a flat 5 percent of gross revenue with no deductions, including for non-residents, with mandatory tax registration and monthly filing. On a sale, capital gains tax does not apply at all after two years of ownership, while an earlier exit is taxed at 5 percent on the difference between the sale price and the documented purchase price.

In Georgia a foreign buyer gets full freehold on flats, houses and commercial property - the title is registered directly to the individual, with no residency, permit or local bank account required. The exception is agricultural land: it cannot be bought into personal ownership directly, and a Georgian entity under foreign control can only acquire it under an investment plan approved by a separate decision of the Government of Georgia, or by inheritance; changing the partner to sidestep this rule is banned by law. Residential and commercial property fall outside this restriction, so for a typical apartment or house purchase it does not apply.

Georgia has no dedicated escrow regulation like the UAE's. Registering the preliminary contract with the Public Registry protects against a double sale of the same unit, but it does not guarantee the buyer's payments themselves: documented cases exist of construction being suspended because a developer could not mobilise funds. The risks are typical for a market without such a law - delays, project changes, developer financial trouble. They can be reduced by paying not cash to the developer but into a bank account tied to the unit's registry number, or via a notary deposit.

A unit can be let directly or through a management company, but there is no data on officially regulated management rates in the Tbilisi and Batumi market - it is an open market practice with no single standard. Long-term rental income is taxed at a flat 5 percent of gross revenue with no deductions, including for non-residents, and requires registering with the Georgian tax service and filing monthly rather than once a year. The record 2025 tourist flow also supports demand for short-term lets in Tbilisi and Batumi, but management terms for such units are agreed individually with the operator.

The annual property tax depends on the family's income for the preceding year: up to GEL 40,000 the owner is fully exempt, up to GEL 100,000 the rate is 0.05 to 0.2 percent of market value, and from GEL 100,000 it is 0.8 to 1 percent. According to real estate agency and developer blogs from 2026, service fees in new-build complexes in Tbilisi and Batumi typically run 1 to 3.5 lari per square metre a month, rising to about 1.5 dollars per metre in complexes with concierge and security. For example, Tbilisi Hills charges around 2.10 lari per metre, and Midtown in Batumi charges 1 lari per metre for units up to 100 metres and 0.7 lari above that. Utility bills for electricity, water, gas and internet for a typical one or two bedroom flat usually add up to 100 to 200 lari a month, separate from the service fee.

Yes, the owner may live in the purchased property on the basis of ownership itself: freehold is registered directly to an individual and does not depend on residency, a permit or a visa. Owning the property and the right to stay in the country are legally separate matters: entry is governed by a separate visa regime, and for longer stays a purchase above the set threshold separately grants an annually renewable residence permit. So one can live in the unit right after registration, while the length of actual stay in the country is governed by visa status or a separately obtained permit.

Selling follows the general procedure: the parties sign a sale contract, usually notarised, and file it with a copy of the seller's passport, the cadastral drawing and the registration fee receipt at the National Agency of Public Registry. Standard title transfer registration takes a few working days, with expedited tariffs available for a higher fee. A foreign owner can complete the sale remotely via a notarised, apostilled power of attorney to a local representative, since the registry's electronic service is available only to Georgian citizens. Selling after two years of ownership carries no capital gains tax, while an earlier exit is taxed at 5 percent.

To register ownership with the Public Registry you need: an application, a copy of the buyer's valid passport, a title document (usually the sale contract), a cadastral drawing of the property and a receipt for the registration fee. No visa or residence permit is required for the deal. In practice the contract is notarised and drawn up in Georgian and the buyer's language, and if a representative acts on the buyer's behalf, a notarised power of attorney and an official document translation are also needed. This list covers the general registration procedure and is not spelled out separately for foreign buyers.

The lari floats freely and is not pegged to the dollar or the euro, and the National Bank of Georgia intervenes in the exchange rate only in cases of extreme volatility. For an investor this means rental income and capital value are not shielded by a fixed rate when converted into their own currency, unlike the UAE dirham for example. An added factor is inflation, which accelerated to 5.9 percent in April 2026 on rising energy prices, with a peak expected in mid 2026 followed by a return to the 3 percent target. Until then, real returns in lari grow more slowly than the nominal figures suggest.

There is no formal requirement to hire a lawyer in Georgia, and the material available on typical fees for this specific country is not enough to give a figure. In practice a lawyer usually checks whether the plot counts as agricultural land: a foreigner can only acquire it by inheritance or through a Georgian entity with an investment plan approved by the Government, and makes sure the preliminary contract is registered with the Public Registry and the main sale contract is notarised before filing with NAPR. This lowers the risk of the same unit being sold twice.

Gross rental yield in Tbilisi runs around 7.4 to 7.8 percent, and in Batumi it is higher, around 8.1 percent as of August 2025, but both figures sit well below the 2022 peak, when Tbilisi topped 10 percent and Batumi topped 12 percent. Prices keep climbing meanwhile: Batumi new-builds gained 22.6 percent year on year by June 2026, and Colliers expects no price correction in either Tbilisi or Batumi in 2026. That points to yield continuing to normalise rather than returning to 2022 levels.

Yes, some developers in Tbilisi and Batumi advertise guaranteed rental income programmes, but this is a marketing practice of individual companies, not a government rule. According to developer websites in 2026, terms vary widely: from 6 to 8 percent a year for periods starting at one year up to fixed payouts over 10 years, with some offers claiming yields above 20 percent. Such guarantees depend on the developer's own financial standing, and Georgia has no dedicated escrow regulation for off-plan sales, so these promises should be weighed separately from market rental yield.

No. Property in Georgia can be owned without a visa, a residence permit or a local bank account - freehold title is registered directly to the individual and does not depend on the buyer's citizenship or visa status. A visa or permit is needed only for staying in the country long term, not for owning the unit itself; the separate residence permit route through a purchase from 150,000 dollars is an option for those who want resident status, not a requirement of the deal.