Chambers and Partners has published Real Estate 2026, and the Law and Practice section of the Georgia chapter is written by MB Legal Georgia. Nino Rurua, Elene Kikalia and Roza Asaturian set out how real estate law in Georgia works in practice, from how title actually passes to what a foreign investor can and cannot buy, to the registration rule that decides whether a commercial lease exists at all.
What the chapter covers
A Chambers Law and Practice section is not a commentary piece. It is a fully structured question-and-answer treatment of a jurisdiction, answering the same set of questions asked of every country in the guide, which makes the guides usable for cross-border comparison.
The Georgia chapter runs across eight areas:
- General sources of law and market trends,
- Sale and purchase,
- Real estate finance,
- Planning and zoning,
- Investment vehicles,
- Commercial leases,
- Construction,
- Tax.
It is written for international businesses, in-house counsel and advisers assessing Georgian property as an investment or an operating base.
A market in a calmer phase
The chapter describes a market that has moved out of its post-pandemic surge into steadier conditions. Residential prices in Tbilisi rose around 3% year on year in early 2026, with similar growth forecast for the capital and a somewhat faster pace for Batumi.
The two cities behave differently. Tbilisi demand is predominantly need-driven and led by owner-occupiers – the pattern we set out in our guide to buying property in Tbilisi. Batumi is investor- and short-term-rental-driven, and its short-let segment is showing early signs of supply outpacing demand, a risk we examine in our guide to buying property in Batumi – a distinction that matters for anyone modelling yield on the coast.
The defining transaction of the period is the partnership between the Government of Georgia and Eagle Hills of Abu Dhabi, covering the Tbilisi Waterfront development in Krtsanisi and the Gonio Yachts and Marina project near Batumi. Agreed by memorandum in January 2025 and formalised in joint-venture agreements in October 2025, the projects are valued at more than USD 6.5 billion, with sales opening in early 2026. The state took a 33% stake in exchange for contributing land rather than cash.
Title passes on registration, not on signature
Ownership of Georgian immovable property is created and transferred only on registration with the National Agency of Public Registry. Registration is the constitutive act – not the notarised agreement, and not completion. The chapter notes that this repeatedly surprises buyers arriving from jurisdictions where title passes at closing. Our guide to the complete legal process of buying property in Georgia walks through where registration sits in the transaction.
In return, Georgia offers speed and reliability. Standard registration completes in four working days for GEL 150, with expedited service at GEL 270 for one working day and GEL 350 for same-day registration. Registered entries carry a statutory presumption of accuracy, and a good-faith purchaser acquiring from a registered holder is protected.
Because a registry extract can be relied on with real confidence, title insurance has never developed as a product in Georgia. Diligence is conducted directly against the register rather than underwritten around it.
Open to foreign buyers, with one constitutional exception
Foreign individuals and foreign-owned entities may freely acquire residential and commercial property in Georgia – apartments, houses, retail and office premises, and non-agricultural land. There is no residency requirement, no reciprocity condition, and no foreign investment screening regime applying to ordinary real estate acquisitions. It is also possible to buy property in Georgia remotely, by power of attorney.
Agricultural land is the exception, and the restriction is constitutional rather than merely statutory. Article 19(4) of the Constitution reserves agricultural land to the state, municipalities, Georgian citizens and their associations. The chapter sets out the narrow routes through it:
- acquisition by inheritance;
- acquisition by a Georgian entity with a foreign dominant partner, under an investment plan approved by the Government; and
- acquisition by licensed financial institutions in the ordinary course of their business.
For buyers whose objective extends beyond the asset itself, ownership can support an investment residence permit through real estate.
Leasing agricultural land, by contrast, is unrestricted. That is why long-term leases are a common structuring route for agribusiness and renewable energy projects.
A commercial lease may not legally exist until it is registered
This is the point most likely to catch a party out, and it is a stronger rule than its equivalent in many jurisdictions. Under the Law on the Public Registry, registration is a precondition for the lease right coming into existence at all – not merely for making it opposable to third parties – where a private-law legal entity is landlord or tenant and the term exceeds one year, including aggregated connected terms.
Most institutional-grade Georgian commercial leases involve a corporate party and run beyond a year, so the mandatory trigger captures the majority of the market. An unregistered lease within that category has not legally arisen. Outside of this mandatory threshold, registration remains optional, serving to make the lease enforceable against subsequent purchasers and creditors.
No transfer tax, and reinvested profit is untaxed
Georgia levies no ad valorem real estate transfer tax and no stamp duty. On an asset deal the principal transaction cost is the fixed registration fee together with notarial fees. Annual holding costs are a separate question, covered in our guide to property taxes in Georgia. VAT at 18% applies where the seller is VAT-registered and selling in the course of economic activity; the registration threshold is GEL 100,000 of taxable turnover over any rolling twelve months.
Corporate income tax follows the Estonian model. Retained and reinvested profit is untaxed, and the 15% charge is triggered only on distribution or a deemed-distribution event. For buy-and-hold structures that is a material advantage over jurisdictions that tax income as it arises, and it shapes how a holding structure should be built – see our tax law practice.
Where property is to be held through a Georgian company, the choice of vehicle matters: our comparison of individual entrepreneur and LLC structures sets out the trade-offs, and we can handle the company registration itself.
The chapter also flags the anti-avoidance rule that closes the obvious workaround: where more than half of a target company’s asset value derives from Georgian immovable property, gains on the sale of its shares are treated as Georgian-source income. A share deal cannot escape the net by form alone.
Security, enforcement and the contractor’s mortgage
Where a mortgage is granted, it takes effect on registration. On default, a contractually agreed out-of-court sale typically runs three to six months from notice of default to completion of the public auction, against twelve to twenty-four months or more for judicial foreclosure – which is why out-of-court enforcement is the market standard in secured lending.
Georgian law contains no self-executing mechanic’s lien. What it has is narrower and easy to misread: where a contract concerns a building, the contractor may demand a mortgage over the construction land plot to secure its claims. The difference is one of mechanism rather than existence – the contractor must actively assert the demand, and the mortgage only takes effect on registration, which ordinarily requires the owner’s co-operation or a court order compelling it.
One restriction deserves particular attention from foreign lenders. Where the borrower is a natural person and the lender is not a supervised bank or microfinance-type institution, the borrower’s own real estate generally cannot be used to secure the loan by mortgage. Private credit structures need to be designed around this from the outset.
Two reform threads to watch
Municipal development controls in Tbilisi and Batumi have tightened, lengthening the pre-development planning phase and raising the value of early engagement with planning authorities.
Separately, land registration reform continues. The National Agency of Public Registry is surveying previously unregistered parcels across 59 municipalities and is required by 1 January 2027 to resolve ownership recognition over unlawfully occupied plots. For any parcel not yet fully within the cadastral system, that date is a concrete factor in diligence and completion timetables.
Nino Rurua, Elene Kikalia and Roza Asaturian authored the Georgia chapter. MB Legal’s real estate practice sits within the firm’s civil law department and covers acquisitions and disposals, development and construction, secured lending, leasing, and the corporate structures through which Georgian property is held. The team’s banking regulatory background gives it direct familiarity with National Bank of Georgia requirements on real estate financings.
Read the full chapter
The Georgia chapter of Real Estate 2026 is available on the Chambers and Partners Practice Guides platform: Real Estate 2026 – Georgia.
