Buying property in Georgia: checks and risks in 2026

A property deal in Georgia looks simple: a contract, filing at the House of Justice, an entry in the registry. The risks hide in the details — in the order of applications, in encumbrances, and in the fact that the Russian translation of the law on the government portal is a year behind.

Here is what to check before paying, what registration costs and on what terms property leads to residency.

The residency threshold has risen to $150,000

The current version of the law on foreigners requires the property value to exceed the equivalent of USD 150,000 in lari. The same figure applies to the D5 immigration visa.

The second point people get wrong: the amount is measured by market valuation, prepared by a certified valuer from an organisation accredited by the Accreditation Centre. The contract price and the valuation are different numbers, and residency looks at the valuation. An independent property valuation costs from $190 and is done before filing, not after.

The $300,000 threshold now applies only to investment and permanent residence permits.

What a foreigner cannot buy

Agricultural land is closed entirely. The organic law leaves a foreigner one basis for ownership: inheritance. Workarounds are blocked by separate provisions:

• such land cannot be registered to a Georgian company where the dominant partner is a foreigner, except under an investment plan approved by government decision;
• it cannot be pledged in a way that transfers ownership to a foreigner;
• a claim giving rise to a right over such land cannot be assigned to a foreigner;
• the partnership cannot be reshuffled so that a foreigner becomes dominant.

How the registry works and why the queue matters

Ownership arises upon registration with the National Agency of Public Registry. Before that the contract confers no title.

The buyer's key protection is priority. The law on the public registry states: where rights are mutually exclusive, the one filed earlier is registered, and priority is set by the time of filing. A mortgage declared by the seller after your application to transfer title does not jump ahead.

Preliminary registration: what it does and does not do

The tool against that is preliminary registration of a right. It blocks registration of other rights over the asset unless the parties agreed otherwise. It is not absolute protection: among the grounds for cancellation is registration of another person's ownership in the established manner.

A tax lien blocks registration

A tax lien or a tax authority mortgage imposed before the buyer's registration blocks registration of their right entirely.

The reliability of the entry: one word changes the meaning

The civil code protects a good faith acquirer: an entry in the registry is presumed reliable. There are two exceptions — if a complaint has been filed against the entry, or if the acquirer knew it was inaccurate.

The word is “or”. The Georgian original and the English translation use the disjunctive, while the Russian translation on matsne gives “and”. The difference is fundamental: on the Russian text a filed complaint would not matter as long as the buyer “knew nothing”. Under the operative rule, either condition on its own is enough.

What registration costs

Public Registry tariffs as of 5 September 2026:

When a notary is required

A deal can be filed without a notary, but the exemption works in one scenario only: the parties sign the contract in person at the registration body before an authorised officer.

Signing outside Georgia, or acting through a representative under a power of attorney, requires notarisation. Separately, a mortgage agreement securing a loan is notarised, except mortgages in favour of banks, microbanks, microfinance organisations, credit unions and investment funds.

If registration is suspended

Proceedings are suspended when defects are found in the documents. The deadlines depend on the reason:

These periods cannot be extended.

If the defects are not cured, proceedings are terminated. A refusal to register is a separate procedure with its own grounds: the right is not subject to registration, a registered right excludes the one claimed, the document was issued by an unauthorised person, or there is a court act.

This is the stage where both time and the deposit are lost. Legal support for the deal from $375 covers checking the property, preparing the contract and filing — precisely where proceedings usually stall.

About buy-back schemes

A sale contract with a right of repurchase turns up in loans secured on property: the money is documented as a purchase and repayment as a buy-back.

The civil code allows a sham transaction to be declared void if it conceals another. We found no Supreme Court practice on such recharacterisation in open sources, so the outcome of any specific dispute cannot be predicted. The risk is in the structure itself: the party who documented a loan as a sale argues the point only after title has been registered.

The trap in your grounds for staying

Check the order before the deal: grounds for staying first, then the valuation, then the contract. Residency through buying property is arranged from $340, and the first step there is checking whether you qualify at all, by status and by amount.