Property in Bakuriani, Georgia

This guide, last checked on 12 November 2026, sets out what official statistics, statutes, operator pages and published market reports say about property in Bakuriani, the mountain and ski resort at about 1,700 metres in Borjomi Municipality, Samtskhe-Javakheti, southern Georgia. It covers the settlement’s status and population, routed distances to Borjomi, Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi, the Didveli, Kokhta and Mitarbi ski areas and the opening date announced for the 2026-27 season, the state of the Borjomi-Bakuriani narrow-gauge railway, the 1991 to 2020 climate normals of the nearest weather stations, regional visitor, hotel and permit statistics, and the price data that exist for Bakuriani.

It then reads the one project listed on this site, the planning documents that govern building in Bakuriani, and the rules a foreign buyer meets: ownership and registration fees, protected-area and permit provisions, taxes, the residence-permit threshold, mortgage limits and running costs. Every figure carries a source and a date. Lari amounts are converted to USD only at the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) official rate of GEL 2.5933 per USD, valid for 12 November 2026 (NBG: official exchange rates). One project is listed here as of 12 November 2026, so comparisons with other places rest on published averages and not on a set of listings.

Where property in Bakuriani sits: Borjomi Municipality, the daba and routed distances

Bakuriani is a settlement in Borjomi Municipality, in the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti. The Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA) places the resort 1,700 metres above sea level and 180 kilometres from Tbilisi, and calls it the country’s oldest winter resort (Georgian National Tourism Administration: Bakuriani). The administrative status is that of a daba, the Georgian term for a small urban-type settlement: Geostat lists it as “Borough Bakuriani” in its table of cities and boroughs (Geostat: population by cities and boroughs), and Government Resolution No. 591 of 2 December 2019 approves the urban-planning plans of the “recreation territory of daba Bakuriani” (Legislative Herald: Government Resolution No. 591 of 2019). Bakuriani is therefore not a municipality of its own. The municipal entry on Wikipedia describes Borjomi Municipality as one city, three daba (Akhaldaba, Bakuriani and Tsagveri) and 40 villages in 11 administrative communities, with an area of 1,189 km² (Wikipedia: Borjomi Municipality).

The OpenStreetMap record for the town gives the position as 41.7511 N, 43.5280 E (OpenStreetMap: Bakuriani town), which agrees with the 41.750 N, 43.533 E shown in the Wikipedia entry for Bakuriani (Wikipedia: Bakuriani). Borjomi Municipality had 24,613 residents on 1 January 2026 according to Geostat, which is 15.8 percent of the 155,480 residents of Samtskhe-Javakheti (24,613 / 155,480), and on the municipal area of 1,189 km² that is 20.7 residents per km² (24,613 / 1,189). Geostat gives the regional density as 24.2 residents per km² for 2026 (Geostat: density by regions). The country page Georgia gathers the other places where property is listed on this site.

Routed distances from Bakuriani

The distances below were calculated on 12 November 2026 with the public OSRM routing service (car profile, mapped roads, free-flow estimate) from the OpenStreetMap point of the town to the centre of each place or to the airport or station named (Project OSRM). They are routes along roads in the OpenStreetMap network, not timetables: winter conditions, traffic and checkpoints are not modelled. GNTA publishes its own road times to Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Batumi without naming a start or end point (Georgian National Tourism Administration: Bakuriani). The passenger counts are the 2025 totals reported by Georgia Today from the Civil Aviation Agency on 19 March 2026 (Georgia Today: airport passengers 2025).

For a buyer comparing places, the two city pages on this site give the other ends of the road: Tbilisi is the capital and Batumi is the Black Sea city that the OSRM route above reaches in about 4 hours 20 minutes.

Population of Bakuriani: the 2014 census and Geostat estimates

Geostat’s annual estimate for 1 January 2026 is 1,909 residents for Borough Bakuriani, up from 1,556 on 1 January 2015, an increase of 22.7 percent over eleven years (1,909 / 1,556). Borjomi Municipality as a whole went the other way, from 25,423 to 24,613, a fall of 3.2 percent, and the town of Borjomi from 10,957 to 10,763 (Geostat: population by cities and boroughs; Geostat: population by self-governed unit). The 2014 census counted 1,879 residents in the borough (888 men and 991 women) and 2,348 in the wider Community of Borough Bakuriani, which also includes the borough of Bakurianis Andeziti (352), Didi Mitarbi (54), Patara Mitarbi (46) and Tori (17); the census count for the municipality was 25,214 (Geostat: 2014 census table (web archive copy)). Geostat states that the figures for 1 January 2025 were recalculated on the basis of the 2024 census, so the series is not a clean count from year to year. The 2015 estimate (1,556) is also lower than the 2014 census count (1,879) for the borough of the same name, so the two series are not joined here into one trend, and the 22.7 percent above is a change within the annual estimates only (Geostat: population on 1 January 2026).

At the level of the region, the 2024 census counted 155,282 persons in Samtskhe-Javakheti against 160,504 in the 2014 census, a fall of 3.3 percent (Geostat: 2024 census main results). These are counts of usual residents. The statistics read for this guide give no count of the people who stay in Bakuriani apartments in winter or summer, so the resident figure describes the settlement’s permanent population and not its seasonal one. The Wikipedia entry for Bakuriani shows 7,890 as the population for August 2025, with a footnote that points to the Geostat 2014 table, in which the borough figure is 1,879; this guide uses the Geostat figures above.

Ski areas around Bakuriani: Didveli, Kokhta and Mitarbi

The Mountain Trails Agency (MTA), a body of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development that runs Georgia’s ski resorts, states that it operates the Didveli, Kokhta and Mitarbi ski areas in Bakuriani and that one MTA ski pass gives access to all lifts and slopes in them (Mountain Trails Agency: FAQ). The resort page on the MTA site gives a ski area of 36 km, 12 lifts, a top altitude of 2,702 metres, a season from December to March and working hours of 10:00 to 17:00. That page shows 26 trails in its summary panel and 39 in the live-status listing further down (Mountain Trails Agency: Bakuriani). GNTA, in its own text, counts twenty-three ski routes and names December to March as the main period for mountain sports (Georgian National Tourism Administration: Bakuriani).

On the season ahead, the MTA announced on 28 October 2026 that the winter season will open officially on 20 December in Gudauri, Bakuriani, Goderdzi and Mestia (Mountain Trails Agency: season opening news). On 4 November 2026 the MTA’s live-status list showed every one of the 12 Bakuriani lifts as unconfirmed, with the reason given as planned opening or closing. Last season followed a staggered pattern: the Kokhta plateau cable car and piste were scheduled to open on 20 December 2025, daily from 10:00 to 17:00, and the Didveli and Mitarbi pistes in phases from 27 December 2025, with snow-making under way (GBC: Kokhta opening, 18 December 2025). The MTA’s price page was marked as test data on 12 November 2026, so no ski-pass prices are given here.

The MTA list names the lifts, and counting them by type gives the table below: one gondola (Nodo), one funicular (Panorama), eight chairlifts and two surface lifts. Wikipedia adds that the first ski base opened in 1932, that Mount Kokhta gives a maximum skiable altitude of 2,269 metres and that the resort hosted FIS snowboard and freestyle events in 2022 and 2023 (Wikipedia: Bakuriani). Outside the winter, GNTA lists paragliding, cycling tours, hiking in the alpine botanical garden, horse and jeep tours and an ice-skating rink among the activities in the resort (Georgian National Tourism Administration: Bakuriani), and the MTA site carries a separate summer section.

Getting to Bakuriani: road, the Kukushka railway and the airports

By road, the OSRM routes in the first section give 181.4 km and about 2 hours 41 minutes from Tbilisi Central station, 30.2 km and 35 minutes from the centre of Borjomi and 79.4 km and 1 hour 29 minutes from Akhaltsikhe. GNTA states that the resort can be reached by car or minibus (Georgian National Tourism Administration: Bakuriani). Of the three international airports in the 2025 passenger table, Kutaisi is the closest by road in the OSRM calculation at 168.8 km, followed by Tbilisi at 200.4 km and Batumi at 294.9 km. Tbilisi’s airport lies 17 km south-east of the capital according to United Airports of Georgia (United Airports of Georgia: Tbilisi).

The rail link is the Borjomi-Bakuriani narrow-gauge line, known as the Kukushka. Wikipedia gives its length as 37.2 km, its gauge as 900 mm and the date of the first train as January 1902, and notes that Borjomi stands at 820 metres and Bakuriani at 1,700 (Wikipedia: Borjomi-Bakuriani railway). Georgian Railway states that the line has had cultural heritage status since 2017 and attributes the Tsaghveri-Tsemi bridge over the Gujarula river to the French engineer Gustave Eiffel (Georgian Railway: Borjomi-Bakuriani railway). GNTA repeats the Eiffel attribution for the bridge and describes the 37 km run through the Borjomistskali valley (Georgian National Tourism Administration: Bakuriani).

Passenger service on the line has been suspended. Georgia Today reported on 8 April 2026 that the government had decided on a full rehabilitation of the train, the track and five stations, that the line had been idle since 2020, and that service was planned to resume in January 2027; the plan was announced by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze at a cabinet session (Georgia Today: railway restoration, 8 April 2026; GBC: Georgian Railway and the Kukushka). On 9 October 2026 the same outlet reported that Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili told an event for Railway Workers’ Day that the rehabilitation was nearing completion, that the carriages had been designed for the project and that the railway was expected to resume operations in December (Georgia Today: railway to resume, 9 October 2026). Neither report gives a timetable, a fare or a start day. Wikipedia describes the journey as taking about 2.5 hours before the suspension.

Climate and the forests around Bakuriani: WMO normals and protected areas

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) 1991 to 2020 climate normals for Georgia, as archived by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have no station at Bakuriani. The two stations in that file nearest in position and in height are Borjomi (station 37515, height 789.7 m, about 14 km from Bakuriani in a straight line, 910 m lower) and Tsalka (station 37537, height 1,468 m, about 50 km away, 232 m lower) (WMO 1991-2020 normals: Borjomi; WMO 1991-2020 normals: Tsalka). The straight-line figures were calculated for this guide from the station coordinates and the OpenStreetMap point of the town. Bakuriani is higher than both, so the table brackets the resort from below and does not measure it.

The comparison shows how much a few hundred metres change the picture: at Tsalka, 232 metres below Bakuriani, snow lay deeper than 10 cm on 44.4 days a year against 20.5 at Borjomi, and the daily minimum fell below freezing on 155.6 days against 103.2. Annual precipitation is close at the two stations, 635.5 mm and 627.5 mm, but falls in different months, in May at Borjomi and in June at Tsalka. Wikipedia’s climate box for Bakuriani relies on a commercial weather site and a 1936 to 1992 precipitation record rather than the WMO normals, so it is not used here (Wikipedia: Bakuriani).

Borjomi-Kharagauli and the protected areas

The forests around Bakuriani are part of a large protected-area system administered by the Agency of Protected Areas (APA). Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park was founded in 1995, and the APA gives its area as 64,737 hectares, spread over four regions, with protection under the Bern Convention and the status of an Emerald Network site (Agency of Protected Areas: Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park). The Borjomi State Reserve, created in 1935, covers 13,187.6 hectares in Borjomi Municipality (Agency of Protected Areas: Borjomi State Reserve). The APA’s administration of the Borjomi-Kharagauli protected areas covers four categories, the reserve, the national park, the Ktsia-Tabatskuri and Nedzvi managed reserves and the Goderdzi fossil forest natural monument, with a combined area of 107,649 hectares, more than 1.5 percent of Georgia, and marked trails between 400 and 2,642 metres above sea level (Agency of Protected Areas: Borjomi-Kharagauli protected areas). The APA asks visitors to carry identification and to register at the visitor centre in Borjomi or Kharagauli before entering the national park.

The Law on the System of Protected Areas, read in section 9 below, makes the State the sole owner of the land of national parks and reserves. The sources read for this guide do not state which plots near Bakuriani lie inside a protected area or its support zone, and that is shown by the cadastral and planning maps and the registry extract of each plot.

Visitors, hotels and building permits in Samtskhe-Javakheti

Official tourism and construction statistics are published by region, and Samtskhe-Javakheti has six municipalities (Adigeni, Aspindza, Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe, Borjomi and Ninotsminda), so the figures describe the region and not Bakuriani alone. Geostat reports 6.9 million visits by international visitors to Georgia in 2025, and 5.9 percent of them were visits to Samtskhe-Javakheti (Geostat: inbound tourism 2025). Applied to the rounded national total, that is about 407,000 visits (6.9 million x 5.9 percent). The quarterly releases show the region’s share at 6.2 percent in the second quarter, 5.1 percent in the third and 6.4 percent in the fourth, on national totals of 1.6, 2.5 and 1.5 million visits, which gives about 99,000, 128,000 and 96,000 visits (Geostat: inbound tourism Q2 2025; Geostat: inbound tourism Q3 2025; Geostat: inbound tourism Q4 2025). These products use published figures that are themselves rounded, so they are orders of magnitude. The first-quarter 2025 release was not retrieved for this guide, and none of the releases read gives a Bakuriani figure.

On accommodation, Geostat counted 2,783 hotels and hotel-type enterprises in Georgia in 2025, of which 210 were in Samtskhe-Javakheti (7.5 percent, 210 / 2,783), and the region ranks third, after Adjara and Tbilisi, in both bedrooms and bed-places in the regional chart (Geostat: hotels 2025). On construction, 11,578 permits were granted in Georgia in 2025 for buildings with a total area of 11,397.2 thousand square metres, and 3.8 percent of them were in Samtskhe-Javakheti, about 440 permits (11,578 x 3.8 percent). Of the 3,393 objects completed in 2025, 5.2 percent were in the region, about 176 (3,393 x 5.2 percent). Geostat notes that the permit count includes both new construction and reconstruction (Geostat: construction permits 2025).

Prices and sales volumes for property in Bakuriani: what the sources show

Official price statistics do not cover Bakuriani. Geostat’s Residential Property Price Index, released on 23 October 2026 for the third quarter, states that it covers the market of new residential property in Tbilisi (Geostat: residential property price index Q3 2026). The registry-based sales series for the resort comes from the research house Galt & Taggart, whose third-quarter 2024 report on resort markets was summarised by Georgia Today on 15 November 2024 and by Commersant a few days later. In 3Q24 it counted 352 apartments sold in Bakuriani, up 51.1 percent on the year, a rise the summaries attribute mainly to late registrations; the sales value was USD 16.6 million, up 62.7 percent; the weighted average price was USD 1,035 per m², up 5.4 percent; 16 residential projects were on sale in the primary market; small apartments of 26 to 50 m² made up 78.6 percent of sales; and 53.4 percent of sales were in the segment under USD 1,000, which the summaries call the budget segment (Georgia Today: Galt & Taggart 3Q24; Commersant: Galt & Taggart 3Q24). The sources read for this guide give no Bakuriani average from a later quarter, and the 3Q24 figures are therefore two years old.

Asking prices on a portal give a second, different view. On 12 November 2026 the Korter page for Bakuriani showed 423 listings, 368 of them apartments. Among the listings on its first page, asking prices per m² ran from USD 714 to USD 2,028 and total asking prices from USD 21,000 for an 18 m² one-room unit to USD 206,530 for a 108.7 m² four-room unit; the page shows no average for Bakuriani and gives listing ages only in relative terms (Korter: apartments for sale in Bakuriani). Asking prices are what sellers request and not what buyers pay, and the page gives the starting prices of new-build projects below, with listing ages of 18 to 23 days where an age is shown, which places those listings at about 20 to 25 October 2026.

A short calculation shows how wide the range is for a 30 m² unit. At Galt & Taggart’s 3Q24 weighted average of USD 1,035 per m², the price is USD 31,050 (30 x 1,035), or GEL 80,522 at the NBG rate of 2.5933. At the lowest and highest per-m² asks on the Korter first page it is USD 21,420 to USD 60,840, or GEL 55,548 to GEL 157,776. The two sources measure different things, a registry-based average of sales in one quarter and a snapshot of asks, and neither is a valuation of a particular apartment. The page Georgia real estate market sets out the national data, and the Tbilisi-only index above is the reason it carries no Bakuriani series.

Property in Bakuriani listed on this site: Archi Dialog Kokhta

One project is listed on this site for Bakuriani as of 12 November 2026: Archi Dialog Kokhta, a five-storey aparthotel by the developer Archi in the Kokhta part of the resort. The table reads the developer’s project page as shown on 12 November 2026 (Archi: Archi Dialog Kokhta project page). The page prints no price and no handover date, shows its status as completed, and lists apartments with their floor, room count and area. The project page on this site sets out the unit data and the figures that third parties print.

The planning documents read in the next section define the word the developer uses. In the 2019 regulation for the development plan of Bakuriani, an “aparthotel” is a hotel-type building with several residential units, to which the rules for a multi-apartment residential house apply (Legislative Herald: Government Resolution No. 591 of 2019). Whether a particular building is registered as a hotel, as a residential building or in a mixed category is shown by its registry extract and permit file.

Planning rules for property in Bakuriani: the recreation territory, sub-zones and permits

Building in Bakuriani is governed by its own urban-planning documents, which apply together with the national Code on Spatial Planning, Architectural and Construction Activity. The first set, Resolution No. 491 of 12 August 2014, was replaced by Resolution No. 117 of 6 March 2018, which approved a land-use master plan, thematic plan conditions, regulations for the use and development of the territory and maps of the Bakuriani and Didi Mitarbi ski area (Legislative Herald: Government Resolution No. 117 of 2018). That resolution was in turn repealed by Resolution No. 591 of 2 December 2019, “on approval of the urban-planning plans of the Bakuriani recreation territory”, which the legislative portal shows as in force with amendments. It approves the text of the planning documentation, a general plan, a development plan, the conditions for detailed development plans and maps of the Bakuriani and Didi Mitarbi ski area, and the legislative portal lists three later amendments, No. 278 of 7 June 2022, No. 484 of 13 October 2022 and No. 139 of 7 May 2025 (Legislative Herald: Government Resolution No. 591 of 2019).

The regulation attached to the general plan sets a two-level system: a general plan for the whole territory of daba Bakuriani and, below it, a development plan or detailed development plan for specific areas. It divides the territory into building zones, which are residential, mixed and special, and into non-building territories (agricultural, landscape and green areas and transport land), and it creates protective zones, among them a water-protection zone and a sanitary-protection zone in which only infrastructure and linear structures may be built. A plot can carry a “conditional coefficient” under the general plan, which can be used only to change the building-intensity parameters of another building plot. For exceptions to the rules, such as exceptional permission to build, a Council, the advisory body on settlement land use and development regulation set up under the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure, must make a recommendation. A detailed development plan is not mandatory for a plot of 4,000 m² or more on which a single main building and its ancillary buildings, and in the listed cases a separate public building such as a restaurant, sports, shop or tourist-service facility, are built in a way that matches the existing development.

The general plan fixes the maximum building parameters for each sub-zone. The table gives the storey and height limits and minimum plot areas as printed in the annex to the 2 December 2019 resolution. Because the resolution was amended in 2022 and 2025, the consolidated text on the legislative portal is the document to read for any current plot, and the table shows the scale of the limits and not a permit condition.

Three national statutes sit beside the local plans. Under the Spatial Planning Code a building must correspond to the type of use allowed in the functional sub-zone of its plot (Article 92), the legal ground for construction is a building notice or a construction permit (Article 93), buildings of Classes III and IV need a construction permit and Class II buildings may be placed under a permit duty by the municipal council (Article 94) (Spatial Planning, Architectural and Construction Activity Code). Under the Law on the System of Protected Areas, Article 12 makes the State the sole owner of the territories of state reserves, national parks, natural monuments and managed reserves, and bars their transfer to private persons except in the narrow cases it lists, while Article 16 allows support (buffer) zones to be created around such areas as multi-purpose use areas (Law on the System of Protected Areas). Which sub-zone, class and permit apply to a given plot in Bakuriani is a question for the planning map, the plot’s registry extract and the permit file; none of the sources read for this guide lists them plot by plot.

Ownership and registration: what Georgian law says for a foreign buyer

Under the Civil Code, a person acquires an immovable thing by a written transaction and by registration of the ownership right in the Public Registry (Civil Code of Georgia, Article 183). Article 312 presumes that the Registry’s records are accurate until proved otherwise and protects a person who acquires a right from the registered transferor, unless a complaint is filed against the entry or the acquirer knows it is wrong. Ownership of an apartment in Bakuriani therefore arises on registration and not on payment, and the registry extract shows the registered owner, any mortgage and other registered burdens.

The nationality condition found in the statutes read for this guide concerns agricultural land. Article 4 of the Organic Law on Agricultural Land Ownership allows an alien to hold it by inheritance, and a Georgian company with an alien dominant partner to hold it on an investment plan approved by the Government (Organic Law on Agricultural Land Ownership, Article 4). The Law on the Legal Status of Aliens assumes that an alien holds a property right in non-agricultural immovable property when it describes the residence permit tied to real estate (Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, Article 15). The land category matters in a mountain district where the general plan separates building territory from agricultural and landscape territory, and the category of a plot appears in its registry extract. The explainer Can foreigners buy property in Georgia gives the general rule with examples.

The National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR) publishes its fees. Registering the change, origin or end of a right to immovable property costs GEL 150 within four working days, GEL 270 within one working day and GEL 350 on the day of filing, and the same three fees apply to the registration of a mortgage (NAPR: immovable property registration fee). Confirming the parties’ signatures on a transaction submitted for registration costs GEL 7. An extract costs GEL 20 for one working day or GEL 13 online, with GEL 26 added for an English version (NAPR: informational services fee). The USD column is arithmetic at the NBG rate of 2.5933 for 12 November 2026.

The step-by-step page How to buy property in Georgia follows the extract check, the contract and the registration, and buying property in Georgia from abroad covers a buyer who does not travel. The state’s part of the process is the fee schedule above; the contract terms between buyer and seller are private.

Taxes on property in Bakuriani: ownership, rent and sale

The Tax Code taxes real estate owned by a natural person. The text on the legislative portal, consolidated to 28 October 2026, was changed by Law No. 1874 of 30 September 2026. Article 202(5) sets the tax on a natural person’s taxable property other than land at not less than 0.8 percent and not more than 1 percent of its market value at the end of the year before the current year, and Article 206(1)(a) exempts that property if the family’s income in the year before the current year did not exceed GEL 100,000 (Tax Code of Georgia, Articles 202, 205 and 206). EY’s tax brief for the third quarter of 2026 reports the same change and states that the previous exemption threshold was GEL 40,000 (EY: Georgia Tax and Law Brief, July to September 2026). Guides written before 30 September 2026 may therefore show the older threshold; the Revenue Service calculator for 2026 asks whether family income exceeded GEL 100,000 (Revenue Service: property tax).

A worked illustration uses the lowest “from” total on the portal page above, USD 50,240 for a Mziani Valley unit. At the NBG rate of 2.5933 that is GEL 130,287 (50,240 x 2.5933). For a family with income above GEL 100,000 the Code allows a tax of 0.8 to 1 percent, which is GEL 1,042 to GEL 1,303 a year ($402 to $502); for a family whose income did not exceed GEL 100,000, Article 206 exempts the apartment. The Code states the band, the market value for tax purposes is not necessarily the contract price, and the figures are the range the Code allows and not a tax bill. A natural person files a return by 1 November and pays by 15 November (Article 205(12) and (14)); the page property tax in Georgia covers the declaration steps.

For rent, Article 81(2) taxes at 5 percent the income that a natural person receives from letting residential space for residential purposes without deductions. For a sale, Article 81(3) taxes at 5 percent the surplus a natural person gains from supplying a residential apartment and its land, and Article 82(1)(f.a) exempts that surplus when the apartment and land were owned for more than two years. Article 166 sets the VAT rate at 18 percent, and whether VAT is included in a developer’s price is a term of the sale contract. The short-term letting rules summarised for Batumi on the page about short-term rental rest on the same Tax Code articles, which apply in any town.

The residence permit linked to real estate and mortgage limits

The Public Service Development Agency lists a short-term residence permit for an alien who holds title to immovable property in Georgia, other than agricultural land, with a market value exceeding USD 150,000 equivalent in lari, and for the spouse and children. A certified assessor of an accredited body sets the market value, so the appraised value and not the contract price is the test (Public Service Development Agency: residence permits). Article 16 of the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens provides that the permit is extended each time for one year (Law on the Legal Status of Aliens, Article 16). At the NBG rate of 2.5933 the threshold is GEL 388,995 (150,000 x 2.5933). The state fee depends on the decision day: GEL 300 for the 30th calendar day ($115.7), GEL 450 for the 20th ($173.5) and GEL 600 for the 10th ($231.4).

A purchase does not by itself give a permit; the permit is a separate application and decision. The investment residence permit has a higher test, a title to immovable property with a market value exceeding USD 300,000 equivalent in lari, which is GEL 777,990 at the same rate, or an investment of USD 300,000. On the portal page above the asking totals reach USD 206,530, so only the upper part of the range is above the lower threshold, and the test applies to the appraised value of the property held. The page residence permit in Georgia gives the same thresholds step by step.

On financing, the NBG sets loan-to-value and payment-to-income limits for lenders. As published on 12 November 2026, the loan-to-value limit is 90 percent for lari loans and 70 percent for foreign-currency loans, and the payment-to-income limit depends on monthly net income and on the currency (NBG: PTI and LTV requirements). The monetary policy rate stood at 8.25 percent after the Monetary Policy Committee decision of 21 October 2026, and annual inflation was 5.6 percent in September 2026 (NBG: monetary policy decision, 21 October 2026). Which banks lend to non-residents, at what down payment and in which currency is decided by each bank, and mortgage in Georgia for foreigners compares published bank terms with dates.

Running costs: electricity and water

The Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission (GNERC) publishes the end-user tariffs. For household electricity its table lists two universal service providers, Telmico and EP Georgia Supply, and for the latter the tariffs valid from 1 July 2026 to 1 January 2027, VAT included, are 19.731 tetri per kWh for 0 to 101 kWh, 23.731 tetri for 101 to 301 kWh and 28.227 tetri above 301 kWh (GNERC: end-user tariffs). The distribution company Energo-Pro Georgia states that its licence area covers about 85 percent of Georgia’s territory (Energo-Pro: Georgia). The GNERC page does not map suppliers to municipalities, so the supplier for a Bakuriani address appears on the electricity contract. In the first band 100 kWh at 19.731 tetri costs GEL 19.73 (100 x 0.19731), about $7.6.

For water, GNERC’s water table lists regulated household tariffs for suppliers including the United Water Supply Company of Georgia, with a metered tariff of GEL 0.499 per cubic metre including VAT in force from 1 November 2011 and an un-metered tariff of GEL 2.395 per person a month, and Georgian Water and Power, whose metered tariff for 2024 to 2026 is GEL 0.500 per cubic metre (GNERC: water supply tariffs). The table does not state which supplier serves Bakuriani, so these are examples of regulated tariffs and not the Bakuriani bill. At the United Water Supply Company’s metered rate, 10 cubic metres in a month cost GEL 4.99 (10 x 0.499). The cost guide living in Georgia as a foreigner sets utilities beside rent and food. Heating costs in a building at 1,700 metres depend on the heating system of the building, which the tariffs above do not describe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a foreigner buy property in Bakuriani?

The statutes read for this guide restrict foreign ownership of agricultural land, not of apartments on non-agricultural land. The Civil Code makes ownership arise on registration in the Public Registry, and the land category of the plot is shown in the registry extract, and the planning sub-zone of a plot is shown in the planning documents, so both are part of any purchase of property in Bakuriani.

How many people live in Bakuriani?

Geostat estimates 1,909 residents for Borough Bakuriani on 1 January 2026, and the 2014 census counted 1,879. Borjomi Municipality had 24,613 residents on the same 2026 date. These are counts of usual residents, so they do not describe the seasonal use of property in Bakuriani.

How far is Bakuriani from Tbilisi and the airports?

GNTA gives 180 km and 2:25 hours from Tbilisi. The OSRM routing service calculated on 12 November 2026 gives 181.4 km and 2 h 41 min to Tbilisi Central station, 200.4 km to Tbilisi airport, 168.8 km to Kutaisi airport and 294.9 km to Batumi airport, before any allowance for winter conditions.

When does the ski season open and who runs the lifts?

The Mountain Trails Agency operates the Didveli, Kokhta and Mitarbi areas and announced on 28 October 2026 that the winter season opens officially on 20 December. Its page lists 12 lifts and a season from December to March, and the lifts were shown as unconfirmed on 4 November 2026. The live-status page on the MTA site shows the current position of each lift, which matters for property in Bakuriani that is used mainly in winter.

Is the Kukushka railway to Bakuriani running?

Not as of 12 November 2026. Service has been suspended since 2020 according to Georgia Today, a full rehabilitation was announced in April 2026 with January 2027 as the planned restart, and on 9 October 2026 the Economy Minister said the railway was expected to resume in December. No timetable or fare had been announced in the sources read.

What is the weather like in Bakuriani?

The WMO 1991 to 2020 normals have no Bakuriani station. Tsalka, at 1,468 metres, shows a January mean daily maximum of 2.2 °C and minimum of -8.6 °C, with snow deeper than 10 cm on 44.4 days a year; Borjomi, at 789.7 metres, shows 4.9 °C and -4.1 °C and 20.5 such days. Bakuriani stands at 1,700 metres, higher than both stations.

What do apartments cost per square metre in Bakuriani?

Galt & Taggart reported a weighted average of USD 1,035 per m² for the third quarter of 2024, from 352 registered sales. On 12 November 2026 a portal page showed asking prices per m² from USD 714 to USD 2,028 among its first-page listings. These measure different things, and the price of property in Bakuriani for a given unit depends on the building, the floor and the finish.

What does it cost to register an apartment?

NAPR charges GEL 150 for registration within four working days, GEL 270 within one working day and GEL 350 on the day of filing, which is about $57.8, $104.1 and $135.0 at the NBG rate of 2.5933 for 12 November 2026. The same fees apply to the registration of a mortgage, and a registry extract costs GEL 13 to GEL 20.

How much is property tax?

For a natural person the Tax Code sets 0.8 to 1 percent of the market value of taxable property other than land, and exempts it if family income in the preceding year did not exceed GEL 100,000. On a USD 50,240 apartment the allowed band is GEL 1,042 to GEL 1,303 a year (50,240 x 2.5933 x 0.8 percent to 1 percent). Rental income without deductions is taxed at 5 percent.

Does buying an apartment give a residence permit?

No purchase gives a permit by itself. The Public Service Development Agency issues a short-term residence permit on a separate application to an alien who holds title to non-agricultural property with an appraised market value above USD 150,000 equivalent in lari, which is GEL 388,995 at 2.5933. Property in Bakuriani qualifies only if the appraised value passes that test.

Last checked: 12 November 2026. Sources: Geostat: population by self-governed unit; Geostat: population by cities and boroughs; Geostat: population on 1 January 2026; Geostat: density by regions; Geostat: 2014 census table (web archive copy); Geostat: 2024 census main results; Geostat: inbound tourism 2025; Geostat: inbound tourism Q2 2025; Geostat: inbound tourism Q3 2025; Geostat: inbound tourism Q4 2025; Geostat: hotels 2025; Geostat: construction permits 2025; Geostat: residential property price index Q3 2026; Georgian National Tourism Administration: Bakuriani; Mountain Trails Agency: Bakuriani; Mountain Trails Agency: season opening news; Mountain Trails Agency: FAQ; GBC: Kokhta opening, 18 December 2025; Georgia Today: railway restoration, 8 April 2026; Georgia Today: railway to resume, 9 October 2026; GBC: Georgian Railway and the Kukushka; Georgian Railway: Borjomi-Bakuriani railway; Wikipedia: Bakuriani; Wikipedia: Borjomi-Bakuriani railway; Wikipedia: Borjomi Municipality; Agency of Protected Areas: Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park; Agency of Protected Areas: Borjomi State Reserve; Agency of Protected Areas: Borjomi-Kharagauli protected areas; Legislative Herald: Government Resolution No. 591 of 2019; Legislative Herald: Government Resolution No. 117 of 2018; Civil Code of Georgia; Tax Code of Georgia; Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons; Organic Law on Agricultural Land Ownership; Spatial Planning, Architectural and Construction Activity Code; Law on the System of Protected Areas; NAPR: immovable property registration fee; NAPR: informational services fee; Public Service Development Agency: residence permits; Revenue Service: property tax; NBG: official exchange rates; NBG: PTI and LTV requirements; NBG: monetary policy decision, 21 October 2026; EY: Georgia Tax and Law Brief, July to September 2026; GNERC: end-user tariffs; GNERC: water supply tariffs; Energo-Pro: Georgia; Georgia Today: airport passengers 2025; United Airports of Georgia: Tbilisi; Project OSRM; OpenStreetMap: Bakuriani town; WMO 1991-2020 normals: Borjomi; WMO 1991-2020 normals: Tsalka; Georgia Today: Galt & Taggart 3Q24; Commersant: Galt & Taggart 3Q24; Korter: apartments for sale in Bakuriani; Archi: Archi Dialog Kokhta project page.