How to Buy Property in Georgia: Steps, Documents and Costs (2026)

How to Buy Property in Georgia: Steps, Documents and Costs (2026)

How to buy property in Georgia is set by a short chain of legal steps: a written sale agreement, payment, and registration of the buyer’s name in the Public Registry, which is the act that makes the buyer the owner. This guide describes each step as of 27 October 2026, with the office that handles it, the usual time, the document needed and the official fee where one is published. Prices are shown in US dollars, and lari (GEL) amounts use the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) official rate of GEL 2.5971 per dollar, the rate shown on the NBG website for 26 October 2026.

Readers working out how to buy property in Georgia will also find a table of the National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR) fee tiers, a worked cost example built on a listing price, a comparison of buying a finished apartment and an off-plan one, a document checklist, and the mistakes that the rules make easy. Georgia is the country in the South Caucasus, not the US state; the examples are Batumi and Tbilisi. Rules and fees can change, so every figure carries its source and date, and the rules apply differently to each person.

How to Buy Property in Georgia: The Sequence at a Glance

The table below sets out the full sequence from the first registry check to the first annual tax date. The times and fees are those on the NAPR schedule or in the cited statute; where an item depends on the contract or on a private provider, the table says so rather than giving a figure.

The sources for the table are the NAPR fee pages, the Law of Georgia on the Public Registry and the Civil Code, all linked at the end of the article. Where the table gives a range, the lower figure is the online, one-working-day extract and the higher figure is the same-day option at a counter.

Who Can Buy and What They Can Own

Before the steps, the threshold question is whether a foreign buyer can own the property at all. According to the 2026 Chambers and Partners practice guide to Georgian real estate, foreign individuals and foreign-owned companies may acquire residential and commercial property, including non-agricultural land, with no residency requirement and no reciprocity requirement. The same guide says Georgia has no foreign investment screening regime. The main limit is agricultural land: under the Organic Law on Ownership of Agricultural Land, foreigners generally cannot acquire it, with exceptions for inheritance, investment plans approved by the government and licensed financial institutions, while leasing agricultural land is open to foreigners.

That is why the land category matters in the checks described later. An apartment in a Batumi or Tbilisi tower stands on non-agricultural land, and the buyer receives title to the apartment, normally together with a share in the land under the building. A plot, a house with a large garden or a rural parcel can fall into a different category. The separate article on whether foreigners can buy property in Georgia sets out the ownership rules in more detail; this guide concentrates on the purchase sequence.

Ownership and residency are separate questions. Owning an apartment does not by itself give a residence permit or citizenship. A temporary residence permit linked to property has its own conditions, covered in the section on the property-based permit below and in the guide to getting a residency permit in Georgia.

Step 1: Choosing a Registered Property and Reading the Extract

The Public Registry is the starting point for anyone learning how to buy property in Georgia, because the law ties ownership to it. Article 183 of the Civil Code says that to acquire an immovable thing the transaction must be in writing and the acquirer’s ownership right must be registered in the Public Registry. Article 10(4) of the Law on the Public Registry adds that the right of an interested person to an immovable thing is established only by an extract from the Registry, with inheritance as the exception. In practice the extract is the document that answers the question “who owns this, and what is attached to it”.

The NAPR sets four prices for an extract. According to the agency’s fee page on information services, an extract costs GEL 20 with a one-working-day term and GEL 75 if prepared on the day of filing; requested through the internet, the same two options cost GEL 13 and GEL 52. A further GEL 26 applies to every option if the extract is requested in English. At the NBG rate of GEL 2.5971 per dollar, the online one-working-day extract in English (GEL 13 plus GEL 26, GEL 39 in total) is about $15.02, and the same-day counter extract in English (GEL 75 plus GEL 26, GEL 101) is about $38.89.

What the extract is used to confirm

A buyer reading an extract typically looks for five things: the name of the registered owner and whether it matches the person offering the property; whether the property is registered as a flat, a house or a plot; the registered area; any mortgage or other encumbrance; and any restriction, such as a court-ordered limit. The Chambers guide lists the same core checks: a current extract covering the chain of title, ownership and encumbrances, including mortgages, pledges, servitudes, court restrictions and registered leases.

The Public Registry’s reliability is also a matter of law. Article 5 of the Law on the Public Registry says data in the Registry are presumed authentic until formally declared invalid. Article 312 of the Civil Code states that the contents of the Registry carry a presumption of veracity and completeness, and that an entry is treated as accurate in favour of a person who acquires a right from the registered holder unless a complaint was filed against the entry or the acquirer knew it was wrong. These provisions are the reason the extract is read first, and the reason it is read again just before signing, since an entry can change between the first reading and the signature.

Step 2: Reservation and the Pre-Purchase Agreement

A completed apartment from a private seller can move straight to a sale contract. Sales from developers often start with a separate document. According to ExpatHub, a Georgian relocation and legal-services provider, a pre-purchase agreement is normally required when the property is not at its final stage or when the price is paid in instalments; it sets out which construction stages count as complete, the payment schedule, and the conditions for moving to the final purchase agreement. The Chambers guide notes that pre-sale and instalment payments are the dominant funding model for new-build residential projects in Tbilisi and Batumi, alongside bank construction finance.

The Law on the Public Registry gives the registry a role at this stage. Article 12(1) says a right may be pre-registered in the Registry of Immovable Property Rights on the basis of a signed agreement, and Article 12(2) says pre-registration blocks other rights to the property unless the parties agree otherwise. Under Article 12(3) it does not block registration of a legal successor as owner, and under Article 12(4) it ends when the right it protects is registered, the time limit expires, the parties agree in writing, or another person’s ownership right is registered. Article 156(10) separately allows registration of an obligation tied to a future transfer of a building under construction, subject to conditions. The NAPR fee schedule lists registration of an obligation tied to an ownership right at the same three tiers as ownership: GEL 150, GEL 270 and GEL 350.

Whether a particular developer registers its pre-purchase agreements is a fact about that contract, not a rule of the sequence, so the table in this article lists registration at this step as a possibility rather than a requirement. A buyer can read the draft agreement for the clause that says when the title is transferred, what happens to payments if construction stops, and which court or arbitration body hears disputes. The article on off-plan property in Batumi covers the staged-payment structure in more detail.

Step 3: Due Diligence on the Seller, the Building and the Land

Due diligence is the reading of documents before money moves. The Chambers guide treats a current NAPR extract as the core legal check, and adds items that depend on who the seller is. For a company seller, it lists a registry extract, the charter, transaction approvals, signing authority and searches for litigation or insolvency. For land, it lists the designated land category, which matters especially for a foreign buyer, boundaries and cadastral data, and any expropriation or public-interest designation. ExpatHub’s description of the process adds a review of the debtor registry, the seller’s other property, any power of attorney and any lien or mortgage on the property.

Three further points come from the structure of the law rather than from a checklist. First, under Article 479 of the Civil Code the seller of a plot or other immovable thing bears the expenses of executing the contract of sale, registering it with the Public Registry and submitting the necessary documents, unless the contract says otherwise. A contract that moves these costs to the buyer is allowed, but the buyer then knows what is being paid. Second, Georgia’s title-insurance market is not developed, according to Chambers, so the registry extract and the contract carry the weight that a policy would carry in some other countries. Third, Article 185 of the Civil Code treats a transferor who is registered as owner as the owner unless the acquirer knew otherwise; a 2017 Constitutional Court decision (No. 3/4/550) declared the rule unconstitutional where the registry entry has been appealed and the acquirer knows of the appeal, so a known dispute weakens the protection of the entry.

Checks specific to a new building

For a new apartment, the checks also run to the building: whether the construction permit exists, whether the unit on the registered plan matches the unit offered, and whether the developer has the right to sell the land share. The broader legal tips post on buying property in Georgia lists the same categories of checks for off-plan projects. The Public Registry extract for the unit and for the land plot shows whether a bank mortgage is registered against the project, which is the kind of entry a buyer reads about before paying. The Chambers guide notes that bank construction finance supplements buyers’ instalments in Tbilisi and Batumi projects.

Step 4: The Sale Contract, the Notary and the Public Service Hall

The contract is where the written-form rule of Article 183 is met. Georgian law offers two routes to an authenticated contract. Under Article 311¹ of the Civil Code, a written transaction submitted to the Public Registry must have the transaction or the parties’ signatures authenticated according to the procedures laid down by law; but if the parties sign in the registration authority in the presence of an authorised person, the transaction need not be separately authenticated for validity. The Chambers guide summarizes the result: sale agreements are typically concluded before a notary, or signed at a Public Service Hall with the registrar’s involvement, and the registration application is then lodged with NAPR.

Article 68 of the Civil Code requires that the form of a transaction prescribed by law be observed, and Article 59(1) makes a transaction void if the form provided by law or by the contract is not observed. That is the legal reason the written contract is not optional. A verbal agreement, a message exchange or a reservation receipt does not by itself transfer title.

When a notary is mandatory

One case changes the route. According to the Georgian law-firm Revera, an amendment to the Justice Ministry’s instruction on the performance of notarial acts now requires notarial certification, as a public deed, for transactions in which a party acts under a power of attorney issued abroad. The relocation guide Madloba dates the change to 20 October 2023, and says a buyer or seller signing in person does not need a notary, while a representative acting on a foreign power of attorney does, with the notary checking the scope of the authority granted. A buyer who cannot attend in Georgia therefore usually authorises a representative by power of attorney, and the foreign document is translated into Georgian and certified in Georgia, according to Madloba. The article on buying property in Georgia from abroad covers that route.

The notary’s fee is set by state tariff schedules, according to the Chambers guide, which describes it as modest and gives no figure. The NAPR schedule has a fixed GEL 7 fee for confirming party signatures on a transaction submitted for registration, which is the registry-side counterpart when the parties sign before the registration authority.

Language of the contract

Contracts in Georgia are drafted in Georgian. ExpatHub states that in a bilingual agreement the legally binding part is the Georgian version, so the Georgian text is the one that has to match what the buyer agreed in English. Foreign buyers often read an English or Russian version alongside the Georgian text; the point to check is that the price, the area, the payment dates and the title clause read the same in both.

Step 5: Payment Methods and Bank Transfers

Money is the part of how to buy property in Georgia that varies most between deals. The contract states the price, the currency and the payment dates. The Chambers guide states that domestic payments in Georgia must be settled in lari at the National Bank rate on the payment date, even where prices are quoted in dollars or euros. A dollar price is therefore converted into lari at the NBG rate of the day of payment, which moves. On 26 October 2026 the NBG rate was GEL 2.5971 per dollar, so a $62,000 price converts to GEL 161,020 (62,000 × 2.5971 = 161,020, rounded). At a rate of 2.50 the same price would be GEL 155,000, and at 2.70 it would be GEL 167,400, so the lari amount can move by several thousand lari over a payment schedule.

Payment is made by bank transfer to the account named in the contract. For a developer sale, the payment schedule in the pre-purchase agreement controls the dates; ExpatHub notes that title transfers once construction is complete and the conditions of the agreement are met. The listing page for Horizon Elegance in Batumi, for example, states a payment option of a 30% down payment followed by 15-month interest-free instalments, and mortgage options; at the $62,000 listing price, 30% is $18,600 and the remaining 70% is $43,400. That is the listing page’s description of one project’s plan, not a rule of the sequence, and the contract is the document that fixes the terms.

Carrying cash into Georgia

Buyers sometimes ask about bringing cash. According to the Revenue Service’s customs brochure, cash in national or foreign currency, cheques and securities with a total of more than GEL 30,000 (about $11,551 at the NBG rate of 26 October 2026) must be declared when imported or exported. The $18,600 down payment in the example above equals about GEL 48,304, which is above that line. A bank transfer avoids a customs declaration, and the transfer record also shows where the money came from and when it arrived.

Step 6: Registering Ownership When You Buy Property in Georgia

Registration is the step that completes how to buy property in Georgia, because Article 183 makes the buyer’s registration the point at which ownership is acquired. The Chambers guide says the same in plain terms: ownership passes on registration at NAPR, not on signing, and it flags this as a point that often surprises buyers. The application goes to NAPR, either directly or through a Public Service Hall. Under Article 8 of the Law on the Public Registry, registration starts on an application, with the required documents attached as the Instruction defines.

The NAPR fee page lists a single three-tier price for registering a change, origin or termination of an immovable property right, which covers the ownership transfer in a sale. The tier is chosen by the applicant when filing.

The same three tiers apply to registering an obligation tied to an ownership right and a mortgage on a right of superficies, according to the NAPR schedule, while registration of abandonment of ownership rights is free. A mortgage certificate costs GEL 75 with a three-working-day term. The Chambers guide gives the same fee tiers for ownership registration, and says mortgage registration uses the same scale.

What can stop or slow an application

The Law on the Public Registry sets out how an application can be paused. Under Article 21, registration is suspended when required documents are missing, when the fee is unpaid, or when there are cadastral overlaps or area discrepancies, among other grounds. The suspension period is generally 30 calendar days, and 3 working days where the ground is an unpaid fee. If the missing item is submitted within the period, registration resumes (Article 21(4)); if it is not, the procedure ends (Article 22). Article 23 lists the grounds for refusal, including that the item conflicts with an existing registered right, that the registration document was issued or prepared by an unauthorised person, and that ownership passed to a new owner before the application.

Priority is set by the filing date. Under Article 13 of the same law, conflicting rights are ranked by the time an application for registration was submitted. For a buyer, the practical point is that the day the application is lodged counts, so the lodging date, not the signing date, fixes the order.

Why registration time differs between sources

Some descriptions of the process give a registration time of “one to three working days” or “one to two business days”. The NAPR schedule gives three different terms depending on the fee paid: 4 working days, 1 working day or the day of filing. The faster figures in secondary descriptions correspond to the express tiers. A buyer planning a handover date uses the NAPR terms for the tier chosen.

Taxes and Fees When You Buy Property in Georgia: What the Rules Say

The question buyers ask most about cost is whether Georgia charges a transfer tax on a purchase. According to the Chambers guide, Georgia has no ad valorem real estate transfer tax or stamp duty, and the main transaction costs are the NAPR registration fee and notarial fees. The PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries page on real estate taxes for individuals in Georgia, last reviewed on 2 September 2026, lists property tax and land tax as the taxes on ownership and does not describe a transfer tax. For the full picture of what an owner pays each year, see the article on property tax in Georgia.

Value-added tax is a separate matter that depends on the seller. Standard VAT is 18%. According to Chambers, it applies where the seller is VAT-registered and selling in the course of an economic activity, while a private individual selling their own property is generally outside VAT. A person becomes a VAT payer once taxable supplies exceed GEL 100,000 over any rolling 12-month period (Article 165(1) of the Tax Code, as cited by Chambers). For a buyer from a developer, the contract is where the treatment of VAT shows up: whether the stated price includes VAT is a clause to read, and the figure on a listing page is not by itself an answer.

A worked example on a $62,000 apartment

The table adds up the official charges for one purchase through the standard route and two faster routes. The price is the one stated on the listing page for Horizon Elegance in Batumi, a 57 m² unit at $62,000 per the listing page, which gives GEL 161,020 at the NBG rate of 26 October 2026. The charges are the NAPR fees above; the example assumes two online English extracts (one before signing, one after registration) and the GEL 7 signature-confirmation fee. It leaves out the notary tariff, translation, any legal fee, bank charges and any VAT, none of which have a single published figure.

The arithmetic is shown in the rows: for the standard route, 39 + 7 + 150 + 39 = 235, and 235 ÷ 161,020 = 0.146%, which rounds to 0.15%. For the same-day route, 39 + 7 + 350 + 39 = 435, and 435 ÷ 161,020 = 0.270%. These are the state charges listed on the NAPR pages, calculated for illustration; the total a buyer pays also includes whichever private costs the contract assigns to the buyer. Under Article 479 the seller bears the contract and registration expenses unless the contract provides otherwise, so the split is a matter for the contract.

How to Buy Property in Georgia: Ready Apartment or Off-Plan

The sequence above applies to both, but the order and the timing differ. A finished apartment has a registered unit, so the extract can show the exact flat, and the sale contract, payment and registration can follow within days. An off-plan unit may not yet exist as a registered object, so the buyer signs a pre-purchase agreement first, pays in stages, and takes title when construction is complete.

The listing page for Mardi City Center in Batumi gives a starting price of $52,600 and a build year of 2024. The Batumi price comparison in the Batumi apartment prices per square metre article uses the same listing data alongside Galt & Taggart averages. The city pages for Batumi and Tbilisi list the projects currently on the site, and the Georgia country page gathers them in one place.

Handover, Utilities and the First Property-Tax Dates

After registration, handover is a practical step more than a legal one. The Civil Code’s definition of a sale in Article 477 says the seller transfers title and the documents relating to the property and delivers it, and the buyer pays the price and accepts the property. What passes on handover (keys, meter readings, building documents) is set by the contract. Utility accounts for electricity, water and gas are held with the providers, who set their own requirements for changing the account holder, so the contract and the provider are the places to check.

The owner’s tax calendar begins after registration. According to the Revenue Service, the annual property-tax declaration for individuals is due by 1 November and payment by 15 November of each calendar year, and the tax on non-land property is calculated in proportion to the months of ownership during the tax period. PwC states that resident individuals whose annual family income exceeds GEL 40,000 in a calendar year are liable for property tax, and that land tax is paid by 15 November. The Revenue Service calculator on the same page asks for family income in the previous year and offers a GEL 100,000 split. The tax bands and rates are treated in the article on property tax in Georgia, linked above.

For a buyer who rents the apartment, rental income is taxed separately from the ownership itself, and the guide to living in Georgia as a foreigner lists the rental income rate with its source. Market conditions that affect resale and pricing are covered in the article on the Georgia real estate market.

Buying With a Residence Permit in Mind

A temporary residence permit linked to property has its own conditions that sit alongside the purchase sequence. According to the law firm EIG, in an article of 27 February 2026, the minimum real estate investment for a temporary residence permit rose from $100,000 to $150,000 effective 1 March 2026, following immigration law amendments passed in June 2025. The property must be non-agricultural real estate, its value is verified by an accredited appraiser on the basis of market value rather than the purchase price, and several properties may be combined to reach the amount. Existing permit holders may keep renewing under the old rules if they maintain ownership of the qualifying property.

The residency guide on this site gives the same threshold and adds that an extract from the Public Registry showing registered ownership is part of the application. At the NBG rate of 26 October 2026, $150,000 is GEL 389,565 (150,000 × 2.5971). Two consequences follow for the sequence. The appraisal is a separate document from the contract, so a purchase price of $150,000 does not by itself establish an appraised value of $150,000. And because the permit rests on registered ownership, an off-plan unit that is still under construction has no registered title to rely on. These are descriptions of how the conditions work, not a statement that a purchase leads to a permit; the permit decision belongs to the Georgian authorities. For a sense of what a smaller sum buys elsewhere, the comparison of six property markets at $100,000 sets Georgia beside other countries.

Common Mistakes in How to Buy Property in Georgia, and the Document Checklist

The rules above make some errors easy for anyone working out how to buy property in Georgia. The first is treating payment as the end of the purchase, because ownership arises on registration and not on payment. The second is relying on an old extract: the Registry is read for the current state, and Article 21 and Article 23 of the Registry law show that an application can be suspended or refused when it conflicts with an entry. The third is signing a translation that does not match the Georgian text, since the Georgian version binds. The fourth is assuming the notary is optional when a representative signs for the buyer under a foreign power of attorney. The fifth is treating a dollar price as fixed in lari terms, when domestic payments are settled in lari at the NBG rate of the payment date. The sixth is confusing the purchase price with the appraised value when a residence permit is the reason for the purchase.

The document checklist below follows the order of the steps. Which documents are needed in a given case depends on the seller, the property and the way the buyer attends, so the table gives the document, the step it belongs to and where it comes from.

A checklist is also a check of dates. The contract’s payment dates, the NAPR term for the chosen tier and the tax dates of 1 and 15 November are the dates that matter after signing, and a buyer who tracks them knows when each step should be complete.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to buy property in Georgia?

For anyone asking how to buy property in Georgia on a timetable, the registration step has fixed terms: 4 working days on the GEL 150 tier, 1 working day on the GEL 270 tier and the day of filing on the GEL 350 tier, according to the NAPR fee schedule. Checks before signing and the dates in the contract add to that. How to buy property in Georgia quickly is therefore partly a matter of the tier chosen and partly of how fast the documents are ready.

Is a notary required to buy an apartment in Georgia?

Not always. Article 311¹ of the Civil Code allows parties who sign in the registration authority in front of an authorised person to skip separate authentication. A notary is required in the case of a representative acting under a foreign power of attorney, according to Revera and Madloba.

Is there a transfer tax when you buy property in Georgia?

According to the Chambers guide, Georgia has no ad valorem real estate transfer tax or stamp duty. The state charges in the sequence are the NAPR fees, and notarial fees apply where a notary is used. VAT depends on whether the seller is VAT-registered.

Who pays the registration fee, the buyer or the seller?

Article 479 of the Civil Code puts the expenses of executing the contract and registering it on the seller unless the contract provides otherwise. The contract therefore decides, and it is common to read this clause before signing.

Can a foreigner buy property in Georgia without visiting?

A representative can sign under a power of attorney. When the power of attorney was issued abroad, the notary route applies, according to Revera and Madloba. The article on buying property in Georgia from abroad covers the sequence for a buyer who stays outside the country.

When does a buyer become the owner?

On registration in the Public Registry. Article 183 of the Civil Code requires a written transaction and registration of the acquirer’s ownership right, and the Chambers guide notes that ownership passes on registration, not on signing.

What does a Public Registry extract cost?

NAPR lists GEL 20 for a one-working-day extract and GEL 75 for a same-day extract, or GEL 13 and GEL 52 through the internet, with GEL 26 added if the extract is requested in English.

Can agricultural land be bought by a foreigner?

Generally no. The Chambers guide says the Organic Law on Ownership of Agricultural Land restricts foreign acquisition, with exceptions for inheritance, government-approved investment plans and licensed financial institutions. Leasing is open. This is why the land category is checked as part of how to buy property in Georgia when the object is a plot.

Does buying an apartment lead to a residence permit?

No purchase gives a permit by itself. The property route has a $150,000 threshold from 1 March 2026, assessed on an accredited appraiser’s market valuation, according to EIG; the permit decision belongs to the Georgian authorities.

Which payment currency is used in Georgian property contracts?

Prices are often quoted in dollars. Chambers states that domestic payments must be settled in lari at the National Bank rate on the payment date, so the contract states how the conversion is made. For the mortgage side of the same sequence, see the article on a mortgage in Georgia for foreigners.

Last checked: 27 October 2026. Sources: NAPR registration fees; NAPR extract fees; Law of Georgia on the Public Registry; Civil Code of Georgia; National Bank of Georgia official rates; Revenue Service property tax; Revenue Service customs brochure; PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Georgia; Chambers Real Estate 2026, Georgia; EIG Law on the residence-permit threshold; Revera on notary requirements; Madloba on notaries; ExpatHub on legal processes.