The purchase in five stages
A foreigner buys property in Georgia in five stages: choose and view, reserve, check the title and the seller, sign and pay, register at the Public Registry. Ownership passes only with the registry entry, not with the contract or the payment. Everything else in this section hangs on that one fact.
Georgian property deals are faster and more open than many buyers expect. The ownership record is public, the registry works quickly, and a notary is involved in most cases. Speed is also the main risk: it is easy to pay before anything has been checked. The stages below are the order a careful deal follows, whether the property is a finished flat in Tbilisi, an apartment under construction in Batumi or a house in the mountains.
Choose and view
Decide what the property is for: your own use, long-term rent, short-term rent or a residence permit. The answer changes the district, the building type and the budget. See it yourself or on a live video call, and get the cadastral code for each property that interests you. Without that code nothing can be checked.
Reserve
Sellers and developers ask for a reservation payment to take the property off the market for a short period. Treat it as the first contract: it must say what happens to the money if the title check fails, when it is refundable and when it is not. A reservation without those lines is a donation with extra steps.
Check the title and the seller
The Public Registry extract shows the owner, the area, the encumbrances and the history of the plot or apartment. For a new building, the check extends to the developer's land rights, the construction permit and the status of the project. This is the stage our partner lawyer runs, and it is the stage most problems are found.
Sign and pay
The sale contract is signed before a notary or at the Public Service Hall. Payment goes through a bank, ideally in a way that ties the money to the registration. Staged payments to a developer follow the construction schedule written in the contract, not a schedule announced later.
Register
The Public Registry enters the new owner and issues an updated extract. From that moment the property is yours, and the extract is the document you will show to a bank, a tenant, the Public Service Hall for a residence permit, or a future buyer.
Who does what in a Georgian deal
Buyers from countries with long, lawyer-heavy conveyancing are often surprised by how few people are needed. These are the offices and roles you will meet, and what each one is responsible for.
| Public Registry (NAPR) | Keeps the ownership record, issues extracts, registers the transfer and any mortgage or seizure. Its entry is the proof of ownership. |
|---|---|
| Public Service Hall | The front desk of the state: registry applications, residence permit filings and certified copies are handled here in one building. |
| Notary | Certifies signatures and identity, draws up powers of attorney, and in many deals certifies the sale contract itself. |
| Bank | Receives and sends the purchase price. A Georgian account is convenient but not a legal requirement for ownership. |
| Certified translator | Translates foreign documents and, when needed, the contract, so that the buyer signs a text they can read. |
| Your lawyer | Reads the extract, the permits and the contract before you pay, and tells you in writing what is wrong. Not required by law; required by common sense. |
| Your agent | Finds and shows the property, negotiates, coordinates the others and stays with you until the keys. On this site the role is described on the services page. |
What a foreign buyer needs
The list is short. A valid passport is the core document. If you are buying through a representative, a power of attorney drawn up abroad has to be legalised for use in Georgia: by apostille where your country is in the Hague Convention, through a consulate where it is not. Documents in other languages are translated by a certified translator. A Georgian tax identification number is issued when you first deal with the tax authority, for example when you start renting out the property, and is not a condition of buying.
Money matters are separate from ownership matters. You can own property in Georgia without a local bank account, but paying from a foreign account, opening a local account and bringing funds in each have their own practical rules and paperwork. Those questions are covered in the Invest & money section, so this section stays on the legal side of the deal.
According to the National Agency of Public Registry, registering a transfer costs GEL 150 with a four-working-day turnaround, GEL 270 within one working day, or GEL 350 on the day itself; registering a preliminary ownership right for an off-plan purchase costs the same fee; it is free only for property in the occupied territories. The complete guide sets out every cost of buying.
To be added by the team: notary tariff ranges and the current list of countries whose documents need consular legalisation instead of an apostille, each with its official source. These figures will live on the dedicated guides, not on this hub page.
Red flags before you pay anything
Most of the losses we hear about share one feature: the buyer paid before the check, or paid someone who was not the owner. These signs do not always mean fraud, but each one means stop and verify.
- No cadastral code, or a code that leads to a different address, area or owner than the one in the listing.
- The seller is not the registered owner and offers a power of attorney instead of an explanation. A genuine representative can show a current, notarised power of attorney naming this property.
- An encumbrance in the extract: a mortgage, a seizure or a tax lien. Some can be cleared at the deal; none should be discovered after it.
- A developer selling without a construction permit, or with a permit for a different number of floors than the building being advertised.
- Payment to a personal account of a manager, an agent or a relative instead of the company or owner in the contract.
- Pressure to decide today, especially combined with a discount that expires tonight. The registry does not close at midnight; the discount usually does not either.
- "Guaranteed" anything: "guaranteed" yield, "guaranteed" residence permit, "guaranteed" completion date. Georgian law offers none of these guarantees, and nobody on our team will give them.
Buying without coming to Georgia
A remote purchase follows the same five stages with two differences. The viewing becomes a live video walk-through plus dated photos, and the signing is done by a representative under a power of attorney. The power of attorney is the document to get right: it should name the property by cadastral code, limit the representative to this one deal, and state whether the representative may receive or pay money. A good remote deal has more paperwork than a deal in person, not less, because the paper replaces your eyes.
Our own remote-buying service, how the power of attorney is drafted and how payments are structured are explained on the services page. The detailed step-by-step guide will appear in this section and be linked from the list above when it is published.
New build or resale: what changes legally
A resale is a transfer of an existing, registered apartment: the extract tells you nearly everything. A new build bought during construction is a contract with a company to deliver an apartment that does not yet exist as a registered unit. The legal questions move from "who owns this?" to "will this be built, when, and what exactly will I receive?". The buyer's protection is the contract: the delivery date and the penalty for missing it, the frame and finish specification, the stage payments, the rules for changes to the plan and the procedure at handover. Construction stages, materials and how to check a developer have their own section, New builds, so they are only named here.
After registration
Registration is the end of the purchase and the start of ownership. Within the first weeks most owners do four things: transfer the utility accounts into their name, decide on a homeowners association contribution in buildings that have one, insure the apartment if they want to, and, if the property is to be rented out, register with the tax authority. If the purchase was made to support a residence permit application, the registry extract and a valuation by an accredited appraiser are the two documents the Residency section builds on.
How this section is organised
The list at the top of this page follows the order of a deal. The first group, the buying process, answers "what happens next and how do I protect myself at this step". The second group, law and documents, is a reference: open it when a document lands in front of you and you want to know what each line means. The complete guide to buying property in Georgia walks through everything once at a reading pace; the single-topic guides go deeper on each step and are the pages to send to a spouse, a partner or your own lawyer at home.
Every legal statement in this section is written from the primary text, as published on the Legislative Herald of Georgia or on the relevant authority's official page, then reviewed by our partner lawyer. While a page is awaiting that review it shows a visible notice. Numbers come from the facts register described in the editorial policy, and corrections are logged on each page. Nothing here is legal advice for an individual case; it is the general picture that lets you ask your adviser the right questions.
Frequently asked questions
Can a foreigner own property in Georgia outright?
Yes. Residential and commercial property is open to foreigners on the terms that apply to Georgian citizens, and they are registered as full owners. The one exception is agricultural land, which is reserved for Georgian citizens. A house in a village can come with a plot classed as agricultural, so the land status is one of the first things checked.
Do I need a lawyer, or is the notary enough?
The notary certifies that the right people signed the right document. It is not the notary's job to judge whether the deal suits you, whether the developer holds a permit or whether the price is fair. A lawyer acting only for you does that. Georgian law does not require one; we do not sign a client's deal without one.
When exactly do I become the owner?
When the Public Registry records the transfer and issues the extract in your name. Signing the contract or paying the price creates obligations, not ownership. This is why payment should be tied to registration rather than to signatures.
Is a reservation payment refundable?
Only if the reservation agreement says so. Insist on a written clause that the payment is returned if the title check reveals a problem or if the seller withdraws, and that it counts towards the price if the deal goes ahead.
Can I buy through a company or jointly with my spouse?
Both are common. Joint ownership is recorded in the registry with each owner's share. Buying through a company has consequences for tax, for a later sale and for residence permit applications, so the structure should be chosen before the contract, not after.
What if the apartment is still being built?
Then you are buying a contractual right to a future apartment, and the developer's permits, land rights and contract terms matter more than the registry extract. The New builds section covers how to check a developer and what the contract must contain.
Sources
- Foreign ownership rules: Global Property Guide, Georgia buying guide, globalpropertyguide.com, accessed 10 October 2026. Primary text on matsne.gov.ge to be added after lawyer review.
- National Agency of Public Registry, napr.gov.ge; Legislative Herald of Georgia, matsne.gov.ge. Specific articles are cited on the individual guides.