How to check a developer in Georgia: 20 questions

Checking a developer, on one screen

When you buy a new apartment in Georgia, especially one still under construction, you are not buying an apartment. You are buying a developer's promise to deliver one: on a particular plot, under a particular permit, by a particular date, to a particular specification, and then to register it in your name. The apartment is only as good as that promise, and the promise is only as good as the company, the land, the permit, the money and the contract behind it. Georgia makes much of this checkable. Land ownership and encumbrances are public in the Public Registry, construction permits follow the procedure in the Spatial Planning Code, a completed building has to be formally commissioned before it may be used, and in Tbilisi the city publishes a map of commissioned buildings and suspended construction sites. This guide turns those sources into twenty questions you can ask any developer, explains what a good and a bad answer look like, and shows where to verify the answer yourself.

None of these checks requires insider access, and none takes more than a few days with a lawyer acting for you. What they require is that you do them before the reservation payment, not after the first instalment. The rest of this page explains each check and the questions that lead to it.

How to check a developer, step by step

The order below moves from the cheapest checks to the most expensive. Each step can end the process, which is the point: the earlier a problem appears, the less it costs you.

1. Identify the company

   Get the exact legal name and identification number of the company that will sign your contract, which is not always the brand on the billboard, and look it up in the registry.

2. Read the land extract

   Ask for the cadastral code of the plot and read its Public Registry extract: the owner, the area, the category and every mortgage, seizure or other right registered against it.

3. See the permit

   Ask for the construction permit and compare it with the building being sold: the plot, the number of floors, the use and the class.

4. Look at the record

   Visit two or three of the developer's completed buildings, check whether they were commissioned, and talk to owners about delivery dates, quality and management.

5. Follow the money

   Ask how the project is financed, whether the land is mortgaged to a bank, and how your payments relate to construction progress.

6. Read the contract

   Have a lawyer acting for you read the draft contract and its specification before you sign, and negotiate the protective clauses.

7. Register your right

   Once the contract is signed, register your preliminary ownership right in the Public Registry so that the apartment is recorded against your name while the building rises.

The twenty questions

The questions are grouped in the order of the steps above. For each one, the answer you want is short, specific and backed by a document you can check.

1. Which company will sign my contract, and what is its registry number? The brand, the developer and the contracting company can be different entities. You need the one that signs, because that is the one with obligations to you.
2. Who owns and manages the company? The registry record shows directors and partners. A company created recently for a single project is common, but then the people and the group behind it matter more.
3. Which buildings has the company, or its group, completed? Ask for addresses, not renderings, and visit them.
4. Were those buildings delivered on time, and were they commissioned? Ask for the promised and actual dates, and check the commissioning: under Article 139.1 of the Spatial Planning Code a building may not be operated before its commissioning act.
5. Who owns the plot today? The extract shows the registered owner. If it is not the developer, ask what right the developer has to build: a joint venture with the landowner, a lease or a superficies right, and read that agreement.
6. Is the plot mortgaged or seized? A bank mortgage on the land is common in project finance; ask how your apartment will be released from it at registration, and in writing. A seizure is a stop sign.
7. May I see the construction permit? A developer selling apartments should be able to show it. Under the Code a permit is issued in two stages, or three with prior approval of the architectural design, so ask which stage the project has reached.
8. Does the permit match the building being sold? Compare the number of floors, the gross area, the use and the plot. Floors sold beyond the permit are unauthorised construction until legalised.
9. What class is the building, and who supervises it? The Code divides buildings into five classes by risk (Article 96). Multi-apartment buildings fall into the higher classes, which carry stricter permit and supervision requirements.
10. Who designed the structure, and are they certified? Under Article 140, architects, the civil engineers who endorse structural designs and design experts must be certified. Ask for the names.
11. What stage is construction at today, and what is the schedule to completion? Ask for the construction schedule and compare it with what you see on site.
12. When does the permit expire? A permit's validity is set by the construction organisation project (Article 111). If construction is unfinished when it expires, the developer must apply for a new permit (Article 112), which is a sign of delay worth asking about.
13. How is the project financed? Equity, bank loans or buyers' payments, and in what proportion. A project funded mainly by sales depends on sales continuing.
14. How are my payments tied to construction? The best answer is a schedule in the contract linking each instalment to a defined stage, not to calendar dates alone.
15. What is the delivery date in the contract, and what is the penalty if you miss it? A date in a brochure is not a date. A date in the contract with a penalty is.
16. What exactly is in the specification? The frame (black, white, green or finished), the windows, the heating, the lifts, the common areas and the area of the apartment, with what happens if the measured area differs.
17. Can I register my preliminary ownership right? The National Agency of Public Registry registers a preliminary ownership right on an off-plan apartment for its standard fee. A developer who resists this is a warning sign.
18. What happens if construction stops, or I need to leave? The contract should set out refund terms, termination rights on both sides and what happens to your payments.
19. Who will manage the building after handover, and at what cost? Ask for the management company, the expected monthly charge and what it covers.
20. When will the building be commissioned and my apartment registered? Commissioning comes before permanent utility connections under Article 139.1, and registration in your name is the end of the purchase. Ask for both dates and who does what.

Good answers and weak answers

Most developers will answer most questions politely. The difference lies in what the answer contains. The table shows, for eight of the twenty questions, what a strong answer looks like and what should make you look harder.

A single weak answer is a reason to ask again, in writing. Several weak answers from the same developer are a reason to look at another project.

Why the check matters in today's market

Georgia's new-build market is large and competitive. Colliers Georgia counts about 87,000 apartments under construction in Tbilisi, and Galt & Taggart reports that the area permitted for construction in the city in 2025, 1.7 million square metres, was still 32% above its 2015 to 2022 average. In Batumi, Galt & Taggart's survey of developers with more than 30 ongoing projects shows primary sales up 47.9% in the first half of 2026, while unsold stock remains high. Construction costs are rising: Geostat's index, reported by Galt & Taggart, rose 6.4% in the year to November 2025 in its Tbilisi report and 7.2% in the year to June 2026 in its Batumi report.

Rising costs and abundant supply squeeze developers from two sides. Strong developers absorb the pressure; weaker ones may slow construction, change the specification or depend more heavily on new sales to fund buildings already sold. That is exactly why the twenty questions focus on money, permits and records: they separate developers who can finish from those who hope to.

What to look at on a site visit

A visit to the site, even by video, adds evidence that no document can. Go with the construction schedule in hand and look for these things.

• Progress against the schedule. Count the floors of the frame and compare them with the stage the schedule promises for this month.
• Activity. Workers, machinery and deliveries on a weekday tell you construction is moving; an empty site on a working day is a question to ask.
• The building against the permit. Count the floors being built and compare them with the permit you were shown.
• The neighbourhood. Look at what is being built on the plots around you, and how it will affect light, view and access.
• Dated evidence. Take photographs with dates, or ask your representative to, so that you can compare progress on the next visit.

If you buy from abroad, ask for a live video walk through the site rather than prepared photographs, and repeat it at each payment stage.

What a lawyer's check covers

A lawyer acting only for you turns the twenty questions into a written report. A typical developer check covers the company's registry record, the land extract and any agreement between landowner and developer, the permit and its stage, any mortgage or seizure and the release terms, the draft contract and its specification, and the registration of your preliminary right. It ends with a clear recommendation: sign, sign after changes, or do not sign. Our legal due diligence service describes how we organise this with our partner lawyer, and the fee is agreed in writing before work starts.

What Georgian law requires of a new building

A developer works inside a framework set mainly by the Spatial Planning, Architectural and Construction Activities Code, in its version consolidated on 25 June 2026. Knowing its outline helps you judge the answers to the twenty questions.

• Classes. Buildings are divided into five classes by risk, from Class I with minor risk to Class V with increased technical risk (Article 96). The class affects the permit, the supervision and the commissioning.
• Permit stages. A permit is issued in two stages, first the approval of the land-use terms and then the permit itself, or in three stages if the developer first seeks approval of the architectural design (Articles 101 and 108).
• Decision times. The authority decides on a permit within 20 working days, or five working days at the last stage of a three-stage procedure, with a possible extension (Article 107). A negative expert opinion obliges a refusal (Article 107(5)).
• Validity and renewal. A permit is valid for the period set by the construction organisation project; if construction is unfinished at expiry, a new permit is needed (Articles 111 and 112).
• Certification. Architects, structural engineers and design experts must be certified (Article 140).
• Commissioning. Buildings of Classes II to IV are commissioned under rules set by the Government (Article 139). A building may not be operated before its commissioning act, and electricity and natural gas may not be supplied to an uncommissioned building except for construction during the permit's validity (Article 139.1).
• Unauthorised construction. Construction without legal grounds, or that changes a building's function or exceeds the permitted floor area ratio, is unauthorised until legalised (Article 3).

The practical result for a buyer is a sequence of documents that a sound project produces in order: the land extract, the permit, the construction schedule, the commissioning act and finally the registry entry in your name. A gap in the sequence is a question to ask, not something to accept on trust.

Reading the Public Registry for a project

The Public Registry is public: under the Law on the Public Registry, registry data are available to any person and an extract is issued to anyone who asks. For a project under construction, three entries matter.

The plot. The extract for the land shows its owner, its area, its category and anything registered against it. A mortgage in favour of a bank is common when a project is financed by a loan; it is not in itself a problem, but the contract must explain how your apartment will be freed from it when it is registered in your name. A seizure, a pending dispute or an owner other than the developer without a clear agreement are reasons to stop.

The developer's right to build. If the developer does not own the land, it may build under an agreement with the owner or under a superficies right, the right to build on someone else's land recorded in the registry (Civil Code, Article 233). Each arrangement shapes what you will own and when, so the agreement belongs in your lawyer's file.

Your own preliminary right. Once you sign, register your preliminary ownership right on the apartment. The National Agency of Public Registry does this for its standard fee, GEL 150 in four working days. It puts your claim on the public record, so that anyone checking the building sees that the apartment has a buyer, and it gives you the protection that Georgian law attaches to registered rights: under Articles 185 and 312 of the Civil Code the register is presumed accurate in favour of those who rely on it.

Tbilisi's map of commissioned and suspended buildings

In November 2025 Tbilisi City Hall launched a public interactive map, using data from the Municipal Inspection, that shows buildings officially approved for operation and construction sites where building has been suspended. The mayor presented it as a tool to help bona fide buyers reduce financial and legal risks before purchasing property. For a buyer in Tbilisi, it adds two quick checks: whether a developer's completed buildings appear as commissioned, and whether the building you are considering, or another by the same developer, appears among the suspended sites. It does not replace the registry extract or the permit, but it can save a wasted viewing.

Reading a developer's track record

The best predictor of a developer's next building is its last three. A record is not a brochure page of finished towers; it is a set of addresses you can visit and people you can ask.

• Visit completed buildings. Look at the facade, the entrance, the lifts and the common areas after a few years of use. Ask whether the building is commissioned and whether apartments are registered to their owners.
• Talk to owners. Ask when they were promised the keys and when they received them, whether the apartment matched the specification, and how the developer handled defects.
• Compare promised and actual dates. Delays happen in every market; what matters is how long, how often, and how the developer behaved when they did.
• Check the management after handover. A building that is clean, lit and maintained three years later says more about a developer than any rendering.

The context makes this more important, not less. Colliers Georgia counts about 87,000 apartments under construction in Tbilisi, and Galt & Taggart describes unsold stock in Batumi as high. In a market with that much supply, developers compete for buyers, and the strong ones can prove their record.

Money: how buyers' payments fund the building

Many Georgian projects are financed partly or largely by the buyers themselves, through instalments paid during construction. This lets developers offer lower prices and payment plans, and it creates a dependency: the building advances as long as sales continue. When sales slow, so can construction.

Four questions protect you. How much of the project is financed by equity or bank loans, and how much by sales? Is the land mortgaged, and how will your apartment be released? Are your instalments tied to construction stages that you can verify, such as the frame reaching a given floor or the facade being completed? And what does the contract say about refunds if construction stops? A developer with a solid answer to each is a developer with nothing to hide about money.

Discounts for early payment and interest-free instalment plans are common. Both shift risk to you: the more you pay early, the more you have at stake before the building exists. Weigh the discount against that risk, not against the price of the finished apartment.

The contract: the protections to insist on

The contract converts the developer's promises into obligations. A separate guide lists twelve protective clauses in detail; the essentials are these.

• A delivery date and a penalty for each period of delay.
• A specification annex defining the frame, materials, windows, heating, lifts and common areas.
• The apartment's area, the method of measuring it, and the price adjustment if the measured area differs.
• A payment schedule tied to construction stages.
• Termination and refund rights on both sides, and what happens if construction stops.
• The developer's obligation to commission the building and to register the apartment in your name, with a deadline.
• Liability for defects after handover, and how defects are reported and fixed.
• Your right to register a preliminary ownership right.

Behind the contract stand the Civil Code's default rules: a seller must transfer a thing free of legal and material defects (Articles 487 to 489), and contractual claims relating to immovable property can be brought within six years (Article 129). A good contract does not rely on those defaults; it makes the obligations specific.

Brochure claims and what to ask for instead

The paper trail, from reservation to registration

A sound off-plan purchase leaves a trail of documents, each issued by a different party at a different moment. Keeping the trail complete protects you during construction and makes the apartment easier to sell, mortgage or use for a residence permit later.

If any line of the trail is missing when you reach the next moment, stop and ask why before you pay the next instalment. The missing document is usually where the problem is.

After handover: commissioning, registration and management

Handing over keys is not the end of the developer's obligations. Three things should follow, in this order.

Commissioning. The building must be formally commissioned before it may be used, and without it the permanent electricity and gas connections cannot be made under Article 139.1. Ask for the commissioning act, or in Tbilisi check the City Hall map.

Registration. Your ownership must be registered in the Public Registry, which converts your preliminary right into ownership. Until then, the apartment is not legally yours to sell, mortgage or use for a residence permit.

Management. A management company or owners association takes over the common parts. Ask for the contract, the monthly charge and who decides on repairs. The handover inspection of the apartment itself, with a defects list, is covered in a separate guide.

Three situations, and the question that decides each

The plot is not in the developer's name. A buyer finds that the land belongs to a private individual, while the developer's company is building. The question is the agreement between them: a joint venture, a lease or a superficies right. The buyer's lawyer reads it to confirm that the developer may build, sell and transfer apartments, and what happens to buyers if the agreement ends.

The permit shows fewer floors than the brochure. The permit allows twelve floors; the developer is selling apartments on fourteen. The top two floors are unauthorised unless the permit has been changed or the floors legalised. The buyer either chooses an apartment within the permitted floors or waits until the change is documented.

The building is finished but has no commissioning act. The developer offers keys and says the paperwork will follow. Under Article 139.1 the building may not be operated before commissioning, and permanent utilities cannot be connected. The buyer asks for a date for the commissioning act and for the registration of the apartment, and keeps the final payment until both are done, if the contract allows.

New builds: the detailed guides

Risks and exceptions

• Signing with the brand, not the company. Your rights run against the company that signs; know which one it is.
• A mortgaged plot without a release clause. Your apartment must be freed from the bank's mortgage at registration, in writing.
• Floors beyond the permit. Apartments above the permitted floors are unauthorised until legalised.
• An expired permit on an unfinished building. A new permit is needed; ask why the first one ran out.
• Keys without commissioning. An uncommissioned building may not be used and cannot get permanent utilities.
• Calendar-based instalments. Payments due on dates, not stages, can run ahead of the building.
• No preliminary registration. Your claim stays off the public record while the building rises.
• "Guaranteed" anything. Completion dates, income and buy-backs are promises, not guarantees, unless the contract makes them enforceable.

Frequently asked questions

How can I check a construction permit in Georgia?

Ask the developer for the permit and compare it with the building being sold. Permits are issued in two stages, or three with prior design approval, under the Spatial Planning Code. A lawyer can confirm the permit with the issuing authority, and in Tbilisi the City Hall map shows commissioned buildings and suspended sites.

What is a commissioning act and why does it matter?

It is the formal approval of a completed building for use. Under Article 139.1 of the Spatial Planning Code, a building may not be operated before it is commissioned, and electricity and gas may not be supplied except for construction.

Can I protect my apartment while it is being built?

Yes. Register your preliminary ownership right in the Public Registry, which the National Agency of Public Registry does for its standard fee, GEL 150 in four working days, and tie your payments to construction stages in the contract.

What if the land belongs to someone other than the developer?

Then the developer builds under an agreement with the landowner, a lease or a superficies right. Your lawyer should read that agreement before you pay anything.

Is a mortgage on the developer's land a red flag?

Not in itself; bank financing is common. The contract must explain how your apartment will be released from the mortgage when it is registered in your name.

What should the contract with a developer include?

A delivery date with a penalty, a specification annex, the area and price adjustment, stage-linked payments, refund and termination rights, the obligation to commission and register, and defects liability.

How do I check a developer's track record?

Visit its completed buildings, check that they were commissioned, compare promised and actual delivery dates, and ask owners how defects and management were handled.

What if construction stops?

Your protection is the contract's refund and termination terms, your registered preliminary right and the developer's financial position. Check all three before paying.

Sources

1. Spatial Planning, Architectural and Construction Activities Code of Georgia (Articles 3, 96, 101, 107, 108, 111, 112, 139, 139.1, 140, 141), consolidated 25 June 2026, Legislative Herald of Georgia (accessed 12 October 2026)
2. Civil Code of Georgia (Articles 129, 183, 185, 233, 312, 487-489), consolidated 25 June 2026, Legislative Herald of Georgia (accessed 12 October 2026)
3. Law of Georgia on the Public Registry, consolidated 1 April 2026, Legislative Herald of Georgia (accessed 11 October 2026)
4. Immovable property registration: fees and terms, National Agency of Public Registry (accessed 11 October 2026)
5. Tbilisi launches map to verify construction project status, Georgia Today, 27 November 2025 (accessed 12 October 2026)
6. There are currently 87,000 apartments under construction in Tbilisi, Colliers Georgia via CBW (accessed 10 October 2026)
7. Batumi Residential Real Estate, Quarterly Market Watch, 2Q26, 14 August 2026, Galt & Taggart (accessed 12 October 2026)
8. Tbilisi Residential Real Estate, Monthly Market Watch, 30 January 2026, Galt & Taggart (accessed 12 October 2026)
9. Real Estate 2026: Georgia, MB Legal for Chambers and Partners, updated 7 May 2026 (accessed 11 October 2026)

Change log

• 12 October 2026 - Complete guide published from the Spatial Planning Code, the Civil Code, the Public Registry rules and Tbilisi City Hall's permit map; legal points under review by the partner lawyer.