Gross yield in Georgia: what the headline rental figure measures and why sources differ

Gross yield: twelve months of rent measured against the price

Gross yield (მთლიანი შემოსავლიანობა) is one year of rent divided by the price of the property and shown as a percentage, before any empty months, running costs, management or tax are taken off.

The formula: gross yield = (monthly rent x 12) / purchase price x 100. A flat bought for USD 100,000 that lets for USD 700 a month has a gross yield of 8.4%. It is quick to compare and says nothing about what the owner keeps.

Georgian law does not define the term; we found no statute, National Bank regulation or standard contract that uses it. The closest official measure is the National Bank of Georgia's "capitalization rate", published since 13 August 2024 beside its residential price and rent indices and defined as "the ratio of the annualized average rent of a given month to the average price of the same month". It deducts nothing, so it is a gross yield under another name, although abroad a cap rate usually means net operating income over value.

What sets Georgia apart is the raw material. Most headline yields we found start from advertised rents, not signed leases (Batumi's from nightly rates), and from prices mostly quoted in dollars. Each publisher chooses which advertised numbers to put above and below the line.

Four publishers, five recipes

We found four publishers that put out a gross yield for Georgian housing. They share the formula and differ on almost every input.

Galt & Taggart's Tbilisi figure can be rebuilt from its own averages: rent of USD 10.1 per m² a month x 12 / primary price of USD 1,426 per m² gives exactly the 8.5% printed for July 2026. It publishes no district yields; any you see, including those in our guide to rental yields by city and district, are calculated from its district rents and prices.

The NBG has collected its data since 2006 but covers only two Tbilisi areas, and its current values sit in a dashboard we have not read. Global Property Guide's page refused access on 1 November 2026, so we could not confirm its formula word for word. Its split by size still shows studios ahead of three-bedroom flats in both cities; see studios and one-bedroom flats.

Why two Tbilisi yields for the same months do not match

Galt & Taggart and TBC Capital both measure long lets in the capital from asking data. In March 2026, the one month in our sample with both, their rents per m² were almost the same, yet TBC's yield was 0.4 points lower.

TBC's August figures show that the label hides a method. Its own averages, rent USD 10.3 and price USD 1,363 per m², give 10.3 x 12 / 1,363 = 9.1% (our calculation), not the 8.3% it reports. Its formula may work per listing or weight by size; we could not find it, and its July 2026 Georgian report is an image with no searchable text. This does not make either series wrong, only differently built.

Cross-border charts add a third layer. Galt & Taggart's July 2026 chart of rental yields by city puts Tbilisi at 8.5% beside Yerevan at 7.3% and Ankara at 9.5%. The chart credits the NBG, Numbeo and Galt & Taggart, so the other cities' figures most likely come from Numbeo, a crowd-sourced database, not from Galt & Taggart's own Tbilisi data.

Tax and the lari: what touches the top line first

Costs belong to net yield, but two things act on gross rent itself.

The 5% rate. Article 81(2) of the Tax Code taxes at 5% a natural person's income from letting residential space for living to an organisation, legal person or natural person, where the landlord makes no deductions from that income; otherwise Article 81(1) sets 20%. With no deductions, the tax is a slice of gross rent: 8.5% x 0.95 = 8.075% (our calculation), about 0.4 points off whatever the costs. Article 81(2) does not name registration as a condition; Article 81(5) leaves the landlord register and the procedure for letting to legal persons to the Minister of Finance. For withholding by company tenants, see rental income tax. Nightly lets may instead opt for a fixed GEL 10 per m² a month until 1 January 2028, a charge that takes a bigger share of rent as bookings fall.

The currency. Rent and price must be in one currency at one date. The NBG rate moved from GEL 2.7139 per USD (valid 31 October 2025) to GEL 2.5992 (valid 31 October 2026), a 4.4% gain for the lari. For a dollar buyer with a lari lease, that lifts the yield with no change in rent; in 2020 a fall from 2.7735 to 3.4842 in three weeks did the reverse. For tax, foreign-currency rent is converted at the NBG rate of the transaction day (Art. 73(10)). See lari and dollar risk.

Where the figure is printed, and under what name

The word "gross" rarely appears beside the number; you recognise it by where it is printed.

• Galt & Taggart, Tbilisi. The rents paragraph reads: "In Jul-26, price for renting an average (50-60 sq.m) apartment in Tbilisi remained high at US$ 10.1 per sq.m (+0.3% m/m), keeping rental yield high at 8.5%." Here "rental yield" means gross.
• Galt & Taggart, Batumi. The yield follows "Average daily rent (ADR)", and a chart note says "ADR applies to apartments with a maximum of 2 bedrooms". The report text does not state the occupancy rate used to turn a nightly rate into a year.
• TBC Capital. "Average asking rent" and "rental yield", with changes in "pp YoY".
• National Bank. "Capitalization rate" beside the price and rent indices.
• Listings. A home.ss.ge sale card shows price in lari and dollars, price per m², area, bedrooms and floor, but no yield field. One seller wrote that "estimated long-term rental income is around $500 per month": the seller's own figure.
• Brochures. "Rental yield", "projected yield" and "ROI" often appear without saying gross or net.
• Leases and returns. A lease gives a monthly rent and its currency; the tax return records rent as income (Annex II-04, rent in Annex B). Neither shows a yield, but both give you the top line.

Worked example: one 55 m² flat, five answers

A buyer reads that Tbilisi yields 8.5% and looks at a 55 m² new flat. We apply Galt & Taggart's July 2026 averages (long-let asking rent, white-frame primary price). The results are our calculation.

Vashlijvari tops the table, yet a Vake flat earns USD 3,696 more rent a year: a yield is a ratio, not an income. The tax row loses USD 333.30. The currency row assumes a lease signed on 31 October 2025 at GEL 1,507.57 a month, then worth USD 555.50 at 2.7139; at 2.5992 a year later the same lari rent is USD 580.01, and the dollar yield is 0.37 points higher with nothing else changed.

Every price here is for a flat before finishing, while the rent is asked for a finished one, so the gross yield on your full outlay is lower; see white frame.

Gross yield and the measures it is mistaken for

A Tbilisi long-let yield assumes a tenant all year; Batumi's starts from a nightly rate with occupancy assumed inside it. And a high price per square meter pulls a district's yield down even where rents are highest.

Gross yield across the site's five languages

We found მთლიანი შემოსავლიანობა in no Georgian statute or standard contract; the Tax Code uses only შემოსავალი (income) for rent. On this site the phrase labels our own tools and pages, and "ბრუტო შემოსავლიანობა" is not used.

Warning signs when a gross yield is quoted

• No publisher, no month. Then the figure cannot be checked.
• Tbilisi and Batumi treated as equal. Long let on white frame against nightly rates on turnkey.
• An "official" district yield. None is published; it is someone's arithmetic.
• A seller's rent. A rent in an advert is a hope, not a lease.
• Mixed currencies and dates. The result moves with the exchange rate.
• An office yield beside a flat yield. Galt & Taggart's office report gives business centres a net 9.4% for 2025; see commercial yields.

How to check a gross yield before you rely on it

1. Name the publisher

   Galt & Taggart, TBC Capital, NBG or a seller.

2. Find the month and city

   Compare figures from the same period only.

3. Identify the rent

   Asking or signed, long let or nightly.

4. Identify the price

   White frame, turnkey or resale, and in which currency.

5. Redo the sum

   Monthly rent x 12, divided by your own price.

6. Take off the 5%

   Then move to net yield for everything else.

Frequently asked questions

What is gross yield?

A year's rent divided by the price, as a percentage, with nothing deducted.

What is the gross yield in Tbilisi?

8.5% in July 2026, per Galt & Taggart: long-let asking rent on white-frame prices.

What is the gross yield in Batumi?

7.1% in June 2026, per Galt & Taggart: nightly rates on turnkey prices.

Why does TBC Capital differ?

Different data and method; it reported 8.3% for August 2026.

Does Georgian law define gross yield?

No. The nearest official measure is the NBG capitalization rate.

Is the NBG capitalization rate net?

No. It deducts nothing, so it is gross despite its name.

How much does the 5% rent tax take off?

5% of the yield: 8.5% becomes about 8.07%.

Do listings show a yield?

Not on home.ss.ge; any yield in an advert is the seller's own figure.

Sources

1. Tbilisi residential real estate, July 2026, Galt & Taggart (accessed 1 November 2026)
2. Batumi residential real estate, 2Q26, Galt & Taggart, 14 August 2026
3. Tbilisi rent and yield, March 2026 and May 2026, GBC
4. Average rental price, January 2026, Commersant, citing TBC Capital
5. Tbilisi housing market, August 2026, homesoverseas.ru, citing TBC Capital, 23 October 2026
6. Residential price and rent indices, National Bank of Georgia, 13 August 2024
7. Official lari exchange rates, National Bank of Georgia (accessed 1 November 2026)
8. Tax Code of Georgia, Articles 73(10) and 81, Legislative Herald of Georgia
9. Georgia rental yields, Global Property Guide, Q3 2026
10. Flats for sale, home.ss.ge (accessed 1 November 2026)

Change log

• 1 November 2026 - Glossary entry published from Galt & Taggart, TBC Capital (via Commersant and homesoverseas.ru), GBC, the National Bank of Georgia, the Tax Code of Georgia, Global Property Guide and home.ss.ge.