Buying a flat in Georgia as a foreigner: the paperwork is the easy part

Apartments, houses, commercial premises and non-agricultural land are open to foreign buyers on the same terms as citizens. Agricultural land is the exception: direct ownership by a foreign individual is not permitted, and buyers who want farmland normally do it through a Georgian company, which brings accounting and reporting obligations with it. If a listing is cheap and rural, the land category is the first thing to check.

Buyer and seller — or their authorised representatives — sign at a Public Service Hall, and standard registration takes about four working days, with a same-day option for a higher fee. The published fees are small: roughly USD 20 for standard registration and around USD 80 to expedite, with legal due diligence typically quoted in the low hundreds. Total transaction costs commonly land under one percent of the price, and there is no purchase tax or stamp duty.

Because registration is fast and cheap, the risk is concentrated before the signature: unregistered extensions, a mortgage or seizure noted against the title, an off-plan contract whose developer has no delivery record, or a seller who is not the person on the extract. A title extract and a careful reading of the contract cost a fraction of the purchase and are the only real protection. Budget for legal review rather than for registration.