Buying here takes days, not months — but three details catch foreign buyers out

The transaction is short. Buyer and seller sign a purchase contract, payment goes to the seller's bank account, and the change of ownership is registered through the Public Service Hall, which sits under the Ministry of Justice. Standard registration is completed in four working days; an expedited option brings it down to one day for a higher fee. There is no stamp duty on the purchase.

Foreign nationals cannot acquire agricultural land in Georgia. The category is broader than it sounds: land outside town boundaries is often classified this way, which is exactly where the hillside plot with the view tends to be. A flat in Tbilisi or Batumi is unaffected, and so is commercial property, but anyone shopping for a countryside house should have the land's designation checked on the registry extract before money moves, not after.

Property must be bought in lari; foreign currency is not accepted for the purchase itself, even when the price everyone quotes is in dollars. And the extract from the Public Registry — the document proving what you now own and what sits against it — is issued in Georgian. An official translation can be requested and then notarised, which is worth doing before you need it for a bank, a visa file or a resale, rather than in the week you do.

What a foreign buyer ends up holding is full ownership, not a lease or a nominee arrangement, and there is no cap on how many properties one person may own. Commercial property is open on the same terms. That combination — few restrictions, a short registration window and no stamp duty — is a large part of why the market attracts overseas buyers at all. It also means the diligence has to happen before signing, because the process afterwards is too fast to be a safety net.