Dubai closed 47,955 deals in a quarter; Batumi 17,478 flats in a year
Comparing Georgia with the markets foreign buyers usually weigh it against produces an awkward but useful mismatch of scale. Dubai registered 47,955 transactions in the first quarter of 2026, worth AED 176.7 billion and up 23.85% year on year. Batumi's entire 2025 — twelve months, not three — came to 17,478 apartment sales. The two markets are not in the same weight class, and knowing that is the point: liquidity, not price, is where the gap sits.
The four markets, as reported
Turkey recorded 236,029 sales in January and February 2026 combined, up 0.6% on the same two months a year earlier, with foreign buyers at 1,306 units in January and 1,506 in February — about 1.2% of sales. Northern Cyprus saw sale contracts up around 11% against the first quarter of 2025, at an average of roughly EUR 2,600 per square metre. In Greece, Athens residential prices were up about 6% year on year. Dubai's quarter was the 47,955 transactions above, 65% of them off-plan by number.
Why liquidity is the comparison that matters
Yield and price per square metre are what get advertised, but the number that determines whether you can leave an investment is transaction count. In a market closing tens of thousands of deals a quarter, a flat has a price at which it sells this month. In a market of seventeen thousand sales a year, concentrated in a few districts and dependent on foreign buyers, the same flat may have a price at which it sells eventually. That difference does not show up in a yield table, and it is the single biggest practical distinction between Batumi and Dubai.
Turkey's foreign share is the quiet lesson
At about 1.2% of sales, foreign buyers are a rounding error in the Turkish market — it is driven by domestic demand on a domestic scale. Batumi's foreign share, by contrast, has been reported at 52% of 2025 apartment sales. Neither number is good or bad on its own, but they describe two different kinds of risk: Turkey's market is exposed to Turkish inflation and lira rates, Batumi's to decisions made in other countries. A buyer should know which exposure they are actually taking on.
Read comparison tables with care
Two cautions about the source itself. Its Turkish volume figures cover January and February only, not the full quarter, and its own yield table conflicts with its text — the body gives Northern Cyprus 4.5% to 8% while a later table shows different ranges, with no sources attached. Treat the transaction counts and price indices as the reliable part and the yield ranges as unverified. A comparison is only as good as the weakest number in it, and in cross-border tables that is almost always the yield column.
Written by us from the source linked above, not investment, legal or tax advice. Figures and rules change — confirm anything that matters before acting on it.
