Foreign buyers took 48% of Batumi flat sales in September — and 12% in Tbilisi

Foreign buyers accounted for 48% of apartment transactions in Batumi in September 2026, and 52% in August. In Tbilisi the same share was 12% in September and 14% in August. That single contrast explains most of the difference between the two markets: Batumi's demand is set abroad, by exchange rates, flight prices and sentiment in other countries, while Tbilisi's is set mainly by Georgian households and Georgian mortgage conditions. A policy change or a bad news cycle somewhere else reaches Batumi first.

Batumi recorded 1,614 apartment sales in September, 10.4% fewer than a year earlier, while the total value held almost flat at $107 million, up 0.9%. Inside that, direct developer sales fell 38% and resales in newer buildings rose 27.3%; transactions in older apartments rose 8.8%. So the second-hand market absorbed activity that the primary market lost. Colliers attributes part of the decline to a base effect — bulk registrations inflated September 2025 — which is a reminder that one month against one month is a weak basis for a decision.

The weighted-average price of newer Batumi apartments reached $1,408 per square metre, up 5.2% year on year. Underneath that, primary-market prices fell 10.7% while resale prices rose 9.9%. The analysts noted that excluding one high-end project, they would have recorded a 4.6% rise instead. A single large scheme in a city this size can move the published average by a point or more, which is why a headline price per metre is a poor guide to what a specific building will fetch.

The same report cites Galt & Taggart gross rental yields on Batumi apartments of 10% in 2023 and 7.4% in 2025, and quotes the publication's own analysts putting net yields at around 3%. Gross and net are not the same conversation: between them sit management fees, utilities, furnishing, platform commission, vacant winter months and tax. Anyone comparing a Batumi flat with a bank deposit or a bond should ask which of those two numbers they are being shown, and for which year. The average transaction in Batumi in September came to roughly $66,300, about a quarter less than Tbilisi's.