Permits are up, completions are down — and almost half of all permits are in Tbilisi

For January to March 2026 the statistics office recorded 2,472 construction permits, 4.8% more than in the same quarter a year earlier, covering a combined 2,367.6 thousand square metres. Over the same period 683 facilities were commissioned, covering 722.5 thousand square metres, down 2.1% on the year. Permits span multifunctional residential complexes, shopping centres, hotels, industrial buildings and agricultural structures, so the total is not a pure housing figure.

Close to three-quarters of the permits were issued in four places. Tbilisi alone accounted for 48.7%, followed by Kvemo Kartli at 10.1% and Kakheti and Mtskheta-Mtianeti at 7.8% each. The pattern for completed facilities was different and more spread out: Tbilisi 31.8%, Mtskheta-Mtianeti 13.8%, Kvemo Kartli 12.3%, Kakheti 10.7%. In other words the capital is taking a much larger share of what is being started than of what is being finished.

A quarter in which permitted area is more than three times commissioned area is not unusual on its own, since permits precede completions by years. What is worth noting is the direction of each line: permits rising while completions fall. That combination usually means either that projects are taking longer to deliver, or that some permitted schemes are not moving at all. Either way, the queue of future supply is lengthening faster than it is clearing.

If you are buying off-plan, this is an argument for checking the specific developer's delivery record rather than the market's average, because the aggregate is telling you that completion timelines are under pressure somewhere in the system. If you are developing, the Tbilisi concentration is the competitive fact: roughly half of everything permitted nationally is being permitted in the same city you are probably building in. The statistics office publishes the series quarterly, so the trend can be followed rather than inferred from one release.