Georgia's finance ministry spelled out the property-sale rules in May: two years of ownership, and the gain is untaxed

Georgia's Ministry of Finance issued Public Decision No. 143 on 14 May 2026, setting out how personal income tax applies to gains on property sales. A residential flat or house with its attached land is taxed at 5% on the gain. Non-residential property, bare land, commercial space and hotel rooms operated within a hotel business are taxed at the standard 20%. Where residential property has been held for more than two years, the gain is exempt altogether.

The holding period runs from the date ownership was officially registered, not from the date a preliminary contract was signed or a deposit paid — which matters for anyone who bought off-plan and counts from the day they handed over money. The decision also confirms two things owners often worry about: letting the property out temporarily does not forfeit the exemption, and using it as a registered business address does not either. Lease arrangements by an individual landlord do not on their own knock a sale out of the 5% rate or the two-year exemption.

Organised, repeated selling is treated differently. Property development, real-estate trading and similar systematic activity fall under the standard 20% rate and do not get the two-year exemption, and the Revenue Service is reported to be looking harder at high-frequency transactions with a view to reclassifying them as commercial. Neither summary consulted here names a specific number of sales that crosses the line, which is precisely why anyone selling a second or third unit in a short period should take advice before the contract rather than after the assessment.

The taxable gain is the sale price less the purchase price, and documented improvement costs that raised the property's value may be deducted — which turns receipts for a renovation into money. Keep invoices, bank transfers and contractor contracts; an undocumented renovation is, for this purpose, a renovation that did not happen. On inherited and gifted property the two summaries consulted describe it differently — one puts the cost basis at market value when received, the other says property from first-degree relatives is untaxed and the previous owner's holding period can be added. That divergence is a reason to confirm the position with an adviser before pricing a sale, not to pick whichever version is friendlier.