Sell a Georgian flat after two years and the gain is untaxed — sell at 22 months and it is 5 per cent

The Ministry of Finance set out its position on individuals selling assets in Public Ruling No. 143, dated 14 May 2026. For an individual, a gain on a residential apartment or house, together with the land attached to it, is taxed at 5 per cent. A gain on non-residential property is taxed at 20 per cent — and the ruling's list of non-residential is wider than most sellers expect: bare land, commercial space, warehouse units, hotel rooms run inside a hotel business, and the transfer of rights under a preliminary purchase agreement. That last one matters in Georgia, where reselling a contract before completion is common.

Residential property held for more than two years is fully exempt from income tax on the gain. Two things that owners often worry about do not cost you the exemption: renting the property out temporarily before you sell, and using the address as a registered business address. What does cost you the exemption is trading — systematic buying and selling, or commercial development. In that case the gain is taxed at 20 per cent with no holding-period relief, and Eurofast notes the Revenue Service is looking at high-frequency transactions with a view to reclassifying continuous trading as commercial activity.

The holding period is not always counted from the day you paid. If you built the house yourself, it starts when ownership of the finished structure is registered. If you swapped land or an old flat for a new apartment, it starts when title to the completed new apartment is secured — not when you signed the swap. Inherited property from a first-degree relative lets you add their holding period to yours, which can get you over the two-year line sooner than you think. Split a plot or a unit and the pieces keep the original acquisition date; merge two properties and each part is assessed separately, so a recently bought half is not sheltered by the older half.

The taxable gain is the sale price less the original purchase price, and less documented spending that increased the property's value — renovation and construction costs, if you can show them. Keep the invoices: for a short-hold sale inside the two-year window, documented works are the only thing standing between you and a 5 per cent charge on the full uplift. For property you inherited or received as a gift, the cost base is the market value at the time you received it rather than nil, so the gain is measured from that point forward.