Istanbul's gross yields beat Tbilisi's — on the same August survey

In Tbilisi the survey records a studio at 8.03 percent, a one-bedroom at 7.43 percent, a two-bedroom at 6.73 percent, a three-bedroom at 6.93 percent and four-bedroom-plus at 7.02 percent. Batumi runs higher at the small end — studios 8.35 percent, one-bedrooms 8.08 percent — and lower at the large end, with three-bedrooms at 6.00 percent. In Istanbul the equivalent band is 9.53 to 10.67 percent across one- to four-bedroom units. Smaller units yield more in all three cities, which is the most consistent pattern in the whole dataset.

A higher gross yield is not automatically a better return. The publisher's own note is that net yields typically run 1.5 to 2 percentage points below gross once tax, repairs, ground rents and agency fees are taken out, and those deductions are not identical in Georgia and Turkey. The other missing variable is the currency the rent is collected in and the inflation that currency is carrying. Georgia's annual inflation was 5.6 percent in September; Turkey's has been running in a very different band. A nominal yield earned in a fast-depreciating currency is not the same asset as the same nominal yield earned in a slower one.

Treat these numbers as a screening tool, not a valuation. They are medians drawn from asking prices and asking rents, which means they describe what landlords and sellers are advertising rather than what buyers and tenants concluded. They also tell you nothing about which districts within a city the median was built from. The useful question they answer is a narrow one: for a given unit size, is the broad relationship between price and rent in this city better or worse than in a comparable one. The next update is scheduled for February 2027.