Mortgage rates split: about 8% in dollars, about 12% in lari
A February review of National Bank figures, reported by GBC, put the average mortgage rate in foreign currency at about 8%, against 12.1% in lari. Non-residents took around 220 foreign-currency mortgage loans in December worth roughly 40 million lari equivalent. The whole mortgage book stood at 13.4 billion lari at the start of 2026, with 9.3 billion of it in lari. By March the lari average had come down to 11.88%.
A four-point gap between two currencies
On the February figures the two currencies price very differently: roughly 8% for a foreign-currency loan against 12.1% for one in lari. That is not a discount being handed to foreigners. It is the market pricing the risk of each currency, and the cheaper rate comes with the exchange-rate exposure attached. If you earn in dollars or euros and borrow in the same money, the dollar loan is genuinely cheaper for you. If your income is in lari and your loan is in dollars, the four-point saving can disappear in a single bad month for the exchange rate.
Non-residents borrow, and they borrow in dollars
Around 220 foreign-currency mortgage loans went to non-residents in December, worth about 40 million lari equivalent. That is a real channel, not a rumour, but it is small set against a mortgage book of 13.4 billion lari. The practical reading for a buyer abroad is that borrowing here is possible and that the foreign-currency product is the one most non-residents end up using. It is not the mass-market route: most Georgian mortgage lending is still in lari, to residents, and most foreign buyers of Georgian property still pay cash or finance from home.
The lari rate has been falling, and loans have been getting bigger
By March the average lari mortgage rate was 11.88%, about 1.45 percentage points lower than a year earlier, and first-quarter lending was up sharply: 12,835 loans worth 1.28 billion lari, a fifth more loans and a third more money than the same quarter of 2025. The average loan had grown to 99,600 lari from 89,500. Cheaper credit and bigger loans are part of why transaction volumes have held up while prices kept climbing, and they are a reason to read any price index alongside what financing costs that month.
What to ask a bank before you commit
Rates move, and these are averages across a whole market rather than an offer to any one borrower. Ask for the rate in both currencies on the same property, ask whether it is fixed or floating and against what index, ask what deposit the bank wants from a non-resident, and ask for the total cost including valuation, insurance and any early-repayment charge. Then compare that package against what financing the same purchase from your own country would cost. The headline percentage is the easiest number to collect and rarely the one that decides whether the deal works.
Written by us from the source linked above, not investment, legal or tax advice. Figures and rules change — confirm anything that matters before acting on it.
