Tbilisi against Yerevan: a 13.7 price-to-income ratio versus 17.8
The two capitals of the South Caucasus are the obvious pair to compare, and a crowd-sourced property index updated on 24 October puts Tbilisi ahead on every affordability measure it tracks. Yerevan is dearer in the centre, its housing costs more years of local income, and a mortgage there eats a larger share of a local salary. The figures come from contributors, not from registries, so read them as a direction of travel.
Price, in the unit the index actually uses
The index reports prices per square foot, not per square metre, which is worth saying plainly before anyone compares these numbers with a local listing. On that basis Tbilisi city centre comes to 552.62 lari a square foot against 775.54 in Yerevan, roughly forty per cent more in the Armenian capital. Outside the centre the gap narrows to 325.92 against 401.19, about twenty-three per cent. The centre is where the two markets diverge; the suburbs are closer than the headline suggests.
Yields are almost the same, which is the point
Gross rental yield in the city centre is 6.81% in Tbilisi and 6.14% in Yerevan; outside the centre the two are effectively level at 7.74% and 7.80%. So the cheaper city does not deliver a materially better rental return. What Tbilisi offers is a lower entry price for a similar yield, which matters to a buyer sizing a deposit and not much at all to one comparing income streams. Anyone choosing between the two on yield alone is choosing on a difference the data does not really support.
The local buyer is the one being squeezed
The affordability measures are where the two cities part company. The price-to-income ratio is 13.74 in Tbilisi and 17.83 in Yerevan. Mortgage payments as a share of income come to 188.73% in Tbilisi and 257.10% in Yerevan, and the loan affordability index reads 0.53 against 0.39. Both numbers describe cities where a typical local salary cannot carry a typical local flat on a standard mortgage. Tbilisi is the less extreme of the two, not an affordable market in absolute terms.
How much weight this deserves
The data is crowd-sourced, from 161 contributors for Tbilisi and 113 for Yerevan over the past twelve months. That is enough to establish which city is dearer and not enough to price a specific building. The sensible use is as a sanity check: if a seller or an agent tells you Tbilisi is unusually cheap for the region, this index says the comparison with Yerevan is real but modest, and it says nothing at all about whether the particular flat in front of you is fairly priced.
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.
