On living costs Tbilisi sits in the middle: about 10% under Yerevan, above Baku

The comparison gives exact figures in one place only: monthly groceries for a single adult in the first half of 2026, excluding alcohol, tobacco and eating out. Yerevan came to 220 to 240 dollars, Tbilisi to 200 to 215 and Baku to 165 to 180. The spread between the cheapest and dearest capital is therefore around 25 to 30 per cent on food, which is real but not dramatic. Everything else in the piece is expressed as a relative judgement rather than a figure, and that is worth keeping in mind when any of these comparisons is quoted back at you as proof that one city is far cheaper than another.

On housing the piece reports that Baku's costs run roughly 30 per cent below Yerevan's, that Yerevan has the region's highest long-term rents, and that rents for larger apartments in central Tbilisi can rival Yerevan's. That last clause is the one a landlord in Vera or Vake should read twice: at the top of the Tbilisi market, the city is not priced as the cheap option in the region. The implication for a foreign tenant is that the Tbilisi discount, where it exists, is found in ordinary stock away from the centre rather than in the apartments that get advertised to arrivals.

The comparison says Baku's utility bills can run close to half Yerevan's, helped by domestic gas and electricity subsidies, and that Yerevan carries the highest utility costs of the three, particularly in winter. That is a structural point rather than a market one: part of Baku's advantage is a policy choice that can change, while Tbilisi's position reflects tariffs that are set by a regulator and have moved upward this year. Anyone comparing the three cities on a spreadsheet should hold the utilities line more loosely than the rent line, because it is the item most exposed to a decision made somewhere else.

If you let property in Tbilisi to foreign tenants, your competition is not only other flats in the city. A remote worker or a small business choosing a base in the region is weighing three capitals, and on the published numbers Tbilisi wins against Yerevan and loses against Baku on cost alone. What Tbilisi has that cost tables do not capture is the tax treatment, the visa position and the number of direct flights, which is where the case for Georgia actually sits. The honest pitch to someone comparing the three is not that Georgia is the cheapest, because on these figures it is not, but that it is cheaper than one neighbour and easier than both.