Istanbul pays a higher yield than Tbilisi on paper — but a mortgage there eats more than four times a local income

On the crowdsourced figures, gross rental yield in the city centre is 6.31 per cent in Tbilisi against 7.30 per cent in Istanbul. Outside the centre the two move closer: 7.28 against 7.82 per cent. So Istanbul is ahead, by about a point in the centre and half a point on the edges — a gap worth noticing, not one worth relocating a strategy over, especially since both figures are gross and say nothing about management, vacancy, service charges or local taxes. Note too that these yields sit below the 8 to 8.6 per cent commonly quoted for Tbilisi by local analysts, which is a reminder that two methods can describe the same city differently.

The same source prices city-centre property at 580 lari per square foot in Tbilisi and 755 in Istanbul; outside the centre, 338 against 437. Converted at 10.76 square feet to the metre — our arithmetic, not the source's — that is roughly 6,250 lari per square metre in central Tbilisi against about 8,130 in central Istanbul, and about 3,640 against 4,700 further out. In short, Istanbul charges around 30 per cent more for the floor space and returns about a point more in gross rent. Whether that trade is worth it depends mostly on what you think each currency and each rental market does next.

The affordability numbers are not close. A mortgage is put at 189 per cent of average income in Tbilisi and 421 per cent in Istanbul; the loan affordability index reads 0.53 against 0.24. Price-to-income runs the other way — 13.75 years of income in Tbilisi against 10.29 in Istanbul — which says Istanbul property is cheaper relative to local wages while borrowing against it is punishing. For a foreign buyer paying cash, the price-to-income ratio is mostly a signal about the depth of the local resale market: who, locally, can buy your flat back from you later, and on what terms.

These are user-contributed figures, and the source lists 155 Tbilisi contributors in the past twelve months against 534 for Istanbul. That is a thinner sample on the Georgian side and a reason to treat the Tbilisi entries as indicative rather than precise. Used properly, a dataset like this is good for direction — which city is dearer, where the borrowing strain sits — and poor for underwriting a specific purchase. For that, you want actual asking prices on comparable units and an actual rent achieved on the floor you are buying on.