Tbilisi against Yerevan: rents lower, groceries about the same, purchasing power higher

On the Numbeo comparison, which was last updated for Tbilisi on 6 October 2026 and for Yerevan on 3 October 2026, Yerevan comes out more expensive on most headings: cost of living excluding rent 12.7% higher, including rent 14.2% higher, restaurants 12.0% higher and rents 18.5% higher. Groceries are the exception, 1% cheaper in Yerevan. The gap in rent is widest at the small end: a one-bedroom flat in the city centre is listed at about 1,754 lari a month in Tbilisi against roughly 2,479 lari in Yerevan.

The difference is not uniform across unit sizes, and that matters for anyone deciding what to buy. On the same comparison, a three-bedroom flat outside the centre is listed at roughly the same rent in both cities, and a three-bedroom in the centre is about 11% dearer in Yerevan — far narrower than the 41% gap on a one-bedroom in the centre. On purchase prices the pattern repeats: city-centre buying is listed as about 38% more expensive in Yerevan, outside the centre only about 11%. In short, Tbilisi's advantage over Yerevan is concentrated in small central units — exactly the stock that short-let landlords compete over.

These are crowd-sourced prices, not official statistics: the page itself notes 155 contributors for Tbilisi and 112 for Yerevan over the past twelve months. That is enough to show the direction and rough size of a gap, and not enough to settle a decision on a specific building or street. Treat the comparison as a screening tool — it tells you which city is structurally cheaper to live in, which is a demand question for landlords — and then price an actual flat against actual listings and an actual rent roll.