Tbilisi against Yerevan: cheaper to buy, cheaper to borrow — but Yerevan's suburbs yield more

The price-to-income ratio — how many years of a typical local salary a typical flat costs — stands at 14.59 for Tbilisi and 18.51 for Yerevan on figures updated in the second half of September 2026. The loan affordability index tells the same story from the other end: 0.50 in Tbilisi against 0.35 in Yerevan. For a foreign buyer neither number is a direct cost, but both matter, because a city where locals are stretched further has a thinner domestic bid underneath the foreign one.

In the centre, gross rental yield comes out at 6.30% for Tbilisi and 5.51% for Yerevan. Outside the centre the ranking flips: 8.19% for Yerevan against 7.24% for Tbilisi. That flip is the interesting part of the comparison. Central Tbilisi rents well relative to what a central flat costs, while Yerevan's cheaper outer districts rent well relative to what those cost. A single headline yield for either city would hide the fact that the two markets reward opposite strategies.

On a twenty-year fixed mortgage the indicative rate is 12.69% in Tbilisi and 14.52% in Yerevan. Both are high by the standards of most places a foreign buyer will be comparing against, and both are a reminder that leverage in this region is expensive enough to eat a yield advantage quickly. On a gap of nearly two percentage points, a buyer financing the purchase locally will feel the difference between the two capitals more in the loan than in the rent.

These are crowd-sourced indicators, contributed by users and refreshed continuously, not registry data or audited transactions. They are good for the shape of a comparison and poor for the last decimal place. Use them to decide which market and which part of it deserves a closer look, then verify with actual asking prices, actual signed rents and, for Georgia, the public registry — and do the same on the Armenian side before committing to either.