The property price index rose 4.9% — but it measures asking prices for new Tbilisi flats
Geostat published its residential property price index for the second quarter of 2026 on 23 July. The index rose 0.9 percent against the first quarter and 4.9 percent against the same quarter a year earlier, standing 63.8 percent above its 2020 average. Detached houses rose faster over the year than flats, 5.5 percent against 4.8. The index covers new residential property in Tbilisi, and the prices in it are offer prices collected by web scraping, not completed sales.
The numbers
Against the first quarter of 2026, the overall index was up 0.9 percent, flats up 0.9 percent and detached houses up 0.9 percent. Against the second quarter of 2025, the overall index was up 4.9 percent, flats 4.8 percent and houses 5.5 percent. Measured against the 2020 average, the overall index now stands 63.8 percent higher, flats 61.2 percent and houses 68.2 percent. The quarterly movement is small; the five-year movement is the one that explains why owners who bought before 2021 and owners who bought last year have such different views of the same market.
What the index actually covers
Geostat states plainly that the index covers the market for new residential property in Tbilisi and that the figures are offer prices obtained by web scraping. Two limits follow. It does not describe the secondary market, where a large share of transactions in Georgia take place, and it does not describe anywhere outside the capital. An owner in Batumi, Kutaisi or Kakheti reading a national-sounding headline about a 4.9 percent rise is reading about someone else's street.
Asking is not achieving
An offer-price index records what sellers put on the listing. It does not record the discount negotiated at the table, the furniture thrown in, the developer's payment plan, or the deals that never closed. In a slow quarter listings can hold their prices while actual sale prices soften, and the index will not show it. If you are setting a price for your own flat, the index is a reasonable guide to what your competition is asking and a poor guide to what you will bank.
How to use it anyway
Used as a direction indicator rather than a valuation, it earns its place. A run of quarters at around one percent tells you the new-build market in Tbilisi is neither stalling nor running, which is useful if you are deciding whether to list now or in spring. The faster annual growth in detached houses than in flats is the more interesting detail in this release, and worth watching over the next two quarters before anyone calls it a trend.
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.
