Tbilisi or Batumi? An honest comparison

People compare them on price per square metre and conclude they are similar. On the headline number they are: Colliers put the average residential price at around $1,500 per m² in both cities at the end of 2025, and TBC Capital's figure for Batumi is about $1,395 per m².

Underneath that similarity sit two markets that behave nothing alike, and the difference is visible in who is buying. In Tbilisi, Georgians make up around 90% of purchases, with Israelis about 4% and Russians about 2%. In Batumi, Georgians are about 50%, Russians 16% and Ukrainians 9%.

That single statistic tells you most of what you need to know. Tbilisi is a domestic housing market with foreign participation. Batumi is an international investment market attached to a Georgian city.

Yield. Short-let income in a sea-view apartment in season is the highest in the country, and the supply of new branded buildings with pools, spas and management services is built specifically for that trade.

Volume and liquidity. Galt & Taggart recorded a record 17,478 apartment transactions in Batumi in 2025, with foreign buyers at about 52% of them and over $1 billion in total value. A market that active is a market you can sell back into.

Appreciation. Agents in the city report 8–10% annual growth, and Colliers expects no price decrease through 2026 — new supply is arriving but bank financing of new projects has tightened, which they read as the two effects cancelling out.

The honest downside. Batumi is seasonal. A yield quoted on July occupancy is not an annual yield. Winter in Batumi is quiet, wet and, for a short-let owner, close to empty. Any projection that does not show you the low months is not a projection.

Twelve months a year. A Tbilisi apartment lets to people who live and work there — students, professionals, embassy staff, remote workers. The rent is lower at peak than Batumi's but it arrives in January as well as August. For a buyer who wants predictable income rather than a big summer number, that is the whole argument.

A real economy underneath it. Tbilisi's prices are supported by Georgians buying homes to live in, not by foreign sentiment toward a coastline. That makes the market slower to rise and considerably slower to fall.

Resale to locals. Because 90% of buyers are Georgian, you are not dependent on the next wave of foreign investors to exit.

The honest downside. Lower headline yields, and no sea. If your plan involves letting a two-bedroom for $180 a night in August, Tbilisi is not that market.

Buy in Batumi if you want maximum rental yield and accept seasonality; you want a branded, managed building you never have to visit; you like the liquidity of a market doing 17,000 transactions a year; or you intend to use the apartment yourself in summer.

Buy in Tbilisi if you want year-round income; you value price stability over price growth; you may eventually live in Georgia yourself; or you are buying primarily to hold a registered asset above the residency threshold and want the safest possible version of that.

Buy in both if you are reaching the $150,000 residency threshold by combining two properties — the rules allow it, and splitting between a seasonal market and a year-round one is a more sensible portfolio than two units in the same building.