Vetting a Georgian Developer: A 7-Step Checklist for About 200 GEL

Buying off-plan in Tbilisi or Batumi means paying today for a title you will only hold in two or three years. Everything between those two points comes down to one thing: how well you vet the developer. The full checklist runs to roughly 7 steps, costs around 200 GEL in state fees, and the registration itself takes a single working day.

Georgia has no equivalent of a centralized escrow database or a single project-declaration registry. There is also no aggregated register of building permits searchable by developer name; that data sits scattered across individual municipalities. What Georgia does have is a fast, transparent public registry of rights and encumbrances, checkable from a phone in about 10 minutes¹.

That registry is your anchor. If the land under a project is mortgaged and the preliminary contract is unregistered, no showroom and no brochure will save your deposit.

Quick Answer

• Start with the cadastral code of the unit and pull an extract from Georgia's National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR) to check for mortgages, seizures, and third-party claims. This is the single most expensive risk to skip.

• Registration fee for title: 50 GEL for 1-day processing, 150 GEL for 4 working days, 200 GEL for 1 working day.

• Register the preliminary (shared-construction) contract with the public registry through a notary. Notary fees run roughly 50-150 GEL plus 18% VAT.

• Developer liability: 5 years for hidden defects (Article 976 of Georgia's Civil Code), 2 years for visible defects (Article 975), and a general 3-year limitation period for obligations (Article 159)².

• Benchmark prices to sanity-check an offer: Tbilisi around $1,070/sqm, Batumi around $880/sqm, Kutaisi around $620/sqm (June 2025)³.

• Red flag: a 'guaranteed yield' with no operating income behind the guarantor, and projected rental rates that beat comparable branded coastal hotels.

Scenarios and Options

Scenario 1. Buying early-stage, at foundation level. The discount against finished-unit pricing is largest here, but so is the risk horizon. Check the land extract, the municipal building permit, and whether payments are tied to construction milestones. Trade-off: best price per square meter, but you are financing the build with your own money since Georgia has no centralized registry of completion guarantees.

Scenario 2. Buying at 70-80% completion. Price sits closer to market, the wait is shorter, and the risk of an unfinished shell drops. Verification shifts toward quality: actual area versus contracted area, mechanical and electrical systems, the handover certificate. Trade-off: you pay 10-20% more than the foundation-stage price for predictability.

Scenario 3. Reserving a unit in a project that hasn't broken ground. Coastal listings like this appear regularly: a headline project budget, no delivery date, and a disclaimer that financial projections haven't been independently verified⁴. Trade-off: a better position in the queue against total uncertainty on timing. Only commit an amount you can afford to lose entirely.

Scenario 4. Buying resale instead of off-plan. Title transfers immediately, and while a developer's first sale of new housing carries 18% VAT under Article 86 of the Tax Code, resale of residential property is VAT-exempt under Article 206⁵. Trade-off: no construction-stage discount, but no construction risk either.

Comparison Table

Main Risks and Mistakes

Land under the project is mortgaged to a bank. This is the costliest risk on the list. The lien must be cleared before you pay, not promised 'after handover'. Make lien release a condition of payment in the contract.

An unregistered preliminary contract. Without an entry in the public registry you have no priority claim on a specific unit and no protection against the same apartment being sold twice⁶. Register the contract itself, not just signatures on paper.

Payments not tied to construction stages. If the payment schedule outpaces actual progress, you are effectively lending the developer money. Insist on tranches linked to verifiable milestones: foundation, frame, facade, systems.

Unilateral changes to unit area. A classic trap is accepting wording that allows an area deviation with no cap and no price adjustment. Fix the area, cap the tolerance as a percentage, and spell out how any difference gets refunded.

Shifting payee details. Funds should always go to one clearly named legal entity listed in the public registry. Frequent changes of bank accounts or contractors is a reason to pause the deal⁷.

'Guaranteed yield' with no backing. Check whether the guarantor actually generates operating income today, and compare promised rates against comparable coastal hotel brands. A forecast backed only by future revenue is backed by nothing.

No penalty clauses for delays. Georgia doesn't publish delay statistics by developer, so your only protection is the penalties and exit terms written into the contract itself.

Relying on the showroom and renderings. A finish sample is not a contractual quality standard unless it's attached to the contract as a formal specification.

FAQ

What should I check first before buying off-plan in Georgia?

The cadastral code of the unit and the public registry extract on the land. An encumbrance discovered after you've paid costs more than every other risk combined.

How much does title registration cost and how long does it take?

50 GEL for 1-day processing, 150 GEL for 4 working days, 200 GEL for 1 working day. These are NAPR's published rates for 2025; confirm current fees before closing.

Do I need to register the preliminary contract?

Yes. Registration in the public registry gives you priority rights to the unit and protects against the same apartment being sold to a different buyer⁶.

How many years is a developer liable for defects?

Under Georgia's Civil Code, 5 years for hidden defects (Article 976) and 2 years for visible defects (Article 975); the general limitation period for obligations is 3 years (Article 159)².

Is there a single national register of building permits in Georgia?

No. There's no aggregated database searchable by developer or address; records are fragmented across municipalities. Request the permit directly from the relevant city hall.

How do I know if a price is reasonable?

Compare against city averages for new builds: Tbilisi around $1,070/sqm, Batumi around $880/sqm, Kutaisi around $620/sqm (June 2025)³. Tbilisi prices rose roughly 10% year on year, Batumi roughly 8%³.

Does the risk profile differ between Batumi and Tbilisi?

Yes. Around 60% of transactions in Batumi involve foreign buyers, versus around 15% in Tbilisi (2024)⁸. The high share of non-resident buyers on the coast means more projects are sold on investment promises, which raises the bar for checking who stands behind any yield guarantee.

Is a Georgian mortgage worth using for this kind of purchase?

The average rate in GEL in June 2025 was 13.1%, and in USD 8.6%⁹. Banks rarely lend against a foundation-stage project, so a mortgage typically becomes a usable tool only once the unit is complete.

What new construction rules should I know about?

The Law on Urban Planning and Architectural Activity No. 5999 of 05.12.2023 took effect on 01.06.2024 and tightens requirements for project documentation and oversight¹⁰. Check which rulebook applied when your project's permit was issued.

Source: D.H. Realting

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This material was prepared with the help of artificial intelligence and checked by a person. Editorial responsibility: Housebook Investment LLC.