Liberalized & Efficient real estate market with an attractive USD-denominated return
Not a crypto topic, but today let me share my real estate investment experience in Georgia.
This liberalized country allows foreigner to own a land for home-use.
Legislation & transaction procedure is crazy simplified. Tax burden is minimal.
Property bubble phase might have already ended, but still a decent USD-denominated investment return is expected.
DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
TBC Capital or GALT & TAGGART provides a regular update of Georgian real estate market landscape.
As at January 2024, average sale price is $1,205/m2 and rental yield is 10.5% in Tbilisi.
Note that sale/rent price in Georgia is typically denominated by USD.
Dighomi district had the highest number of transactions in Tbilisi, while price is affordable.
Vake is premium district, which expats prefer.
Batumi is the center of bubble in West Georgia and has almost same pricing with Tbilisi.
Non-urban area like Kutaisi/Rustavi offers an affordable pricing.
These data are very informative, but an actual pricing widely varies by multiple factors:
– Building age & condition
– Renovation status
– Furnitures offering, etc.
You have to understand the real market situation by physically visiting multiple properties.
VISIT PROPERTY
myhome.ge or ss.ge is a good gateway to find properties and contact to agents/owners.
Note that property agent isn’t a licensed business in Georgia, thus you may meet a vicious guy, who try to cheat you.
Some listings may be Under-Construction. Note that such an Under-Construction properties may not be actually constructed… Highly risky one, especially in case developer is not a famous company.
Black Frame (just a concrete work) or White Frame (just partitions installed) may be a bit tricky.
For beginner foreign investors, Green Frame (ready-to-live) is an easy option.
EVICTION
You may find properties with much cheaper price than market standard. In many cases, such properties are illegally-occupied by ex-tenants. Just AVOID such properties!
COVID Lockdown & inflation made many home owners unable to pay their mortgage, thus their homes have been seized by lenders.
In some cases, such ex-owners refuse to leave and keep using their ex-homes…
Legal eviction of such occupiers takes YEARS in Georgia.
And if you evict the ex-owner legally, surrounding neighbors will be your eternal enemies…
Don’t touch such properties.
LAWYER & LEGAL DUE DILIGENCE
Good English-speaking lawyer is your best friend for successful investment. You can find tons of property lawyers especially in Tbilisi.
All what I can say is that a beautiful website doesn’t mean the lawyer is decent…
Each single property in Georgia has Cadastral Code, which gives you mortgage & legal dispute status through My.gov.ge.
If there’s no issue, legal due diligence finishes within 3 minutes.
PRE-PAYMENT & PRELIMINARY AGREEMENT
As a local customs, selling owner may require an pre-payment of a part of transaction amount.
This pre-payment is (a) for buyer to show the commitment to the deal, and (b) for seller to hedge the transaction risk & lost time. If the deal is cancelled by buyer’s cause, the pre-payment is taken by seller.
Pre-payment amount varies. My guts feeling says it should be around 1-month rent fee equivalent or more, but it depends.
It’s good to sign a preliminary agreement at the pre-payment phase to avoid any dispute.
The preliminary agreement should covers the total transaction value in USD, exclusivity, validity period and condition precedent if any.
You may want to publicly register the preliminary agreement for better security of the transaction terms.
Pre-closing period is the last chance for buyer to leverage a negotiation power.
I recommend to check unpaid debt of utilities and make owner to pay such debt before closing.
I also required owner to delist the property from myhome.ge to secure my exclusivity to the deal.
CLOSING
Once every condition precedent is met, lawyer will prepare a simplified Contract of Sale, which should be GEO/ENG-bilingual.
Bring passport, visit public registry jointly with owner/lawyer and sign the Contract of Sale in front of registry-rep. That’s it!
Payment of the transaction value is the most tricky part and you may feel a risk on it.
In my case, the owner required me to pay the amount through smartphone banking app just after the signing at public registry. I felt a bit nervous for sending such amount from small smartphone screen.
The beneficiary owner specified was not an owner’s account, but daughter’s account… I felt super nervous on the validity of the transaction…
Owner also requested a payment in USD (I declined), instead of GEL. Note that Georgian legislation requires GEL payment for real estate transaction…
The Contract of Sale define the transaction amount, but it generally doesn’t cover the way of transfer.
It may be paid by bank transfer (safest way), cash or even crypto asset. Payment timing is also flexible, i.e. before or after signing.
GEL should be the payment currency according to legislation, but in practice, no one cares such rule. Payment can be made by USD or EUR. As long as description field is written like “private transfer” etc, banks never interrupt USD/EUR transfer, because banks can’t know it’s a real estate transaction which should be done by GEL. (Of course I declined USD. I paid by GEL)
This is the market standard in Georgia, but if you feel any risk, you may want to use escrow services for safer execution.
Once the amount is paid from smartphone, you will pay the registration fee to the public registry.
Change in property ownership will be registered in days. You will be a dream home owner!
UTILITIES
Once the Cadastral Code of the property is updated to your ownership, bring an Extract from Public Registry and visit utilities companies to update the subscriber name.
DIY
You may want to fix furniture or renovate a part of your home, but don’t rely on master (technician).
It’s DIY heaven Georgia. Why don’t you do-it-yourself to make your home exactly what you want?
You can find any equipment or materials in home center/market!
