You own an apartment in Tbilisi and you live somewhere else. The flat is empty, or let to someone you have never met, and every practical question — who signs the lease, who holds the keys, who the tenant calls at midnight, how the rent reaches your account — has to be answered from a distance.
None of it is difficult in Georgia. The rules are unusually simple by regional standards, and a foreign owner has the same rights as a Georgian one. What catches people out is not the law but the gap between signing a lease and actually being paid, every month, for years, without being in the country.
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What you can do without setting foot in Georgia
More than most owners expect. A foreigner can own residential property in Georgia outright, let it, and be paid for it, without residency, without a local company and without being present at signature.
- Own and let residential property in your own name, as a non-resident.
- Have a lease signed on your behalf by a representative holding a notarised power of attorney.
- Register the lease and any change of ownership at the Public Registry (NAPR), usually within one working day.
- Hold a Georgian bank account opened in person on an earlier visit, and transfer the balance out whenever you choose. There is no currency control on taking money out of Georgia.
What you cannot sensibly do from abroad is the day-to-day: meet candidates, read a tenant correctly, hand over keys, be reachable when the boiler fails in January, or check what is actually happening inside your flat. That is the part that decides whether letting from abroad works.
The power of attorney, and what it should cover
A notarised power of attorney is the single document that makes remote letting practical. It is drawn up by a Georgian notary, and if you sign it outside Georgia it needs to be notarised locally and apostilled, then translated into Georgian by a certified translator.
Write it narrowly and deliberately. A power of attorney that says more than you need is a liability, and one that says too little sends you back to the notary.
- Name the specific property, by its Public Registry cadastral code, not by street address alone.
- List the acts allowed: sign and register a lease, agree the rent, collect the deposit, sign handover reports, deal with utility suppliers.
- Exclude what you do not want: above all the right to sell, mortgage or encumber the property, unless that is the point of the document.
- Set an expiry date. Open-ended authority is rarely necessary.
- Keep the right to revoke it at the Registry at any time, and know how to do it before you need to.
General information, not legal advice. A Georgian notary will tell you the exact wording and the current apostille requirements for your country of residence.
Getting paid, month after month
This is where remote letting usually breaks down, and it is worth settling before the first tenant moves in.
- Open a Georgian bank account while you are in the country. Banks generally require the holder in person, so this is the one step that is hard to arrange afterwards.
- Have the rent paid by bank transfer into that account, not in cash. A paper trail protects you in a dispute and makes the tax return trivial.
- Decide who converts and when. Rents in Tbilisi are commonly agreed in US dollars but paid in lari at the rate of the day, which means your income moves with the exchange rate.
- Agree who pays the utilities, and check the meters are actually settled at each handover. Unpaid utility arrears attach to the property, not to the departed tenant.
What a Tbilisi lease should actually say
Georgian law gives the parties wide freedom, which means your protection comes from the lease itself rather than from a statutory default.
- Term and notice: a twelve-month term with a defined notice period is standard for long lets. State what happens at the end: automatic renewal, or not.
- Deposit: usually one month, held against damage and unpaid bills, with the conditions for its return written down.
- Inventory and condition: a dated photo report annexed to the lease, signed by both sides. Without it, a deposit dispute is unwinnable from abroad.
- Repairs: who pays for what, and the threshold above which the owner decides.
- Access: how much notice a technician or agent needs before entering.
- Subletting and short-stay: say explicitly whether the tenant may re-let on nightly platforms. Many owners discover this after the fact.
- Language: a bilingual Georgian and English lease. If only one version governs, say which.
Tax on your rental income
Georgian rental taxation is light, and simple enough that most owners handle it with an accountant for a modest annual fee.
- Residential property let to individuals: a flat 5% of gross rent, available on condition that you claim no expense deductions against it. This rate applies to long lets and to nightly rentals alike.
- The alternative is the standard 20% personal income tax on net income, after deducting expenses. For a normal apartment the 5% option is almost always the better arithmetic.
- Commercial premises let as such are taxed at the standard 20% rate.
- Non-residents are taxed on Georgian-source rental income on the same basis.
- You may also owe tax where you live. Georgia has double-tax treaties with most of Europe, the Gulf and the former Soviet states, but the treatment depends on your own tax residence.
Rates current as at November 2026, from published guidance by Georgian tax practitioners. Confirm your own position with the Revenue Service or a Georgian accountant before you file.
What actually goes wrong
Not the dramatic things. The ordinary ones, repeated over years.
- A tenant who cannot reach anyone stops reporting small problems, and a dripping pipe becomes a damaged floor.
- An empty flat with nobody opening the windows develops damp, and the smell is what loses you the next tenant.
- A lease that expires unnoticed, leaving you with an occupant and no current contract.
- Utility arrears discovered at the next handover, long after the tenant has gone.
- A deposit withheld, disputed, and impossible to defend because nobody photographed the flat at move-in.
Every one of these is a presence problem, not a legal one. It is why letting from abroad works when somebody local is accountable for the property, and tends to decay quietly when nobody is.
See how property care in Tbilisi works, or have your property let and managed.
Questions owners ask
Can I let my Tbilisi apartment without coming to Georgia?
Yes. With a notarised power of attorney, a representative can sign and register the lease, hand over the keys and deal with the utility suppliers on your behalf. The one step that is genuinely easier in person is opening a Georgian bank account.
Do I need a Georgian company to let an apartment?
No. An individual, resident or not, can let residential property in their own name and pay the 5% rate on gross rent. A company adds cost and complexity without a tax advantage for a single apartment.
How much tax will I pay on the rent?
For residential property let to individuals, 5% of the gross rent, provided you claim no deductions. On $1,200 a month that is $60. You may still have a declaration to make in your country of residence.
How do I get the rent out of Georgia?
By ordinary bank transfer from your Georgian account. Georgia has no exchange controls and no restriction on repatriating rental income. The practical constraints are your bank’s fees and the exchange rate on the day.
What deposit is normal in Tbilisi?
One month’s rent for a long-term let, held against damage and unpaid utilities. Two months is sometimes agreed for a furnished premium apartment or an unusual tenant profile.
How long does it take to find a tenant in Vake or Vera?
For a well-presented, correctly priced furnished apartment, usually two to six weeks. Demand from expatriate families, diplomats and remote professionals is steady in the central districts, but it is concentrated in late summer, before the international school year.
Can my tenant put my apartment on a nightly rental platform?
Only if your lease allows it. Georgian law will not stop them by default, so if you do not want it, the lease has to say so.
Talk about letting your property on WhatsApp · contact@cel.estate · +995 577 94 00 68
Market figures reviewed and verified by Alain Lavit, Caucasus Elite Estate, Tbilisi. Drafted with AI assistance.
