Sell property in Batumi: from valuation to money in your account

You don't have to live in Georgia to sell property in Batumi: viewings, documents and the transaction can be left to a representative. The hard part lies elsewhere. The outcome of a sale is decided by the asking price, the first weeks of viewings and the tax, which sellers sometimes only learn about at the notary's office. Below we go through a sale step by step, and then the cases where the usual approach doesn't work: an urgent sale, commercial property and land.

Valuation: the three prices of one apartment

Every apartment has three prices: the one the owner wants, the one in the listing and the one in the contract. The job of the valuation is to bring them as close together as possible before the first viewing. To do this, we look at what is for sale in your building and nearby, what has been on the market for a long time and why, and where your apartment wins or loses: the view, the floor, the renovation, the furniture, which way it faces.

The transaction itself usually doesn't need a report from an accredited valuer. But one is useful if a buyer wants the apartment for a residence permit: from 1 March 2026 they need a market value of more than 150,000 US dollars based on exactly that kind of valuation. A buyer with a mortgage also comes with their bank's valuation, and if it is below the price, the negotiation starts again.

Preparing for the sale

A buyer forms an opinion in the first minutes of a viewing, and small things get in the way: a smell of damp, a stain by the window, a skirting board coming loose, boxes in the hallway. Before the sale we fix what catches the eye and is cheap to repair, and leave alone what the buyer will redo to their own taste anyway. A major renovation for the sale is risky, because the buyer may value it at less than it cost you.

In Batumi the climate adds to the preparation. An apartment shut up all winter smells of damp by spring, and you notice it as soon as you walk in. Before viewings we dry it out and air it, check the extractor fans and, if there have been leaks, show honestly what was fixed and when. We order a fresh registry extract in advance and check the electricity, gas and water bills, so that the buyer's checks don't drag on.

How to sell property in Batumi quickly or remotely

An urgent sale goes one of two ways. You can lower the price and reach buyers who already have the money ready, or keep the price at market level and widen the search: more platforms, more viewings, working with agencies. Which pays off better depends on what each month of waiting costs you: a loan, utility bills, an empty apartment in winter.

If you can't come, a representative handles the sale under a power of attorney. We agree its wording in advance: the right to sign the contract, collect documents from the registry and transfer the utility accounts. You can have it certified by a notary in the country where you live. If the power of attorney was issued abroad, then since 20 October 2023 the transaction can only be registered in notarised form, so a Georgian notary and a translation are part of the sale budget.

It is safer to receive the payment straight into your own account rather than through the representative. We sign the handover form for the keys once you have confirmed that the money has arrived, and record the meter readings on the same form.

Commercial property and plots

Buyers judge premises for a shop, office or cafe differently from an apartment. They want to see the documents on permitted use, the electrical capacity, a separate entrance, an extraction system and the tenant. Premises with an existing tenant and a clear payment history are sold as ready income, empty ones as an opportunity, and their prices differ.

For a plot, everything comes down to the land category and what can be built on it. In Georgia, agricultural land can only be owned by Georgian citizens, the state and municipalities, so such a plot has a smaller pool of buyers. Before the sale we check the boundaries against the registry data and put together what will help a buyer picture their house: access, utilities nearby, the slope, building restrictions.

Taxes on selling property in Georgia

We work out the tax before the property goes on the market, because it sets the lowest price worth accepting. Under the rules for 2026:

• After 2 years of ownership, a home is sold tax-free.
• If you have owned it for less time, you pay 5% of the difference between the sale price and the purchase price.
• Documented renovation costs are added to the purchase price, which makes the difference smaller (a clarification from the Ministry of Finance of Georgia dated 14 May 2026).
• Commercial premises and bare land are taxed at the non-residential rate of 20%, and a unit that operates as part of a hotel business may be taxed the same way; we check this with a tax adviser.
• The Revenue Service may treat regular reselling as a business, and then the exemptions for housing do not apply.

Keep the contracts with your contractor, the certificates of completed work and the receipts for the renovation from day one. Without them you cannot prove the costs, and it is hard to recover the paperwork a year later.

How the transaction works for the seller

Once a buyer is found, we secure the sale with a preliminary agreement and a deposit. It states the amount, the date of the main transaction and what happens to the deposit if either side changes its mind. The buyer or their lawyer then checks the apartment, and a fresh extract with the documents ready shortens this pause.

The main agreement is signed before a notary or at a Public Service Hall, and ownership passes to the buyer after registration in the Public Registry. That is why the contract settles in advance which comes first, payment or registration. If the parties don't trust each other, the money can be placed in a notary deposit with a Georgian notary. The Law on Notaries provides for this, and the notary releases the money to the seller once a condition the parties have written down is met, for example the registration of the buyer's ownership.