Georgia lets foreigners buy buildings and apartments freely, so hotel and aparthotel deals are simpler than in Thailand or Bali. The harder questions are Batumi oversupply, seasonality and what an operator really pays.
Of the three markets in this series, Georgia is the easiest to buy into legally and the hardest to read commercially. A foreigner can buy apartments, commercial premises and buildings with little ceremony, so the structuring problems of Thailand and Bali mostly do not arise. The difficulty is the return: Batumi in particular has a very large stock of unsold and resale apartments, a short peak season and a growing group of operated hotel-type products competing for the same guests. This guide covers what is open to foreigners, how hotel-type apartments work, what we could verify about 2026 tourism and prices, and where the risks sit.
For hotels as an asset class, start with the hotel real-estate investment guide for private investors. For ordinary apartments see Georgia rental yield and investment and Georgia property prices and buying costs.
What a foreign buyer can own
- Apartments, houses, commercial premises, whole buildings and land that is not agricultural are open to foreigners. A purchase is registered in the public registry.
- Agricultural land is the exception. Under constitutional rules, agricultural land can be owned only by the state, municipalities and Georgian citizens or their associations, and a foreigner cannot register it even by marrying a citizen; only inheritance is treated differently. A hotel sits on non-agricultural land, but check the land category on the registry extract before paying anything, because a plot's category can be the difference between a hotel and an unusable parcel.
- A foreigner can also run the business through a Georgian company. We did not verify the foreign-ownership limits of Georgian companies in this round, so confirm them with a Georgian lawyer.
What a hotel-type apartment actually is
Most foreign money goes into aparthotel units rather than whole hotels. You buy a furnished apartment in a building run by an operator. You hold the title to the unit; the operator rents it out and splits the revenue with you under a separate contract.
Everything that matters is in that contract, so read these points before the sale agreement:
- How long the operator is committed, and what happens at the end.
- How the revenue is split, and what is deducted before the split.
- How many nights the owner may use, and whether that changes the split.
- Who pays for furniture, repairs and replacement, and the service charge.
- Whether the operator is the hotel brand itself or a local management company using the brand name.
- What happens to the programme if the operator leaves or the building is sold.
Developer brochures quote gross yields of 8% to 12.5% for branded aparthotel projects. Treat those as marketing: they are projections, not results, and they usually sit on assumptions about occupancy and room rates that the operator does not guarantee. An independent analysis of an ordinary Batumi apartment found net income of no more than about 1,700 US dollars a year, a 2.8% net yield and a payback of about 35 years, and notes that investor interest is shifting toward hotel projects run by international brands. That analysis covers ordinary flats, and it shows how far apart the headline and the net can be.
Price points we could verify
- Batumi apartments, March 2026: about 1,893 US dollars per square metre on the primary market for turnkey units, and 1,479 on the secondary market. By area, Old Batumi about 3,146, New Boulevard about 1,819 and inner-city districts about 1,787 (a sector snapshot from a local investment outlet).
- Colliers gives an average of about 1,500 dollars per square metre across Tbilisi and Batumi, and says current trends do not point to a price fall in 2026.
- Branded aparthotel units are listed well above those averages. One listing we saw asks about 4,480 dollars per square metre, and another project offers hotel-style units from about 80,000 dollars. These are single developer listings, not a market index.
We found no verified price per room for whole hotels in Georgia, and no capitalisation rate. Build your own from the operator's accounts using how to value a hotel for sale.
Tourism in 2026
- In the first half of 2026 Georgia recorded 2,272,964 international tourist visits, up 0.1% on a year earlier. The second quarter was weaker: 1,749,668 international traveller visits, down 4.9%, and 1,275,435 tourist visits, down 2.7%. The Tourism Administration linked the fall to reduced flows from countries affected by regional conflicts and air-travel restrictions.
- Visits from the EU and UK reached a record 249,201 in the half year, up 23.4%.
- Tourism revenue in the half year was about 1.9 billion dollars, down 2%. More visitors do not automatically mean more spending per visitor.
- International arrivals to the Adjara region, where Batumi sits, rose 18% in the first quarter of 2026.
- Branded hotels in Batumi reported occupancy of 68.6% in 2022, 70% in 2023 and 71% in 2024, with an average nightly rate of about 286 dollars; peak months have reached about 85%.
Nationally, a market report counted 2,691 hotels with about 53,000 rooms, with about 1,000 rooms added in 20 new hotels in the reporting period. Banks cut financing for new development in 2025, which should slow new supply later.
Oversupply in Batumi
This is the central risk for aparthotel buyers. Galt and Taggart reports that unsold primary-market apartments in Batumi have reached nearly 13,000 units. First-quarter 2026 sales were 4,049 apartments, up 15.8% on the year, but monthly sales fell from 705 in January to 306 in March. Price growth is forecast to moderate to 4% to 6% a year. A unit in an operated building competes with that stock, with resale units and with short lets, and Batumi's season is concentrated in the summer.
Taxes and costs
- Profit tax of 15% on distributed profit for a Georgian company; retained or reinvested profit is exempt.
- VAT of 18%. One summary lists a reduced 5% rate for hotel services; confirm the current rate with a Georgian accountant.
- Rental income of an individual: 5% where the tenant is an individual and 20% where the tenant is a business, according to the details in our yield article; property tax bands are covered there too.
- The 1% small-business turnover regime, available up to 500,000 lari of annual turnover for qualifying individual entrepreneurs, is not designed for a hotel owner and should not be assumed to apply.
For structuring across borders see holding structures and taxes for hotel owners.
Currency and political context
The lari traded at about 2.71 to the dollar in March 2026, and Galt and Taggart expects it to stay around 2.7 through this year and next. In January 2026 the government placed a 500 million euro eurobond that was oversubscribed more than five times. Domestic political tension since late 2024 has been reported to weigh on sentiment, and we did not find a 2026 source that quantifies its effect on hotels. Check in which currency the price, the rent and the operator contract are written, because a mismatch moves the real return.
Which route for which budget
- Small tickets: one aparthotel unit from a few tens of thousands of dollars. You buy a unit and a contract. Compare branded residences, condo-hotels and fractional ownership and check the developer with how to check a hotel developer and an off-plan hotel project.
- Middle tickets: several units in one building or a small hotel. Your negotiating position improves, and so does the weight of the operator's accounts.
- Large tickets: a whole hotel, often with a branded operator. Financing and terms matter; see hotel acquisition financing for foreign buyers and hotel management agreements, leases and franchises explained.
FAQ
Can a foreigner own a hotel in Georgia? Yes, with the exception of agricultural land, which can be registered only by citizens. Confirm the land category and the company structure with a Georgian lawyer.
Is an aparthotel unit a safe income? It is not guaranteed. The return depends on the operator contract, occupancy and the competing supply, and brochure yields are projections.
Is Batumi oversupplied? Reports describe a large stock of unsold apartments and moderating price growth, which is a reason to price units conservatively.
Does buying a hotel give residence? We have not verified any such right and make no promise; immigration rules are separate.
How we help
We check, compare and negotiate: the land category, the operator contract, the developer and the accounts. We do not guarantee income or occupancy, and we do not hold a particular hotel for you. You can see hotels in our catalogue and the Georgia page to see what the market offers.
This article is informational only and is not legal, tax or investment advice. Figures are indicative, come from press, consultants and developer listings, and change over time; confirm current rules and numbers with a Georgian lawyer before you buy.