What a property lawyer actually does here
Georgia makes the transfer itself easy. A notarised sale agreement, a registration at the National Agency of Public Registry, and the title is yours, often the same day. That ease is exactly why people skip legal advice, and why some of them lose money.
The work worth paying for happens before signing. Confirming the person selling is the person named on the registry extract. Reading that extract for mortgages, seizures and easements. Checking the cadastral code matches the physical apartment rather than a neighbouring unit or a shared corridor. On new builds, reading a developer contract that was drafted by the developer's lawyer and translated by nobody in particular.
What it costs in Tbilisi
Very few Georgian firms publish rates. The ones that do give you a benchmark: roughly 300 GEL plus VAT for a standalone due diligence check, roughly 600 GEL plus VAT to prepare registration documents, and around 300 GEL per hour plus VAT for advisory time. Full transaction handling is quoted by at least one firm at 2.5% of the purchase price with a 7,500 GEL minimum.
Everything else is quoted per matter. As a working range, expect a few hundred GEL for a title check on a resale flat and four figures for a full off-plan purchase with contract negotiation. Separately, notary fees usually land around 100 to 200 GEL and Public Registry fees around 50 to 200 GEL depending on how fast you want the entry. Treat all of these as ranges, not quotes.
How to choose
- Ask what the due diligence covers. If the answer is "we pull the extract", that is not due diligence. You want cadastral matching, encumbrance history and, on a new build, verification of the developer entity.
- Insist on a bilingual contract. If the Georgian text governs and you only have an English summary, you have not read your contract.
- Check they do property, not everything. Several Tbilisi generalists list real estate next to criminal defence. Ask how many purchases they closed last year.
- Get the fee basis in writing. Fixed fee, hourly and percentage-of-price all exist here, and they are not comparable until someone gives you a total.
Red flags
Do not use the lawyer your estate agent introduces you to. Be wary of any firm that will not put a fee in writing, that waves off a Public Registry check because the developer is well known, or that offers to hold your purchase funds without a written escrow arrangement. On off-plan, walk away from a contract with no delivery date and no penalty attached to missing it. And if the seller pushes for speed, that is the moment to slow down, not the moment to skip the check.
When you can skip it
A finished flat, a private seller, a clean extract you pulled yourself and a standard notary template is a low-risk transaction. Legal work earns its fee when the building does not exist yet, when a company or an estate sits in the ownership chain, when you are signing from another country, or when the sum involved would genuinely hurt to lose.
