In many countries, when you buy an apartment off-plan your money sits in an escrow account and the developer only draws it as construction milestones are certified. Georgia does not work that way, and anyone selling you a Batumi new-build should say so plainly.
What the law actually says
There is no legal requirement for escrow in Georgian off-plan sales. Buyer-protection guides note that escrow mechanisms or bank-tracked transfers are something to arrange where possible, not something the system imposes. Bank guarantees and completion insurance exist but are discretionary: a developer may offer them, and most do not.
In practice you are paying a private company in installments against a contractual promise to deliver a building. That is the deal. It has worked out well for thousands of buyers in a city that delivered a record 17,000-plus transactions in 2025, and it has gone badly for buyers who picked the wrong developer.
The real risks, named
- Construction delay, the most common problem, with contracts that often give the developer generous grace periods.
- Specification drift: layouts and areas can legally shift within tolerances, and finish quality can disappoint.
- Developer failure, the rare but serious case, where an unfinished unit cannot be rented, lived in, or easily used as collateral.
The six protections that replace escrow
- Developer track record over renders. A company that has delivered for decades is not a guarantee, but it is the single best predictor. This is why every project on our shortlist links to a developer profile with its history stated.
- Register the preliminary agreement. Georgian legal practice treats registration of the purchase agreement in the Public Registry as the buyer's primary protection: it makes your claim on the specific unit visible and enforceable. Registration itself is fast and cheap through NAPR.
- Match payments to construction, not to the calendar. An installment schedule that tracks visible progress limits your exposure at any moment. Be most careful with large early payments at foundation stage.
- Read the delay and termination clauses before reserving. Know the penalty if you stop paying, and the remedy if the developer stops building. We state these plainly on project pages, including the uncomfortable ones.
- Prefer projects with institutional skin in the game. Bank financing partners, listed bonds, international brand operators and third-party feasibility studies all mean someone with leverage has already done due diligence.
- Use an independent lawyer. Not the developer's lawyer. The few hundred dollars this costs is the cheapest insurance available in this market. We connect clients with independent lawyers and notaries as standard, as described in how we work.
Our position
We would rather tell you about the missing escrow system on the first page than have you discover it in a contract clause later. It is the single most important structural fact about buying off-plan in Georgia, and managing it well is most of what separates a good purchase from a regret.
