$6.5 billion: why the world's biggest developers are betting on Georgia

Something has changed in Georgian real estate. For years the market grew on local developers and individual foreign buyers. In 2025–26 it started attracting the kind of names that usually go to Dubai, Riyadh or the Mediterranean.

The headline number: $6.5 billion

In October 2025, Eagle Hills — the Abu Dhabi developer chaired by Mohamed Alabbar, the founder of Emaar (the company behind the Burj Khalifa) — signed definitive agreements for around $6.5 billion of development in Georgia. The plan covers two mega-projects:

Tbilisi Waterfront, reshaping a stretch of the capital, and
Gonio Yachts & Marina, a resort-scale waterfront destination just south of Batumi.

Together they are the largest private investment in Georgia's history — multifunctional districts with residences, hotels, malls, sports, healthcare and schools.

A wave, not a one-off

Eagle Hills is the biggest name, not the only one. The Black Sea coast is filling with branded residences — apartments operated to international hotel standards:

Wyndham Grand at Gonio,
Hilton-tied towers in central Batumi,
Radisson and Novotel premium projects,
and more luxury signings lined up for 2026–27.

Why here, why now

The pull is not mysterious. It's the same maths we point clients to:

Among Europe's highest rental yields — roughly 7–8% gross, versus 3–5% across mature Western Europe.
A tax regime built for owners — a flat 5% on residential rent, 0% annual property tax for most owners, and no foreign-buyer surcharge.
Full foreign ownership — freehold, in your own name, no local partner required.
Real momentum — around 7.5% GDP growth in 2025, record tourism, and foreign capital making up the large majority of coastal demand.
Still-thin premium supply — global brands see room at the top of a market that didn't have one a few years ago.

The one thing a boom won't do for you

Here's where we put the brakes on, because it's our job. A rising market makes good decisions look smart and bad decisions look survivable — until it doesn't.

More cranes mean more supply competing for the same tenants. Off-plan timelines stretch. "Branded" carries a price premium that the rent doesn't always justify. And when everyone is buying, the temptation to skip the boring checks is highest exactly when it's most expensive.

A boom rewards the selective, not the merely enthusiastic. The fundamentals that brought Emaar to Georgia are real. Which specific building, which floor, which contract, which yield after costs — that's still on you. Or, if you'd rather, on us.

We're paid by you, never the developer. So when the right answer is "not this one," we can actually say it.

Sources: Georgia Today, Commersant.ge, Global Property Guide. General information, not investment advice.