Almost everybody who buys a Georgian apartment for the residence permit intends to let it out, and almost nobody asks whether that is allowed before the first tenant moves in. The ownership side is straightforward. The work-authorisation side contains one narrow question the rules do not answer, and it reaches a much smaller group of landlords than the noise around it suggests. This post separates what is settled from what is not, and says plainly which is which.
Letting does not put the permit at risk
Start with the part that is clear, because it is the part most people worry about and it is the wrong worry.
The property residence permit is granted on the basis that you own qualifying real estate assessed at $150,000 or more, and it continues for as long as that ownership does. Letting the property to a tenant is not a disposal of it. You remain the registered owner, the registry entry does not change, and the basis for the permit is exactly where it was. Nothing in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons requires you to occupy the property you own.
Nor is there an occupancy condition on this route. Unlike the IT permit, the property permit carries no 183-day presence requirement, so being elsewhere while a tenant lives in your apartment does not by itself create a problem. Extended absence can still raise questions at renewal and it interrupts the continuity that counts toward permanent residence, which is a separate cost worth understanding rather than a reason not to let.
Two things could disturb the basis, and neither is a tenancy. Selling the property removes it, and so does anything registered against the title that amounts to a transfer. A standard lease is neither. If an arrangement asks you to register something against your ownership, read it with a lawyer first, because the permit ends when the ownership does.
The open question: is rental income economic activity?
Here is the part where the honest answer is that there is no answer.
Since 1 March 2026 a Special Labour Permit is required in three situations: employing non-Georgian nationals in Georgia, trading as an Individual Entrepreneur with Georgian clients, and applying for a work or IT residence permit. Collecting rent as an owner is none of those, so for most landlords the question closes here.
Where it stays open is the second trigger. If your letting runs through an Individual Entrepreneur registration and your tenants are in Georgia, whether those tenants count as Georgian clients is not something the rules place.
A passive-ownership reading says that letting a flat is the return on an asset. You bought a thing, the thing produces income, and a tenant is not a client in the sense the permit is aimed at. On that reading no labour permit is engaged and there is nothing to apply for.
A trading reading says that a person advertising units, screening guests, cleaning between stays and handling maintenance, invoiced through an IE to customers in Georgia, is running a Georgian-facing business whatever the asset underneath it. On that reading the permit is engaged and the rules on who it catches apply.
Both readings are available and neither is confirmed. We are not going to pick one for you and neither should anybody else without something in writing to point at. What we will say is where the line probably falls if it is ever drawn: one apartment on a long lease held in your own name looks passive, and six units you turn over yourself through an IE looks like a business. The site's fuller treatment of what counts as work in Georgia reaches the same non-answer on this one point, deliberately.
If you are anywhere near that line, the useful step is a conversation about your own structure before you scale up, not a guess in either direction. The government fee on a labour permit is GEL 200 (~$75) for a decision in 30 calendar days if the answer turns out to be that you want one.
Long lease against short-stay letting
The distinction that probably matters most is the one that is easiest to describe.
| Long residential lease | Short-stay letting | |
|---|---|---|
| Your involvement | Sign once, collect monthly | Continuous: listings, bookings, turnover, guests |
| Looks like | Return on an asset | An operating business |
| Labour permit analysis | Strongest passive-ownership case | Weakest passive-ownership case |
| Tax profile | Simpler, regular income | Higher turnover, more scrutiny |
None of that is a rule. It is a description of where an argument would be easy and where it would be hard. If you are running the second column personally, and especially across several units, you are relying on a reading of the rules that has never been tested and that does not obviously favour you.
Management agreements, and what to read in them
Handing the operation to a Georgian management company is the most common answer to all of this, and it is a reasonable one. It also gets oversold.
What it does. It moves the activity to a Georgian entity with its own staff and its own compliance obligations. You become a landlord who receives net proceeds, which is the strongest available version of the passive-ownership argument.
What it does not do. It does not settle the question. There is no published rule saying that an owner who outsources management is outside the labour permit regime, so what you have bought is a better position, not a confirmed one.
Four clauses to read before signing:
Anything registered against your title. Your permit rests on your registered ownership. A management agreement should not create a registered interest, an option or an encumbrance. If it does, that is an immigration question and not merely a commercial one.
Guaranteed yield arrangements. Developers frequently sell units with a promised return attached. Read what happens if the operator stops paying, whether you can exit, and how long the unit is committed. A commitment you cannot exit is a problem the day you decide to sell.
Who is the taxpayer. The operator collecting the money does not make the operator the person taxed on your income. Establish who declares what, and get it in writing.
Termination and access. If you may want to move back in, live in it during renewal, or sell, check you can actually get the property back on a timescale that suits those decisions.
Buy qualifying Georgian property and get a renewable one-year residence permit. No job, no business, and no criminal record certificate on the published document list.
See what it costs, from $570
Tax, and the figures we will not guess at
Rental income from a Georgian property is Georgian-source income and it is taxable in Georgia. That much is not in doubt, and it is true whether or not you are a Georgian tax resident, because the source of the income is here regardless of where you are.
What we are not going to publish is the rate. Personal income tax treatment of residential letting, the standard rate that applies where the reduced treatment does not, the turnover level at which VAT registration is engaged, and annual property tax are all set in the Tax Code and administered by the Revenue Service. They are revised, and a rate quoted in a blog post is a number you would act on without checking. Read the current position from the Tax Code of Georgia or take advice, and do it before the first rent is received rather than at the end of the tax year.
Three points about the structure that do not depend on a rate:
Your permit is not your tax status. A residence permit is immigration status. Tax residency is a separate test turning on presence, and the two are decided by different authorities on different criteria. You can owe Georgian tax on Georgian rent while being tax resident somewhere else entirely.
Individual Entrepreneur registration is not automatically the answer. Registering as an IE is how a lot of people access the small business regime, and whether letting income can sit inside that regime at all is a question for an accountant before you register rather than after. Individual Entrepreneur registration and the 1% regime is handled on our sister site, and how the 1% interacts with a residence permit is worth understanding before you assume it applies to rent.
Your home country still exists. Georgian tax on Georgian rent does not end the matter where you are resident elsewhere, and whether relief is available depends on whether a treaty covers you at all.
The address you registered
A small practical point that catches people every year.
If the apartment you let out is also the address you registered for immigration purposes, you have let out your registered address. Correspondence goes to a tenant, and at renewal you are telling the Public Service Development Agency about an address occupied by somebody else. Sort out a legal address you actually control before the tenancy starts, not when the renewal is due.
The 40-day filing rule makes this worse than it sounds, because an application filed inside the last 40 calendar days of your lawful stay is refused review rather than treated as late.
Where this leaves you
If you own one apartment, let it on a long lease, use a management company or a local agent and pay tax on the income, you are in the most defensible position available and the unresolved question is unlikely ever to be put to you.
If you are running several units yourself through an IE with tenants in Georgia, you are relying on a reading of the rules that nobody has confirmed. Take advice on your own facts. Our fee on the property residence permit route starts at $570, and the eligibility review at the front of it is the point at which a letting plan should be described honestly rather than after the permit is granted. The purchase side, including what to check before you buy something you intend to let, is in buying property in Georgia as a foreigner.
Key takeaways
- Letting your property does not affect the residence permit. The permit rests on ownership and a tenancy is not a disposal.
- There is no presence requirement on the property route, so you do not have to live in the flat you own.
- Collecting rent as an owner does not engage the Special Labour Permit. Whether letting through an IE to Georgian tenants counts as trading with Georgian clients is unsettled.
- Scale and involvement probably decide it: one long lease is the easy case, several self-managed short-stay units is the hard one.
- A management agreement strengthens the passive argument without confirming it, and its clauses need reading for anything registered against your title.
- Rental income is taxable in Georgia as Georgian-source income. Confirm current rates with the Revenue Service rather than from any published summary.
- If you let out your registered address, register a different one before the tenancy starts.
Frequently asked questions
Can I rent out my property while holding a Georgian residence permit?
Yes. The permit rests on your continued ownership of qualifying real estate, and letting the property to a tenant does not dispose of that ownership. There is no requirement to live in the property yourself and no presence condition on the property route.
Does renting out my Georgian property need a Special Labour Permit?
Collecting rent as an owner does not. The permit is required to employ foreign staff, to trade as an Individual Entrepreneur with Georgian clients, or to apply for a work or IT residence permit, and a landlord doing none of those has nothing to file. What is genuinely unsettled, and we will not guess at it, is whether letting run through an IE to tenants in Georgia falls inside that second trigger. A single apartment on a long lease held in your own name is the easy case and several self-managed short-stay units through an IE is the hard one, so take advice on your own facts before you scale up.
Is rental income from a Georgian apartment taxable in Georgia?
Yes. Rent from Georgian property is Georgian-source income and is taxable here regardless of whether you are a Georgian tax resident. The applicable rate depends on how you hold and operate the property, and it is set in the Tax Code, so confirm the current figure with the Revenue Service or an adviser before your first declaration.
Does letting my property on Airbnb affect my Georgian residence permit?
It does not affect the permit itself, which rests on ownership. It is the version of the unresolved labour permit question where the passive-ownership argument is weakest, because short-stay letting run through an IE to guests in Georgia looks far more like a Georgian-facing business than a single long lease does.
Should I use a management company for my Georgian rental property?
It is the cleanest structure available if you want the strongest passive-ownership position, because the operating activity sits with a Georgian company rather than with you. Read the agreement for anything that would be registered against your title, for how a guaranteed-yield arrangement unwinds, and for whether you can get the property back when you want to sell or renew.
Can I claim the 1% small business tax on Georgian rental income?
Do not assume it. Individual Entrepreneur registration is how the small business regime is accessed, and whether letting income qualifies inside that regime is a question to put to an accountant before you register rather than after. Getting the structure wrong is more expensive to unwind than to plan.
Do I have to live in Georgia to keep a property residence permit?
No. The property route carries no 183-day presence condition, unlike the IT permit. Long absences can still raise questions at renewal and they interrupt the continuity that counts toward permanent residence, so treating the permit as entirely passive has a cost that arrives later rather than immediately.
What happens if I rent out the apartment I registered as my address in Georgia?
Your registered address becomes a property occupied by somebody else, which creates a problem at renewal and sends your correspondence to a tenant. Register a legal address you actually control before the tenancy starts, because sorting it out inside the last 40 days of your lawful stay is not a position you want to be in.
Can a tenancy agreement put my Georgian residence permit at risk?
An ordinary lease cannot, because it does not transfer ownership and does not change the registry entry. What can is any arrangement that registers an interest against your title or commits the property in a way that amounts to a disposal, which is a reason to read development-linked rental schemes carefully rather than a reason to avoid tenants.
How many properties can I rent out in Georgia as a foreigner?
There is no cap on how many you may own or let. What changes with the number is the labour permit analysis, because a portfolio you operate personally looks much more like a business than a single flat on a long lease, and the rules have not settled where that line sits.
