On 1 March 2026 the property qualifying for a Georgian residence permit went from $100,000 to $150,000. That is a 50% rise in a single step, and it lands differently depending on where you were standing when it happened. Some readers are fully protected, some bought an apartment that no longer does what they bought it for, and one group sits on a question the legislation does not answer. This post sorts the three apart.
What changed, precisely
A foreign national who owns Georgian real estate above a set value can be granted a short-term residence permit on that ownership. The value required moved from $100,000 to $150,000 with effect from 1 March 2026.
Three things about the change are worth stating exactly, because loose versions of each cause problems.
It is a value test, not a spending test. The figure is assessed value certified by an accredited assessor, not the price on your purchase contract and not the figure in the registry. That distinction existed before the change and it bites harder now, because a larger number leaves less room for the gap between the two.
It applies to the permit, not to the property. Nothing happened to anybody's title. What changed is what a residence permit application has to demonstrate.
It was $100,000 before that date, so treat any lower figure as out of date and ask for the date on which the number you were given was confirmed. If a listing, an agent or a valuation report tells you $100,000 qualifies, that figure predates 1 March 2026 and the person quoting it should be able to say when they last checked. Get the answer in writing before money moves.
The permit itself, its categories and the grounds on which it can be refused or withdrawn all sit in the Law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons.
Who the change actually catches
| Where you stand | What the change does to you |
|---|---|
| Permit granted before 1 March 2026 at $100,000, property still owned | Nothing. You renew on the original basis |
| Bought between $100,000 and $150,000 before the change, never applied | You are on the current figure. No permit exists to protect |
| Buying now, at any price | $150,000 in assessed value, with no transitional relief |
| Permit granted at $100,000 that has since lapsed | Unsettled. Nobody can tell you with authority |
| Sold the qualifying property | The basis is gone independently of any threshold |
| Holding the $300,000 investment permit | Unaffected. That threshold did not move |
The row that surprises people is the second one. The protection written into the change is for holders of a permit, not for owners of a property. If you completed a purchase at $130,000 in January 2026 and had not filed by the time the threshold moved, you are assessed on the rules as they stand when your application is decided, and the purchase date does not carry you across. That is an unwelcome position rather than a hopeless one, and the fix is usually arithmetic rather than argument: the threshold can be met across more than one property, so a second unit assessed at $20,000 or more closes the gap without abandoning the first.
The third row catches a subtler group, which is anyone who was quoted a budget by somebody working from the old number. A purchase planned at $135,000 to leave headroom above $100,000 now leaves you $15,000 short of the line. The mechanics of buying, including the agricultural land prohibition and what registration actually establishes, are set out in buying property in Georgia as a foreigner.
If you already hold a permit granted at $100,000
You are not retroactively disqualified, and this is the clearest part of the change. Existing holders may continue to renew on the original basis while they retain ownership of the property the permit was granted on.
Two conditions are doing the work in that sentence.
Continuity. The permit has to keep going. A renewal filed on time on the same property continues the position you already have.
That property. The protection is tied to the specific real estate the permit was granted on. Sell it and buy something else at $120,000 and there is no continuation to rely on, because the basis for the original permit has gone with the sale. Anyone contemplating a move between properties should plan the sequence before listing, and the consequences of getting that order wrong are covered in selling the property behind your permit.
The practical instruction that follows is short. Renew early, renew every time, and treat the filing date as the thing that protects $50,000 of value. Applications filed inside the last 40 days of your lawful stay are refused review rather than considered late, and a refusal on timing is exactly the way a protected position stops being protected. The mechanics of the annual filing, including what evidence gets refreshed, sit with renewing a Georgian residence permit.
The question the legislation does not answer
Here is the part where the honest answer is that there is no answer.
Suppose a permit granted at $100,000 lapses. The holder still owns the same property, still meets every condition that applied when it was granted, and now wants to apply again. Is that reapplication treated as a continuation of the original position at the old threshold, or as a fresh application assessed at $150,000?
The legislation does not settle it. Both readings are available on the text. A continuation reading says the protection attaches to the person and the property, and a break in paperwork does not dissolve it. A fresh-application reading says a lapsed permit no longer exists, and what does not exist cannot be renewed, so what follows is a new application on current rules.
We are not going to pick one for you, and neither should anybody else without something in writing to point at. The procedural rules on granting residence permits do not resolve it either, and the Public Service Development Agency decides applications rather than publishing interpretive guidance in advance of them. Anyone who tells you confidently which way this goes is telling you what they expect, not what the law says.
What follows from the uncertainty is entirely practical. Do not test it. A holder on the old threshold carries an asymmetric risk: continuity costs you a renewal filing you were going to make anyway, and a lapse costs you either $50,000 of additional property or the route. There is no version of this where letting it slide is the efficient choice.
If a permit has already lapsed, that is a position to take advice on before filing anything, because the way the application is framed and what it relies on is the only variable left to control. It also sits close to the grounds for revoking a residence permit, which is a different failure mode with a similar ending.
Value, not price
The threshold is met on assessed value, certified by an assessor accredited through the Unified National Accreditation Body. A competent valuation from an unaccredited valuer is not evidence for this purpose, whatever number it carries.
The change made this the sharpest edge on the route. At $100,000 a buyer paying $120,000 had a comfortable margin for a conservative assessment. At $150,000 the same buyer paying $160,000 has almost none, and an assessor working from comparable sales rather than from your contract can land below what you paid. Off-plan purchases, distressed sales and transactions between related parties all produce that outcome more often than arm's length resales do.
The sequence that avoids it is unchanged and worth repeating: indicative valuation before you commit, purchase and register, formal accredited valuation on the registered property in your own name, then apply. How assessors reach the figure, and how joint ownership and combined properties are treated, is in the accredited valuation guide.
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
What did not change
The threshold rise is a single change and it has been read as a wider tightening it is not.
The $300,000 investment permit was untouched, and it still carries a five-year term and an exemption from work authorisation. That exemption is worth more than it looks to anyone who will hire staff here or bill Georgian clients, because both of those engage the Special Labour Permit, and for readers weighing the two routes the gap in capital is no longer the only number that matters. The comparison sits in the investment residence permit guide and, for readers who arrived searching for a programme name Georgia does not use, in what people mean by a Georgian golden visa.
The property permit also still gives what it always gave, which is the right to live in Georgia and no exemption from the labour permit. Buying at $150,000 instead of $100,000 does not change that, and the property residence permit route has never been a work authorisation. Family coverage is unchanged too: one qualifying purchase can still carry a spouse and minor children.
The rest of the 2026 changes, dated and in one place, are mapped in what changed in Georgian immigration this year.
What to do now, by situation
Holding a permit granted at $100,000. Diarise the renewal for well before the deadline, keep the property, and do not let a gap open.
Bought under $150,000 and have not applied. Get an indicative assessed value first, then decide between adding a second property to bridge the gap or moving to a different route entirely. Do not file an application you already know falls short.
Buying now. Budget above $150,000 assessed, not at it, and get the indicative valuation before you sign anything.
Weighing property against investment. Compare on term and work rights, not only on capital. The investment route costs twice as much and answers a question the property route does not.
Key takeaways
- The threshold is $150,000 in assessed value from 1 March 2026, up from $100,000, a 50% rise in one step.
- Existing holders granted at $100,000 may keep renewing while they retain ownership of that specific property.
- What is protected is a permit already granted, not a purchase that was never converted into one.
- Whether a lapsed $100,000 permit can be reapplied for at the old threshold is unsettled in the legislation. Treat anyone confident about it with caution.
- The practical consequence of that uncertainty is simple: do not let a permit granted at the old threshold lapse.
- The threshold can be met across more than one property, which is often the cheapest fix for a purchase that now falls short.
- The $300,000 investment route, its five-year term and its labour permit exemption were unaffected.
Frequently asked questions
What is the property threshold for a Georgian residence permit?
$150,000 in assessed value, effective 1 March 2026. It was $100,000 before that date, so treat any lower figure as out of date. The value has to be certified by an assessor accredited through Georgia's Unified National Accreditation Body, which means your purchase price alone is not evidence of meeting it.
I got my Georgian residence permit at $100,000. Is it still valid?
Yes. Existing holders may continue to renew on the original basis while they retain ownership of the property the permit was granted on. Nothing about the change is retroactive, and you are not required to top the property up to $150,000 to carry on renewing it.
Can I reapply at $100,000 if my Georgian permit lapses?
This is genuinely unsettled and we will not guess at it. The legislation does not say whether a reapplication after a lapse is treated as a continuation at the old threshold or as a fresh application at $150,000. Both readings are arguable on the text, which is precisely why the safe course is not to let the permit lapse in the first place.
I bought property for $120,000 before March 2026 but never applied. Do I qualify?
Not on that property alone. The protection in the change is for permits already granted, not for purchases already made, so an application filed now is assessed against the current $150,000. Because the threshold can be met across more than one property, adding a second unit is usually cheaper than abandoning the route.
Does the $150,000 have to be one property in Georgia?
No. The threshold can be reached across two or more properties, provided each is owned by the applicant personally and each is valued by an accredited assessor. That is the standard fix for anyone left short by the rise, and two smaller units are often easier to let and to sell than one larger one.
Did the Georgian investment residence permit threshold change too?
No. The investment route remains at $300,000 with a five-year term and an exemption from the Special Labour Permit. Only the property threshold moved on 1 March 2026, which narrowed the gap in capital between the two routes from three times to two.
Why did Georgia raise the property threshold?
The change was made as part of the wider tightening of Georgian migration rules through 2025 and 2026, alongside the labour permit regime and the expansion of migration record-keeping. We do not attribute a stated policy rationale to it beyond what the instruments themselves contain, because the reasoning is not something to assert on a reader's behalf.
Does the property residence permit let me work in Georgia?
It carries no work authorisation of its own, and the threshold change did not alter that. A property permit confirms your right to live in Georgia and carries no exemption from the Special Labour Permit, so a Georgian employer hiring you needs one and billing Georgian clients as an Individual Entrepreneur needs one. Income from clients or an employer outside Georgia does not engage it.
What happens to my permit if I sell the qualifying property?
The basis for the permit goes with the property, whichever threshold it was granted under. For a holder on the old $100,000 figure this is worse than for anyone else, because the continuation depends on retaining that specific property, so selling forfeits a protected position as well as the permit.
How often do I have to renew a Georgian property residence permit?
Annually. The permit runs one year at a time and is renewable for as long as the qualifying ownership continues, which for holders on the old threshold makes every renewal the thing that keeps their position intact. Filing early rather than close to the deadline is the whole of the risk management here.
Could the threshold rise again?
We do not forecast thresholds, and any date or figure offered for a future change is speculation rather than law. What the last two years establish is that the figures do move and that they move with short notice, which is an argument for building headroom into a purchase rather than buying exactly at the line.
