There is a single public database that decides who owns every square meter of Georgia, what debts are attached to it, and whether the person selling you an apartment has any right to do so. It is called NAPR, the National Agency of Public Registry, and learning to read it is the one skill that separates protected buyers from lucky ones.
This is the practical guide: what NAPR is, what its records actually show, how to check a property yourself, and what each red flag means.
What NAPR is and why you can trust it
NAPR is Georgia's state registry for immovable property, rebuilt in the 2000s as part of the country's anti-corruption overhaul. Every apartment, house, and land parcel has a cadastral code, a unique identifier, and a registry record listing the current owner, the legal basis of their ownership, and every registered encumbrance: mortgages, liens, court injunctions, tax seizures.
Two properties of the system matter enormously for buyers. First, registration is what creates ownership in Georgia; a sale is legally complete when NAPR says so, not when money moves. Second, the register is public. Anyone can look up any property. There is no privileged access that a seller has and you lack.
What the record shows you
Pull the extract for a property and you are reading five things:
- The registered owner. A name (or company) that must match the person selling. Not their cousin, not "the developer's partner", not someone with a story. If the names differ, either there is a power of attorney you need to verify, or you walk away.
- The legal basis. How the owner acquired the property: purchase, inheritance, privatization, court decision. Recent transfers in quick succession deserve extra attention.
- Mortgages. A registered mortgage means a bank or lender has a claim. It does not necessarily kill the deal, mortgages are routinely repaid at closing, but it must be handled explicitly in the contract, never discovered afterwards.
- Liens and injunctions. Court orders, tax authority seizures, and litigation flags. Any of these freezes a safe purchase until resolved. No exceptions worth making.
- The property's physical registration. Area, address, and boundaries. The apartment you are shown should match the apartment on record, including that terrace or attic room the seller mentions casually.
How to run the check yourself
The registry is accessible online, and extracts can be ordered for a small fee, though the interface assumes Georgian. In person, any Public Service Hall will produce an extract quickly. Most foreign buyers route the check through a lawyer, which works but adds days and cost per property, painful when you are comparing five listings.