Somewhere in a spreadsheet right now, a landlord in London is watching 40 percent of rental profit disappear into tax, and a landlord in Tbilisi with a nearly identical apartment is paying 5 percent of gross and getting on with their day. Same job, same asset class, wildly different aftermath.
This is the complete guide to being the second landlord: how Georgia's 5 percent rental tax works, how to register for it, and how to run a rental here, long-term or short-term, without stepping on the few rakes that exist.
The headline rule
An individual who rents out residential property in Georgia and registers with the Revenue Service pays a flat 5 percent tax on gross rental income. No progressive brackets, no complicated deduction games. Rent times 0.05, declared and paid, done.
The catch, such as it is: the rate is conditional on registration. Skip the registration and the default 20 percent personal income tax applies to the same income. The registration is a straightforward online process with the Revenue Service, one time, and it moves you permanently onto the 5 percent regime for residential letting. There is no scenario where a compliant landlord should be paying 20.
Note the word residential. Commercial leases and business activity are taxed differently, and if your operation grows into something resembling a hotel business, different rules can apply. The standard case, one or several apartments let to tenants or guests, is squarely in 5 percent territory.
What this does to real returns
Gross yields in Georgia already run high: 7 to 10 percent on long-term lets in Tbilisi, more in a good short-term year in Batumi. The tax regime is why those gross numbers survive into net returns.
Concrete example. A Saburtalo two bedroom bought for 100,000 USD rents long-term at 750 USD a month, 9,000 a year. Georgian tax: 450 USD. Add utilities paid by the tenant, as is standard in long-term lets, and modest maintenance, and the owner nets in the high 7s as a percentage. Comparable numbers in Western Europe, after their tax stacks, commonly land near half that. The full national cost picture, purchase through sale, is itemized in our cost guide.
Long-term letting: the quiet machine
The long-term market in Tbilisi is deep and undramatic. Students, medical staff, IT workers, and remote workers absorb furnished one and two bedrooms near metro stations as fast as they list. Contracts are commonly one year, tenants pay utilities, and deposits of one month are standard.
What actually moves your return is unit selection, which is a district question, covered honestly in our Tbilisi districts guide, and furnishing quality, because the furnished-versus-bare rent gap in Tbilisi is wide relative to the cost of furnishing once.