How (and how much it costs) to renovate an apartment in Georgia

We have repeatedly written that low taxes, minimal bureaucracy, and high real estate yields (up to 8% per annum) make Georgia a great place to live and invest. But whether you are buying a home for yourself, to rent out, or for resale, you will almost certainly have to deal with renovations.

Why you’ll need to do some renovations

The main reason is that about two-thirds of the apartments sold in new buildings in Georgia are so-called Black Frame (a raw, unfinished state where the main construction is complete but all interior systems and finishes are absent) or White Frame (an unfinished new-build property where the main structural work is complete, but finishing touches are left to the buyer). In Black Frame, there is almost nothing in the apartment except the groundwork for plumbing and electricity, and in White Frame, builders will have put up plaster, installed partitions, and done some other preparatory work, but finishing the job will be up to you.

You can also find some Green Frame apartments (a pre-finished apartment that is ready for cosmetic work and furnishings) in Georgia, but whether or not you actually want to buy one is a difficult question, because they generally cost 30% more. According to Geostat, a square meter of Green Frame in the third quarter of 2025 would set you back USD 1,600 (as opposed to the USD 1,200-1,300 of Black and White Frames). And besides the fact you might not like the style of the finished apartment, the quality of the renovations can mean you have to redo it anyway.

If you buy a home in Georgia on the secondary market, count on renovations. Global Property Guide identifies 80% of Tbilisi’s housing stock as pre-1991, and that means capital investments.

How much it costs to renovate an apartment in Georgia

On average, so-called “turnkey” apartment renovations worth their salt in Tbilisi or Batumi will clock in at around USD 20,000 and could well reach USD 100,000 or more. These will include:

A floorplan: from USD 10 to 50 per square meter
A team of renovators: from USD 100 to 500 per square meter. The figure depends on the skill of the workers and the complexity of the work. For USD 100, for example, you shouldn’t expect more than cosmetic repairs. For major upgrades and work on utilities, the price will only rise
An actual blueprint and materials: could be included in the cost of work or may need to be considered separately. And then, what kind of materials do you want? Chinese plywood or American walnut?
Household appliances and furniture: from budget solutions for a couple thousand to the cutting-edge for tens of thousands

Obviously, the bigger the apartment, the more expensive the renovation. Speed will also affect the final cost, i.e., if you want speed, you will have to pay extra for it. A typical apartment renovation in Georgia takes about six months but can take up to a year.

Most of the materials for a rough finish are produced in the country and so not very expensive. Furniture and appliances, on the other hand, are mostly imported, and some common places of origin include Turkey, China, Italy, Germany, and Poland.

According to the 30% rule, keeping costs for renovation below a third of the value of the apartment will help prevent overinvesting and ensure an acceptable return on your asset. It’s a good rule for Georgia, so you’ll want to apply it and make sure you’ve come to an understanding with your team before getting started. A good specialist can help you save money without compromising on the final result.

How to find a reliable contractor in Georgia

Galt & Taggart values the market for building materials and renovations in Georgia at USD 5.7 billion, and estimates growth to be 19.2% annually, so it’s safe to say the number of crews working in major cities is considerable. You can find ads for them on portals like Prof.ge, MrMaster, Worker, and all over Facebook, the most popular social network in Georgia.

You don’t need a license to work in the field, so theoretically you never know what you’re getting, even if you turn to a specialized agency. You’ll want to pay attention to:

Reputation. Find reviews of the team or company in social networks to filter out bad actors.
Portfolios. Real before and after pictures can give you a general idea of the quality of the help you’re enlisting.
Experience and qualifications. Find out how long they’ve been in the market, whether they have their own electricians, plumbers, painters.
Specialization. Do they work on new buildings only? Have they worked on old housing stock?
Legal status and official registration. An IE or LLC means they work officially, pay taxes, and comply with the law.

The final sign of a reliable craftsman is a willingness to sign a written contract. Good ol’ boys stick to their word, but in Georgia, that won’t protect you or your contractor from potential problems. In case of an emergency, you will not be able to prove in court (if it comes to that) that they failed to fulfill a promise or did their job badly. It also increases the chances of the renovations going over budget.

What to include in a renovation contract

There is no universal contract template, every case is different, and if the renovations are complicated, it makes sense to conclude separate contracts for each of the services (for the blueprint, the rough finish, the interior decorating, etc.). Then you know who’s responsible for what.

A renovation contract should definitely:

Identify the parties: who is who.
Include the address of the apartment and what exactly you want. For example: plastering, electrical, plumbing, tiling of 60 sq.m. Describe the services in detail. You are legally obliging the worker to do a specific job in a specific way.
Specify the time frame for completion with a start and end date (time frames can be expressed in hours, but a start date is still required). If there are multiple jobs happening, specify the deadlines for each.
Spell out the order of purchase of materials and who buys what. You can specify the kind of cement, tiles, sockets, and laminate you want and how much and oblige the contractor to provide receipts and/or certificates.
Include the total cost of work with a detailed breakdown of all services in an estimate as an annex to the contract. This will protect you from price increases, especially if you spell out in the text that changes in cost require your prior written consent. This will also make it easier to refuse services in the future (in case of work of poor quality, for example).
Specify the order of payment by cash or bank transfer. For cash, you’ll want to get a receipt. With a bank transfer, you’ll have a record of payment. You should also specify the term (payment schedule) and the amount of the advance, if there is one. More than 30% of the total amount would be too much for an advance.
Clarify the order and stages of acceptance. You should state that the work will be considered complete only after you’ve put your John Hancock on the acceptance certificate, and it would be wise to sign for each service – plastering walls, flooring, tiles – separately on the basis of individual criteria. In the event of defects, they should be fixed in writing in annexes to the contract.
Provide for liability in case deadlines are not met. You can demand a penalty, for example: 0.1% of the price for each day of delay.
Provide for liability in case of poor quality. Here, too, you can specify a fine, have them redo the work, or oblige the contractor to reimburse you for the cost of repairs if you have to make other arrangements.
Specify the period during which the contractor must correct any poor work.

These are just a few examples of things you should include in your contract. You could also add annexes with photos of the results, a work plan, and drawings, something for force majeure and situations that cannot be foreseen at the design stage and which may require additional costs. Finally, for the contract to have legal force, it must be registered with a notary.

How PB Services can help you

PB Services is acquainted with the finer points of what doing renovations in Georgia entails and can save you money, develop a personalized contract, and if necessary, help resolve disputes arising in the renovations process and defend your interests in court.

Our subsidiary, PB Property, can also help you with turnkey real estate by:

Finding the real estate most suited to your needs at a fair price
Processing the purchase of real estate and registering the title
Carrying out renovations for you to live in yourself or rent out and ensuring the finished product looks the way you want and has all the necessary utilities, put in safely and up to standard

The professionals we work with have proven qualifications and extensive portfolios, sign a contract, and provide you with reports every step of the way.

If you are renovating a rental property in Georgia, we can also take care of the property management, from listing and finding guests to keeping the property clean, just further insurance against poor quality work we would have to deal with the consequences of down the road.