Guide · Georgia and Armenia · property buyers

Is this developer safe? Check it before you pay a deposit

The apartment is still a render or a concrete frame in Tbilisi, Batumi or Yerevan, and the sales office wants a deposit. Before you sign, spend an evening with the public records: who the developer company is, who owns the land, whether a bank holds a mortgage on it, and whether the city permitted the building you are being sold. This guide is the order to do it in, and most of it is free.

By Soso Pkhakadze · published 14 Sep 2026 · portals and fees checked live on 14 Sep 2026 unless a line says otherwise · Disclosure: I sell company reports on Fiverr, named at the top and near the end. Every step above that works without it. This is not legal advice; for the contract itself, hire a local lawyer who works for you, not for the seller.

Buying soon? I check the developer company in the official register and send an English PDF within a day: $35 developer check, $90 with the official Georgian extract. See the packages on Fiverr → (sold by the author)

Two halvesDeveloper in GeorgiaDeveloper in ArmeniaPlot and mortgage, GeorgiaPermits, Tbilisi and BatumiCadastre and permits, ArmeniaWhat the law protectsRed flagsFree or paid

Start here

A developer check has two halves

The company. The name on the billboard is a brand. The name on your contract is a legal entity with a registration date, a status, directors and owners, recorded in the business register: NAPR in Georgia, the State Register of Legal Entities in Armenia.

The property. The plot and, later, your apartment are records in the property registry: NAPR again in Georgia, the Cadastre Committee in Armenia. The building permit is a third record, held by the city.

A clean company on a plot it does not own is a problem. So is a clean plot owned by a company registered last month. Do both halves.

Scope

A company check is not a title check. Anything in this guide about the developer company, including the paid report named near the end, tells you about the company. It does not confirm who owns the plot or your future apartment, whether a mortgage or seizure is registered on it, or whether the permit is valid.

For that, use the official property record: the NAPR property extract in Georgia and the Cadastre Committee extract in Armenia, both described below.

Georgia, step one

Check the developer company in NAPR

Georgia's business register is free to search and needs no account. Our Georgian company guide walks through the portal screen by screen; here is the short version for a developer.

  1. Get the legal name and the 9 digit identification code from the contract, not from the brochure. A sales office that will not give you the code before you pay is giving you an answer.
  2. Search the code at enreg.reestri.gov.ge. The results row shows the name, the legal form (most developers are LLCs, შპს) and the status. Active is what you want; a registration suspended under article 254 usually means tax trouble.
  3. Open the detail view (a 3 digit image check stands in front of it) and read the registration date and the list of registry actions. Compare the date with when sales started and when the permit was issued.
  4. Order the extract if the money is serious. Founders, partners and their shares, directors, and sections for seizures, tax liens and the debtor registry are in the official extract. Online it costs 13 GEL for the next working day or 52 GEL the same day; an English version adds 26 GEL (NAPR fees). Our extract guide explains how to order it.
  5. Look at the partners' other companies. The register's search by person or company shows where a founder appears elsewhere. A new LLC for each project is normal; what you want is the group's track record, including earlier project companies that are liquidated or suspended.

Armenia, step one

Check the developer company in e-register.moj.am

The Ministry of Justice register is free, in English and needs no login to search. Our Armenian company guide covers it in depth; for a developer the essentials are these.

  1. Take the 8 digit tax ID from the contract and paste it into e-register.moj.am/en/search/companies. The search accepts a tax ID, a registration number or a name. Most companies are registered in Armenian script, so a Latin name search can miss or hit the wrong entity; the tax ID does not.
  2. Read the card: the status sentence, the registration date, the tax ID and the address. A card with an added restriction line deserves a direct question to the developer.
  3. Read the beneficial owner declarations. The card lists every declaration with its filing date; companies must file within 40 days of registration and confirm each year by 20 February (MB Legal). Our beneficial owners guide shows how to read one. A developer with no declaration years after registration is a question to ask.
  4. Check public contracts under the same tax ID at armeps.am. A construction company with years of state contracts has a verifiable history. No contracts proves nothing; most residential developers never build for the state.
  5. The extract with founders, participants and the charter costs AMD 3,000 online, but the service lists Armenian citizens as applicants (service page, read 13 Sep 2026). A foreign buyer can ask the developer to order it and send it.

Georgia, step two

Who owns the plot, and what is registered on it

Georgian property records are public. The Law on Public Registry defines access to information as "ensuring the freedom of viewing and issuance of information and documents retained at the Public Registry" (Law on Public Registry, Article 2). Everything hangs on the cadastral code.

  1. Ask for the cadastral code of the plot, a dotted number built from zone, sector, block and plot as printed on NAPR extracts. It belongs on the preliminary contract. If the seller will not give it, find the plot yourself on NAPR's map at maps.gov.ge.
  2. Order the property extract through the NAPR service "Preparation of an extract from the real estate register and a cadastral plan" on my.gov.ge, linked from NAPR's real estate registry page. NAPR's extract fee is 13 GEL for the next working day online, 52 GEL the same day, 26 GEL extra in English (NAPR fees). my.gov.ge needs an account; if you cannot open one, the extract is also issued at any Public Service Hall.
  3. Check the owner's section against the contract. The owner should be the developer company, or a landowner whose agreement with the developer you can see. If nobody can show you why the developer may build on the plot, stop.
  4. Read the mortgage and obligation sections. A bank mortgage on a development plot is common financing, but your contract has to say how your apartment is released from it. A seizure or injunction is different: find out why before paying anything.
Property Sectionzone, sector, block, plot; ownership type; designation; area
Owner's Sectionregistration date and the titling document; owners
Mortgagemortgage and tax lien, or "Not Registered"
Restricted Usageservitudes and similar rights
Obligationseizure or injunction; registry of debtors

Section headings of an English NAPR property extract (read on an official extract dated December 2023; not linked because it names a private owner). Its footer says authenticity can be verified through napr.gov.ge. An extract shows the record on the day it was prepared, so get a fresh one close to signing.

Georgia, step three

Is the building permitted: Tbilisi and Batumi

Ask the developer for the permit order: its number, its date and the issuing service. Then check it against what is being sold.

Armenia, steps two and three

The cadastre and the permit in Armenia

Plot and restrictions. The Cadastre Committee issues a property clearance extract on a real estate unit, other information on the rights and restrictions registered to it, and information on the availability of property belonging to the same entity. Applications can be submitted online at e-cadastre.am after registering, and the information service is paid (Cadastre Committee, information provision). That last service answers a useful question directly: does the developer company own the plot it is building on?

The permit in Yerevan. The municipality publishes a construction permissions map at yerevan.am/en/permits, marked beta. It filters by district, purpose, address and developer (Կառուցապատող), covers both construction permits and architectural planning assignments, and shows the permit number with its start and end dates. Search the developer's name in Armenian script as well as in Latin letters.

Outside Yerevan. Municipalities issue construction permits; since 1 January 2025 applications go only through the government platform urban.e-gov.am (Poghosyan Legal Consulting via Legal 500, 1 Dec 2025). The platform needs a national ID login, so ask the developer for the permit document and check it with the municipality.

The tax refund promise. If a sales office sells on Armenia's income tax refund for mortgage interest, check the permit date: authorities halted the scheme in Yerevan in 2025, but developers who received construction permits before 2022 can still sell apartments under it (JAMnews, 9 Apr 2026).

What the law protects

Where your payments are protected, and where they are not

Georgia. A Tbilisi law firm wrote in April 2025 that "Georgia lacks specific legislation regulating shared participation in construction", so off plan sales rest on the general Civil Code (Just Advisors, 15 Apr 2025). We did not find a developer or escrow law adopted in 2025 or 2026. If a salesperson says your payments are held in escrow by law, ask for the law's name and the account agreement. Otherwise your protection is the contract, the registry record and your own checks.

Armenia. The Civil Code has rules for developers' special accounts. According to a law firm summary, amendments in force since 15 October 2023 limit what a developer may take from the special account before the buyer registers ownership: from 1 January 2025, up to 50 percent, then more in proportion to completion up to 95 percent, and the last 5 percent within a year after registration if there are no defects (360 Business Law). A Ministry of Economy draft that would route advance payments only into the special account or an irrevocable letter of credit is listed as under discussion (e-draft.am project 5682, read 14 Sep 2026). We could not read the consolidated official Code, so ask the developer in writing which bank holds your project's special account, and have the contract name it.

Before you pay

Red flags and the check that catches each

These are patterns worth a question, not proof of fraud. Each one comes with the record that shows it.

The honest map

What is free, what is paid

One developer and one project, source by source (checked 13 and 14 Sep 2026)
QuestionGeorgiaArmenia
Does the company exist, is it active, how oldfree enreg.reestri.gov.gefree e-register.moj.am
Who owns the company13 GEL extractfree declarations; AMD 3,000 extract
Who owns the plot, mortgages, seizures13 GEL property extractpaid cadastre extract
Is the building permittedfree tas.ge; city hall in Batumifree yerevan.am permits map
Past projects delivered on timenot in any registernot in any register

Past delivery is the one question no register answers. Visit a building the same group finished and ask the owners there.

Our paid service

Want the company half done in English?

I read the Georgian or Armenian register record of the developer company and send you a plain English PDF within a day, from $15 on Fiverr. See the packages on Fiverr →

Disclosure: sold by the author of this guide. It covers the company only: status, legal form, registration date, and depending on the package, Armenian declared owners and public contracts, related Georgian companies, or the official Georgian extract with founders and shares ($90, two days). It does not cover the property title, mortgages on the plot, building permits or the contract, and it is not legal advice. Everything in it comes from public registers you can read yourself for free.

Sources

The pages this guide is built on