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Tbilisi remains Georgia’s dominant centre for starting new projects, but Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Kakheti stand out on the map of completed buildings. The distinction matters: “where construction is fastest” cannot be answered with a single number. A permit signals a project entering the pipeline; commissioning marks an asset becoming usable.

Two different leaders

Georgia issued 5,391 construction permits in January–June 2026. Almost every second permit-49.2%-was in Tbilisi. This corresponds to roughly 2,652 permits, although that number is an estimate derived from the published regional share rather than a separately reported exact count. By the scale of new project starts, the capital has no close rival.

The completion map looks different. Of 1,459 objects commissioned during the same period, 31.9% were in Tbilisi, 15.1% in Mtskheta-Mtianeti, 12.1% in Kakheti and 10.0% in Kvemo Kartli. If speed is understood as the present intensity with which earlier projects are entering use, Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Kakheti show the strongest regional signal.

Note: The shares refer to numbers of objects, not floor area, investment value or apartments. Gaps are measured in percentage points.

Why this is not a construction stopwatch

Mtskheta-Mtianeti’s completion share exceeds its permit share by 8.6 percentage points; Kakheti’s gap is 4.8 points. This is strong evidence that projects initiated in earlier periods are now moving into use in comparatively large numbers. It does not prove that an individual building is completed faster there than in Tbilisi.

Permits and completions are different project flows. Many objects completed in the first half of 2026 may have been permitted in 2025 or earlier. A private house and a large mixed-use complex each count as one object. The comparison is therefore a useful indicator of construction phase, not a measure of average project duration.

Why Mtskheta-Mtianeti stands out

Mtskheta-Mtianeti’s 15.1% share of completed objects is the country’s highest after Tbilisi, while it accounts for only 6.5% of permits. The gap may reflect residential expansion around the capital and Mtskheta municipality, shorter cycles for houses and smaller buildings, or a backlog of earlier permits reaching completion. Without municipal, building-type and floor-area detail, none of these explanations can be treated as confirmed.

The economic consequence extends beyond housing. Completed buildings raise demand for roads, water, electricity, schools, public services and retail infrastructure. Completion intensity helps indicate where public infrastructure must catch up with private construction.

Kakheti’s different dynamic

Kakheti’s 12.1% share of completions also clearly exceeds its 7.3% share of permits. Housing may be joined here by hotels, agricultural buildings and commercial assets. The official national release confirms that these diverse uses are included, but does not separate them at regional level.

According to BTU researchers, the high completion shares in Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Kakheti support a finding of a new regional concentration of assets entering use-not yet a proven construction boom. For businesses, demand can now shift from building materials toward furniture, appliances, logistics, maintenance, food, tourism and local services.

Tbilisi starts quickly, but may build for longer

Tbilisi’s 49.2% share of permits and 31.9% share of completions do not establish delay without evidence on project types and timelines. A larger presence of multi-apartment and mixed-use developments can naturally mean longer construction cycles. Object counts may also understate the capital’s investment scale because one large complex carries the same unit count as a small building.

Adjara’s 7.6% share of permits is also well above its 3.4% share of completions. This may be consistent with longer projects or a build-up of recent starts, but the figures alone prove neither delay nor oversupply. Floor area, sales, prices, project status and municipal detail must be analysed together.

National pace: more permitted space, fewer completions

Nationally, permit numbers fell 0.6% year on year, while permitted floor area rose 1.7% to 5.276 million square metres. Average permitted area was approximately 979 square metres, compared with about 957 square metres a year earlier, pointing to a modest increase in average project size.

The number of commissioned objects declined by 5.3%, and their completed floor area by 3.6%. Average completed area was roughly 1,060 square metres. Permitted area was 3.4 times completed area, but this is not a direct future-supply coefficient. The National Bank of Georgia has observed that increased permits for multi-apartment construction in earlier years kept supply elevated while demand normalised as the migration effect faded.

What this means for decisions

Developers should not select a region using permit counts alone. Rapid growth in completions can create demand for services, but it can also intensify competition among newly supplied properties. For buyers, a high completion share expands choice, although construction quality, infrastructure and actual occupancy remain critical. For government, the map is an early-warning instrument for infrastructure planning.

The most accurate answer today is therefore two-part: Georgia starts the most construction in Tbilisi, while the strongest movement on the current completion map is visible in Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Kakheti. Identifying where an individual project is genuinely built in the shortest time requires project-level links between permit and commissioning dates. Until then, the data shows direction of flow-not stopwatch speed.

Sources

1. National Statistics Office of Georgia – Construction Permits and Commissioned Objects, January–June 2026.
2. National Statistics Office of Georgia – Construction permits and commissioned objects data page.
3. National Bank of Georgia – Financial Stability Report 2025.

Data cut-off: 30 July 2026.