Foreigners owning Georgian lands to face fines for not cultivating them

Foreign citizens or residents of Georgia, who own agricultural lands in Georgia but do not cultivate them, will be fined.

The sanctions against foreign owners of land plots will be launched only after they have not cultivated the land for three years in a row.

The legislative package drafted by the Parliament provides for an administrative fine - 500 GEL and 300 GEL for each another hectare of the plot, but no more than 20 000 GEL in total.

Non-fulfillment of the above-mentioned obligation in each following year shall result in the GEL 700 fine and 400 GEL for every other hectare, but no more than 30 000 GEL.

If the financial institution whose dominant partner is foreign or registered legal entity abroad, the property right is registered on agricultural land, it is obliged to alienate the agricultural land plot within two years after the enactment of the law.

In case of non-fulfillment of the above-mentioned obligation, a 500 GEL fine will be imposed for up to 1 ha land, with additional 300 GEL fine per each other housing plot, but not more than 50,000 GEL in total.

If the mentioned obligations are not fulfilled, the violators will have to pay GEL 700 fine each year per up to 1 ha land plot and additional GEL 400 for every other plot.

In June 2017, the Parliament of Georgia adopted a legislative amendment that placed a moratorium on the sale of agricultural land to foreign citizens and stateless persons. Under the amendments, foreigners, legal entities registered abroad and legal entities registered by foreigners in Georgia were not able to purchase agricultural land in Georgia.

The ban was included in the new draft constitution on the initiative of 116 MPs from the ruling Georgian Dream party in 2017.

The new constitution, activated after the country elected its 5th president in November, says that agricultural land is a ‘resource of exceptional significance’ and can be owned only by ‘the state, a self-governing entity, a citizen of Georgia, or a union of Georgian citizens’. It says exceptions can be made by adopting organic laws.