Rents in Georgia and Armenia rose by 20-30% year on year over the summer as Russians worried about a new wave of mobilisation for the war in Ukraine looked for homes in former Soviet states that do not require a visa. Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, has felt the strongest pressure, while Belarus is also drawing more Russian tenants and buyers.
A two-room flat in Yerevan now rents for €800-900 a month. Demand there comes from Russians and from Armenians who had been living in Russia and want to avoid being called up. Armenia’s Cadastre Committee says apartment prices in the city rose 2.9% between July and August and 23.5% on a year earlier. Russian nationals carry out about 72% of property deals by foreigners in Armenia. In August, foreign citizens made 506 purchases and sales across the country, 7.6% of all transactions, and 177 of those purchases were in Yerevan. Russians can stay without a visa for up to 180 days a year. Leases registered with the Cadastre now carry a 10% tax, which landlords usually pass on to tenants. The average monthly wage is 320,763 dram, about €790.
Georgia remains the easiest destination. Russian citizens can stay for up to 360 days without a visa and reset that period with a short trip to a neighbouring country, and tens of thousands now live there. Standard flats in Tbilisi start at €450-730 a month, while larger or upmarket homes cost €910-2,700 or more, against an average monthly wage of about 2,165 lari, or roughly €750. Georgian rents peaked in the summer and have since levelled off. The sharpest rises came in 2022 and 2023, when rents jumped 60-70% after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Russian buying in Georgia has also cooled. Russians made up more than 55% of property deals involving foreign buyers in 2023, but that share has since fallen by a third. In 2026, Georgians accounted for 76% of deals in Tbilisi’s new-build market, Israelis for 11% and Russians for 3%, according to investment bank Galt & Taggart.
In Belarus, Russians at first passed through on their way elsewhere but have started to stay longer as European borders remain closed to them. Rental demand jumped in Minsk, Brest and Gomel after Vladimir Putin announced partial mobilisation in September 2022, one of the two largest waves of Russian emigration since the invasion. Russians now account for more than 10% of property deals in Belarus, up from 2% a year earlier, according to the National Cadastral Agency. Their demand for homes in Minsk rose 10-15% this year, and the price per square metre in the city climbed 25.6%.
