TBILISI, November 6 – Georgia’s ambitious state program to register all agricultural land continues to struggle, with legal experts warning that widespread irregularities and fraudulent claims could spark years of property disputes.
The nationwide land registration process, launched several years ago to clarify ownership and reduce rural conflict, has repeatedly missed its deadlines. Under the latest extension, the government had set January 1, 2026, as the final completion date. But according to lawyer Otar Kachkachashvili, founder of the legal firm OK & CG, that target now appears increasingly unrealistic.
“The deadline has already been extended several times,” Kachkachashvili told BPN. “Given the problems that persist, it is absolutely logical to expect another postponement, since the goals defined by law have still not been achieved.”
Kachkachashvili said the registration process has been plagued by loopholes that allow individuals to falsely validate each other’s property claims, in some cases resulting in the illegal privatization of state or third-party land. “Unfortunately, there are cases where people mutually confirm ownership rights for one another, and this leads to the appropriation of property belonging to others or even to the state,” he said.
Such practices, he warned, are not limited to farmland. Some illegally registered plots lie within forested or protected areas where private ownership is not permitted under Georgian law. “In the future, these cases could become the basis for legal proceedings,” Kachkachashvili added.
The current verification system, designed to streamline the process and compensate for the lack of official documentation, has inadvertently created opportunities for abuse. Under this so-called “mutual confirmation” method, two or three people can verify each other’s ownership of a parcel of land, allowing it to be registered in the Public Registry without comprehensive state verification.
“This scheme often results in real owners losing their property,” Kachkachashvili said. “If two or three people decide to confirm ownership, that property can be registered in their name, leading to court cases and suspended registrations. This may explain why many parcels remain unregistered.”
Land registration has long been a politically sensitive issue in Georgia, where incomplete cadastral data, overlapping claims, and inconsistent boundaries have left large parts of rural territory in legal limbo.
