---
title: "Off-Plan Property Purchase"
url: "https://legal.ge/en/service/real-estate-law-en/off-plan-property-purchase-en"
field: "Real Estate Law"
description: "Оff-plan property purchase: Articles 11, 12, 13 and 15 — preliminary registration, priority of rights and ownership registration. Legal.ge."
reviewed: "2026-07-09"
updated: "2026-10-15"
publisher: "legal.ge"
---

# Off-Plan Property Purchase

> Source: legal.ge, https://legal.ge/en/service/real-estate-law-en/off-plan-property-purchase-en

## Off-Plan Property Purchase — Preliminary Registration as a Protective Mechanism

Buying an apartment off-plan is one of the riskiest transactions on the property market — and at the same time one that must be well protected: the buyer pays for an object that does not yet exist. Precisely for this reason the law on the public registry gives this transaction a special instrument — the preliminary registration of a right to immovable property. This page explains how this mechanism works, which rights it can protect, how priority is resolved and how ownership of an under-construction object is registered.

The off-plan buyer's two principal dangers are a repeated sale of the same object by the developer and the discovery of a bank mortgage or other encumbrance after completion. Both risks are reduced precisely by registration recorded in the registry, and the norms providing this protection are set out below.

The full text is available on legal.ge after signing in: https://legal.ge/en/service/real-estate-law-en/off-plan-property-purchase-en

### How to protect oneself when buying off-plan?

Through preliminary registration: on the basis of the parties' contract the future right is fixed in the registry, blocking the registration of other rights on the same property.

### What is the role of priority?

Of mutually exclusive rights the earlier-submitted one is registered — so the buyer's early registration blocks later transactions.

### Does a mortgage pass to the new owner?

Yes — data registered on such rights as mortgages pass unchanged to the new owner save for cases determined by legislation, so studying the extract is indispensable.

### When is the apartment fully registered?

Ownership of the under-construction building is registered with construction documentation, upon completion with the fitness document; disposal of a unit is permissible after its registration as a separate object.