A real estate company "Sotheby's International Realty" starts operating in Georgia and is interested in the Georgian market of expensive and luxury housing. 

According to President  of the Israel -Georgia Chamber of Business , the company’s  office will be opened in Tbilisi in the near future.

 "This is a company of a very high level, its representation probably will not be very large, but Georgia is already in the company's offerings. There are many  citizens of Israel who are interested in real estate in Tbilisi and Batumi, so "Sotheby's International Realty" has decided to work in Georgia "- he said.

 The international network of real estate agencies "Sotheby’s International Realty" was created in 1976 as an auction house "Sotheby’s"  department and  has 688 offices around the world.

However, the Georgian realtors’ relation to the new player is ambiguous. 

According to President of the  Georgian Real Estate Association Alexander Japaridze, "Sotheby's International Realty" will not be able to provide real competition to the local agencies, including the Association, which has an extensive database of real estate in the country. 

"Our  Association includes approximately 300 realtors, they have acquaintances, the right connections, contacts, experience, respectively, the company  will not be able to win a significant segment in this market. Perhaps the company will successfully work with foreigners wishing to buy property in Georgia, it's quite real. But  it will not be able to occupy  a large segment in the domestic market. To establish itself in the market, the company will have to operate at a loss, to spend big money to hire employees, pay wages, etc. In any case, it will have problems with selling. In Georgia, there is not  a lot of money, respectively, luxury housing is sold with difficulty. Even Georgian realtors, who have right connections and contacts, have to work very hard to sell this type of property. Especially the new company will not cope with this, "- Alexander Japaridze notes.

 According to the CEO of the agency "Beruka" Avtandil Gugeshashvili, a large foreign company can absorb the entire real estate market only if it spends very large funds. 

"The demand for luxury housing is decreasing  from year to year due to lower income levels," - he adds.

Souce:commersant.ge