Rozita German

The theme about a possible sale of real estate of Abkhazia  to   foreign citizens  is not new in  the  Abkhaz society. It is discussed on the sidelines of for more than a year. On the one hand, legally, no one can buy property in Abkhazia nowadays, not being a citizen. Not to mention the  land plots, which, in accordance with the law isnot for sale at all  a priori. On the other hand, it is not a secret that the real estate to foreign citizens nevertheless has been sold, and there are dubious schemes, including "buying" of a  passport of the citizen of  Abkhazia. Same thing with the land. Since the early 2000s until 2010 the real estate market flourished in Abkhazia.  Dozens of agencies opened.

 "Foreign citizens" due to the interest of whose many residents of Abkhazia significantly improved their financial position - are overwhelmingly Russian citizens. From the moment when friendship between Abkhazia and Russia has become increasingly stronger, talks about the possibility of opening the Abkhazian real estate market began to appear more often. After Russia's recognition of Abkhazia in 2008, such a prospect seemed quite obvious. In recent years,  in Sukhum  there were built several luxury high-rise buildings,  in which there are a lot od appartments yet not sold. However, not everything is so simple. After the war with Georgia, in 1992-1993 Abkhazia introduced the existing law to protect the public from improper neighbours.  The perspective to turn again into a minority in their own country -   is still  of the basic arguments against the repeal of the law. But if not connect to the possibility of buying real estate in Abkhazia to citizenship, there are still serious questions. And these questions have been sounded in the Facebook page of  the member of the  parliament of Abkhazia Aslan Kobakhia. So he responded to the official statement that President Alexander Ankvab instructed the government to draft a law allowing the sale of real estate in Abkhazia to foreign nationals. This is the context in which we decided to make a discussion with the MP Aslan Kobakhia and the Economy Minister David Iradyan. As a public expert representative of the Public Chamber, head of the Association "Inva-Sodeijstvie " Alkhas Tkhagushev. 

It is interesting that none of the representatives of agencies after the crisis in Russia in recent years simply stopped working in the field of real estate sales, did not wish to comment on the situation for the introductory plot. At the same time they requested to note that the way out of the crisis in the real estate industry they consider the sale of housing to foreign nationals without having to get Abkhazian citizenship. This discussion will be interesting to those who really want to understand why in Abkhazia so afraid to sell real estate "not to theirs."