In Abkhazia, the new law on the cadastre has been suspended
At an extraordinary session held on 10 December, the parliament of Abkhazia decided to postpone the implementation of the recently adopted law on the cadastre for six months, citing deep systemic issues that have rendered it non-functional.
During the same session, lawmakers also discussed amendments to the law proposed by the president’s administration.
The law on real estate cadastre came into force on 1 October 2025 and was expected to bring a “revolution in property transactions.”
However, within the first few days, the Cadastre Chamber ran into numerous problems when attempting to register property deals.
According to the chamber’s head, Temur Sanguliya, district technical inventory offices are effectively sabotaging their work, 40% of Abkhazia’s population have no property documents at all, 25% have incorrectly prepared documents, and there is a catastrophic shortage of staff.
Former vice president of Abkhazia, Vitaly Gabnia, outlined what he sees as the core problem with the implementation of the cadastre law:
“The law began operating without the necessary subordinate regulations and basic organizational preparation, despite warnings from relevant specialists in advance.
Adopting a document of this scale required expert development and broad public discussion. None of that was done. The result is chaos in the real estate sector and widespread violations of citizens’ rights. Landmark laws should not be passed behind closed doors, as this undermines trust in state institutions.”
Gabnia also recalled that, immediately after the problems were identified, it was proposed to suspend the law and create a working group to revise it.
“However, the creation of the group was rejected, experts were once again not involved, and the full suspension was replaced with a ‘partial’ one. It is difficult to imagine the damage this could cause to the republic. Continuing down the wrong path is pointless. The problem is not with enforcement, but with the very substance of the law,” he said.
Toponyms, terminology, views and opinions expressed by the author are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of JAMnews or any employees thereof. JAMnews reserves the right to delete comments it considers to be offensive, inflammatory, threatening or otherwise unacceptable.
Law on cadastre in Abkhazia
