Aslan Bzhania, the self-proclaimed President of Abkhazia, has stated his willingness to legalise the selling of residential real estate to Russian citizens. For decades, only Abkhazian people held the right to sell and buy residential property in Abkhazia.

During a visit to the Tkuarchal region, Bzhania stated that selling houses and flats to Russian people may boost investment and population growth in Abkhazia as a whole, and in the poor Tkuarchal district in particular.

“It shouldn't be about obtaining political or citizenship rights. This is an economic issue,” the Abkhazian president stated, adding that Abkhazia 'needs people' and 'specialists' who will not only work but also buy Abkhazian items created and cultivated locally.

The legalisation of the selling of property in Abkhazia to non-citizens of the republic has been discussed frequently in recent years, but no actual actions have been done in this regard.

In 2015, then-MP Sergei Shamba sought to bring up for debate a draft bill allowing Russians to buy property in Abkhazia. Other MPs were outraged by the paper.

Another MP Almas Japua threatened to resign if his colleagues did not support a proposal to adopt a moratorium on the sale of real estate to foreign citizens. No such moratorium passed, as what it would have prohibited was already illegal.  Meanwhile, Shamba withdrew his initial draft bill.

Despite the prohibition on foreign citizens purchasing real estate, some have managed to get around the limitations to some extent. Astamur Tania, an Abkhazia-based political scientist, told in an interview with Chegemskaya Pravda that, in his opinion, the topic of legalising the sale of real estate to Russian residents has become a political weapon to be wielded between the administration and the opposition. As a result, reasonable debate of the subject, particularly of potential economic consequences, is out of the question.