Monthly rent for a two-room flat in Yerevan now reaches €800–900, up 23.5% from a year ago, as Russians worried about another round of mobilisation for the war in Ukraine search for somewhere to live. Across Georgia and Armenia, rents rose 20–30% year on year over the summer. Armenia’s average monthly pay is 320,763 dram (€790), so a flat can cost roughly a month’s wage.
In Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has written to all 27 EU leaders, urging a tougher response to illegal migration. The stories unfold far apart. Both concern people on the move—and who pays when they arrive.
Housing Under Pressure in the Caucasus
Georgia remains the easiest place for Russian citizens to land. They can stay up to 360 days without a visa, then reset the clock with a short trip to a neighbouring country. Tens of thousands now live there. After rents surged 60–70% following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Tbilisi prices have stabilised. Standard housing costs €450–730 a month; larger or higher-end flats run €910–2,700 or more. Georgia’s average nominal monthly wage stands at around 2,165 lari, roughly €750, according to the National Statistics Office.
Demand from Russians in Georgia has cooled. They accounted for more than 55% of foreign-buyer property transactions in 2023, but their share has since fallen by a third. Georgians made up 76% of transactions in Tbilisi’s primary housing market in 2026, according to investment bank Galt & Taggart. Israeli buyers took 11%, while Russians took 3%.
Armenia feels the pressure more sharply. Russians and Armenians who had lived in Russia and want to avoid mobilisation are concentrating mainly in Yerevan. Russian citizens can enter without a visa and stay up to 180 days a year. A 10% tax now applies when lease contracts are registered with the Cadastre, and landlords typically pass it on to tenants. Armenia’s Cadastre Committee reported that average flat prices in Yerevan apartment blocks rose 2.9% in August from July and 23.5% from a year earlier. Russian nationals account for around 72% of property transactions by foreign nationals. Of 506 foreign purchases nationwide in August, 177 took place in Yerevan.
Belarus Draws Longer-Term Residents
Belarus first served as a transit point for Russians, then became a place to settle. After Vladimir Putin announced partial mobilisation in September 2022, demand for short- and medium-term rentals surged in Minsk, Brest and Gomel. European borders have closed to Russians, and sanctions have tightened. Belarus now attracts longer-term residents and buyers. Russians can stay 90 days without registration, and a long-term rental contract qualifies them for a temporary residence permit. Unlike Russia, Belarus hasn’t imposed sweeping internet restrictions.
Russian buyers now account for more than 10% of property transactions in Belarus, up from 2% a year earlier, according to the National Cadastral Agency. Minsk’s housing price per square metre climbed 25.6% over the year. The two largest waves of emigration since the full-scale invasion came in 2022: first in February and March, then in September.
Brussels Pushes for Tougher Tools
Von der Leyen’s letter calls for an emergency response framework for cases where migration has been weaponised, expanded powers for the border agency Frontex, and a higher deportation rate. It followed a crisis in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta over the summer, when around 70,000 migrants arrived from Morocco.
“We must prevent such threats and make clear that we will never compromise the protection of our external borders: no state or non-state actor will be allowed to exploit our rules or our values to destabilise the Union,” she wrote. The letter was intended to inform a migration discussion scheduled for Friday, the second day of the European Council summit.
Why This Matters: Russia’s war continues to displace people, while neighbouring states with modest wages shoulder much of the housing cost. In Yerevan, a flat now costs roughly a month’s average pay. The Commission’s proposals, meanwhile, focus on border protection, Frontex powers and deportations. The letter’s text, as reported, doesn’t mention legal pathways or burden-sharing between member states. Those tools could ease pressure without relying on deterrence alone. Leaders meeting on Friday will decide whether the response to Ceuta stops at enforcement or also builds the shared, rules-based system that no single country can manage by itself.