Ureki magnetic-sand cottage

Ureki is a small resort village on Georgia's western Black Sea coast, best known for its unusual black magnetic sand — believed locally to have therapeutic properties for joint conditions, and the reason Georgian and Ukrainian summer visitors have returned to the same guesthouses for generations. This 60-square-metre brick cottage sits three hundred metres from the water on a quiet residential lane.

The layout is straightforward: two bedrooms, one bathroom, a small kitchen and a covered veranda facing a fenced garden of grape vines and fruit trees. Construction is post-Soviet brick with a corrugated roof; the property connects to grid electricity, mains water and gas.

Georgia has one of the friendliest foreign-buyer regimes in the world: non-Georgians can buy urban and residential property freely, on the same terms as citizens, without residency requirements. Closing at the notary takes days, not weeks. There is no annual property tax on properties owned by individuals below a very generous threshold. Prices on the Georgian Black Sea coast remain a fraction of anywhere in Mediterranean Europe.

The beach itself is long, wide and shallow — safe for children and popular with families. Batumi, Georgia's flashy Black Sea capital, is a forty-minute drive south with an international airport (BUS) and connections across Europe and the Gulf. The subtropical inland — Kakheti wine country and the Caucasus mountains — is a few hours by car.