Paying for an apartment through the buyer's bank account: Uzbekistan's cashless rule since 1 April 2026

In Uzbekistan, apartments have had to be paid for through a bank since 1 April 2026 (lex.uz, 23 Sep 2026). The buyer puts the money into their own account, the notary sees it in the system and certifies the contract, and the bank pays the seller the same day. For a median Tashkent apartment at $90,000, that means about a billion soums sitting in the account (UyScan data as of 28 September 2026).

The notary, the licensed official who certifies the sale contract, is now also the checkpoint for the money.

Can you still pay cash for an apartment?

Not to the seller. Handing over a stack of banknotes is no longer allowed: since 1 April 2026 homes have been paid for only through a bank, resale and new builds alike. Cash itself is not banned, though. You can bring it to your bank and deposit it into the buyer's account, since the regulation allows topping it up in cash or by transfer.

There is no minimum amount for housing. For other goods and services the decree requires non-cash payment only above a certain value, while the sale and purchase of real estate is listed separately, with no threshold at all. So every apartment goes through the bank, down to the cheapest one in the UyScan sample at $12,500.

Why the change? Tax officials saw that prices in contracts were understated, and the shadow sector in construction was estimated at 41% (spot.uz, 23 Sep 2026). When the money moves through a bank, both the bank and the notary see the real amount.

If you are not a citizen of Uzbekistan, separate rules decide what property you can buy in the first place: see Can a foreigner buy an apartment in Uzbekistan? This article only covers how the money moves once you can.

How does the buyer's account work, step by step?

Once the notary certifies the contract, the seller is paid the same day (gazeta.uz, 27 Sep 2026), or on the next business day if the notary's data reaches the bank after hours. The procedure is set out in a regulation the Ministry of Justice registered on 16 March 2026 (gazeta.uz, 27 Sep 2026).

Locally this is often called an escrow account, but unlike classic escrow, no third party holds the money: it stays in the buyer's own account, which can even be an existing card account, until the notary certifies the deal and the bank sends it on.

Based on the regulation registered by the Ministry of Justice on 16 March 2026 and explanations by the Central Bank and the Ministry of Justice as reported by gazeta.uz on 17 and 28 March 2026.

Deposits are made in the national currency (gazeta.uz, 27 Sep 2026), the soum (UZS), while UyScan shows apartment prices in US dollars. The median Tashkent apartment costs $90,000, a two-room one $76,000. In Tashkent listings the living room counts as a room, so a two-room apartment usually has one bedroom. At the Central Bank rate of 11,825.4 soums per dollar on 26 Sep 2026, the median apartment comes to about a billion soums. Prices by number of rooms:

Data as of 28 Sep 2026, listings: 28,842

Rooms	Listings	Median price	Median per m²	Median area
1 room	3,832	$52,500	$1,458	36 m²
2 rooms	10,363	$76,000	$1,431	55 m²
3 rooms	9,284	$103,999	$1,382	75 m²
4 or more	5,358	$135,000	$1,316	105 m²
Whole city	28,842	$90,000	$1,400	65 m²

What if the account is short on the day of the deal?

Then there is no deal that day: if the money is not in the account or the account is closed, the notary is entitled to refuse to certify the contract. With deferred payment the account must hold at least the agreed down payment, and the rest is paid on the contract's terms.

A shortfall most often comes from the exchange rate. On about a billion soums, even a one percent move in the rate is millions of soums. If your savings are in dollars or euros, fix the amount in soums in the contract and deposit it in full ahead of time rather than recalculating on the day of the deal.

If the deal is cancelled, the money in the account goes back to the buyer, according to the Central Bank and the Ministry of Justice.

Does the rule cover new builds and off-plan purchases?

The cashless rule covers the primary market too, but the buyer's account does not: the regulation does not apply to investment agreements in housing construction, which is how apartments are sold off-plan. Locals call this buying "on the kotlovan", the foundation pit. New builds make up 48% of sale listings in Tashkent, 13,877 apartments as of 28 Sep 2026, and a listing does not always make clear whether it sells a finished apartment or an agreement with the developer. Ask before you pay any deposit.

The cashless decree covers the sale and purchase of real estate with no exception for new builds, so under an investment agreement you pay the developer by bank transfer to the company account named in the agreement. Handing cash to a "staff member" is especially risky here. In late April 2026, after the switch to cashless, a buyer in Yunusabad district handed over $70,000 (upl.uz, 27 Sep 2026) this way, and in July it turned out the developer's system had no record of the payment. How to check payment details and which payment papers to keep is covered in our guide to paying a developer.

The exception covers investment agreements only. A finished apartment signed over at a notary under a sale and purchase agreement is, as a general rule, paid through the buyer's account even when the developer itself is selling. Check with the notary how it works in your case.

Do not confuse the buyer's account with escrow for shared construction, where people buy into a building before it is finished. That is a different mechanism, proposed in the draft law on shared construction, and in July 2026 it passed only its first reading. New-build prices by district are on the Tashkent new builds page, and how much more a square meter costs there than in resale is worked out in New build or resale.

What changed in the market after 1 April?

Deals nearly halved compared with March. According to the Center for Economic Research and Reforms (CERR), a government think tank, 23.3 thousand (gazeta.uz, 27 Sep 2026) home deals were signed in April against a record 43.6 thousand (gazeta.uz, 27 Sep 2026) a month earlier. The March record came from the switch itself: CERR explained the jump by buyers and sellers closing some of their April deals early, under the old rules.

The monthly series, the Central Bank's figures and why they differ from CERR's are in How many apartments are sold in Uzbekistan. What the cashless rule will do to prices is still unclear: in July the Central Bank wrote that research offers no single estimate of how escrow accounts affect housing prices.

Our listing history starts on 28 August 2026, so we cannot compare listings before and after 1 April. Cash has not left the listing texts, though: as of 28 September 2026, 1.2% (UyScan data as of 26 Sep 2026, listings: 28,902) of sale listings mention it. Nearly half of those also mention a mortgage, loan, installment plan or bank. Judging by the texts, "cash only" from a seller means "full payment up front, no mortgage". That changes nothing about the procedure: such a payment still goes through the buyer's account.

What should you ask the bank and the notary?

Ask the bank and the notary these questions before the day of the deal, while the money is not yet in the account. The bank charges for the service, and private banks set their own fees, so find out the price in advance. Ask the bank:

• whether the escrow account can be opened in the app, or a card account used;
• how much the service costs and which party pays;
• at what rate it will buy your dollars if your money is in foreign currency;
• if you are not a resident of Uzbekistan, whether it opens this kind of account for you and which documents it needs.

Ask the notary:

• which documents the seller must bring and which bank the money will go to;
• how the account will be checked and what happens if the deal has to be moved to another day.

The whole path from viewing to registration in the cadastre, the state property register, is in Buying an apartment in Tashkent in 10 steps, and short answers are in the FAQ. District medians are on the apartment prices page, and the UyScan bot sends new listings that match your filter.

How we counted. The legal part is based on the cashless decree on lex.uz, the regulation the Ministry of Justice registered on 16 March 2026, and explanations by the Central Bank and the Ministry of Justice as reported by gazeta.uz and spot.uz; check dates are in the Sources block. Prices are UyScan asking-price medians as of 28 September 2026, not transaction prices, from a sample of 28,842 apartments in 11 districts (Yangihayot excluded). We searched listing texts for the Russian and Uzbek words for cash and checked the matches by eye. More in the methodology.