Buying property in Turkey as a foreigner

SARDAG Law & Consultancy is an Istanbul law firm acting for foreign buyers of Turkish real estate. We act for the buyer and only the buyer: title and encumbrance checks, contract and deposit terms, valuation, currency conversion, Land Registry transfer, and where relevant the residence permit and citizenship application that follow.

Can foreigners buy property in Türkiye?

Yes. Most nationalities may acquire residential property, and there is no requirement to hold a residence permit first — ownership can in fact support an application for one, rather than the other way round.

The limits that do exist are worth knowing before you start looking:

• A small number of nationalities are restricted from acquiring Turkish real estate altogether. For those buyers the deposit, fund, bond or pension routes to citizenship remain open, but the property route does not.
• Property inside military or special security zones requires clearance, and that clearance is not always given.
• There is a cap on the total area a foreign individual may hold, both nationally and as a proportion of any given district. This rarely troubles apartment buyers and matters for land.
• Agricultural land carries its own conditions, including obligations about how it is used.

These are checked at the outset. Discovering a restriction after funds have moved is an expensive way to learn it.

The process, step by step

1. Define what the property is forLiving, letting, appreciation or citizenship. These lead to genuinely different properties, and a purchase that suits one may suit none of the others.
2. Instruct your own lawyerBefore viewings if possible, and certainly before any money moves.
3. Tax number and bank accountBoth in your own name. Required for the transfer and for the currency conversion.
4. Find and inspect the propertyPhysical inspection, not photographs. What a floor plan does not show: noise, light, the state of the building's common areas, and who actually lives there.
5. Preliminary agreement and depositTerms recorded in writing, including precisely what happens to the deposit if the purchase does not proceed and why.
6. Legal due diligenceThe stage that decides whether the purchase goes ahead at all. Covered in detail below.
7. Valuation reportBy a licensed valuation firm through the centralised system. Mandatory for foreign buyers.
8. Currency conversionFunds converted through a Turkish bank, with the certificate issued in the buyer's name, before transfer.
9. Title deed transferBoth parties attend, in person or by power of attorney. Title passes at the appointment and the new deed issues the same day.
10. After completionUtilities, compulsory earthquake insurance, tax registration, and letting or management if required.

Legal due diligence — what it must cover

"We checked the title" can mean a five-minute glance or a proper examination. What it should mean:

• The registered owner is the person selling. Not always the case, particularly where a property has passed through an unregistered inheritance, or is being sold under a power of attorney whose scope does not actually extend that far.
• Mortgages, liens, injunctions and annotations. Any charge recorded against the deed follows the property, not the seller. An undischarged mortgage becomes your problem the moment the deed changes hands.
• Occupancy permit. A building without one may be unlawful to occupy, which affects insurance, utilities, resale and valuation.
• Zoning and building records. Whether what is built matches what was permitted. Enclosed balconies, converted lofts and added floors are common and carry fine or demolition exposure.
• Urban transformation status. Whether the building is under a risk determination or regeneration decision — which changes everything about how long you can expect to hold it.
• Earthquake resilience. Age, construction type, whether the building has been retrofitted, and what the regulations applying at the time of construction required. In Istanbul this is not a technicality.
• Arrears. Outstanding building dues, property tax and utility debts attaching to the unit.
• Tenancy position. If occupied, the lease terms and whether vacant possession is actually deliverable. Turkish tenancy law protects tenants, and removing one is neither quick nor certain.

Sending money and paying

Funds must be brought into Türkiye and converted into lira through a Turkish bank, with a foreign currency purchase certificate issued in the buyer's own name before transfer. The sequence matters and so does the account: paying a seller from an account that is not yours — even a spouse's, even a company you own — creates a problem that is far easier to avoid than to unwind, and for a citizenship purchase it can be fatal to the file.

Details of the account itself are on our guide to opening a Turkish bank account as a foreigner.

Buying without visiting Türkiye

The entire purchase can be completed under a power of attorney executed at a Turkish consulate in your own country, or before a Turkish notary. It covers the tax number, the bank account, the transfer and the registration.

Two cautions. The document must be drafted for this specific transaction — a general one is often refused at the Land Registry, and one drafted too broadly is a risk to you rather than a convenience. And a power of attorney should authorise your lawyer to act, not hand control of your money to an intermediary. If anyone proposes to hold your banking credentials, stop there.

Costs and taxes

Item	Notes
Title deed transfer duty	Calculated on the declared value. Statutorily shared between buyer and seller, though in practice the buyer frequently bears it — agree this in writing before you sign.
Valuation report	Mandatory for foreign buyers. One per title deed.
Land Registry revolving fund fee	A fixed charge at the transfer appointment.
Sworn translation and notary	Passport, powers of attorney, and any foreign document in the file.
Legal fees	Quoted per file. Ask for the basis in writing before instructing anyone.
VAT	Applies to some new-build purchases from developers and generally not to resale between individuals. Exemptions exist for qualifying foreign buyers bringing in foreign currency; whether one applies is fact-specific.
Annual property tax	A municipal charge based on the property's registered value.
Compulsory earthquake insurance	Required, and required annually.
Building dues	Monthly, and in serviced buildings a significant figure. Check it before you buy, not after.
Rental income tax	Turkish-source and taxable in Türkiye regardless of where you live.

A full breakdown for a specific purchase, including the residence permit and translation costs for each family member, is on the cost calculator on our homepage.

Working out the return

Yield figures quoted to foreign buyers are frequently the seller's aspiration rather than a lease. Rather than publish numbers of our own, here is the arithmetic — put in the price you are actually being asked and the rent you can actually evidence.

Residence and citizenship

Owning residential property supports an application for a short-term residence permit, subject to its own conditions — see Turkish residence permits. There is no minimum value for that route; a modest apartment supports it.

Citizenship is different. It requires property valued at USD 400,000 or more, confirmed by official appraisal rather than by your contract price, held for three years with a non-sale annotation recorded on the deed. The threshold can be met across more than one title deed, which is often the better structure because it allows a partial exit later. See citizenship by investment.

Selling later, and inheritance

Resale is straightforward once any annotation has lapsed. Capital gains on a property held for less than five years are taxable; beyond that period the position changes. Your recorded acquisition cost is what appears on the deed, which is the practical reason the declared value matters.

Inheritance is where foreign owners are most often caught out. Turkish real estate is governed by Turkish succession law wherever the owner is domiciled, including forced heirship rules reserving mandatory shares for a spouse and children. A will made abroad does not override this. A short Turkish will, coordinated with your home-jurisdiction planning, resolves most of it, and there is no good reason to leave it undone.

Ten mistakes foreign buyers make

1. Paying a deposit before due diligenceThe money is gone before anyone has read the title record. This is the most expensive mistake on the list and the easiest to avoid.
2. Using the agent's lawyerOne relationship predates the other. Instruct your own.
3. Assuming the seller owns itUnregistered inheritances and out-of-scope powers of attorney are common enough to check every time.
4. Ignoring the occupancy permitIts absence affects insurance, utilities, valuation and resale.
5. Buying off-plan without understanding delivery riskPrice set by the seller, no transaction history to test it against, and at exit you compete against every other unit in the same building.
6. Believing a quoted rental yieldAsk which lease it comes from. If there is no lease, it is a hope.
7. Understating the declared valueUnlawful, creates a capital gains problem, and destroys a citizenship file.
8. Assuming the property qualifies for citizenshipThe threshold is tested against the appraisal, not the price you agreed.
9. Sending money the wrong wayFrom the wrong account, in the wrong sequence, or without the currency purchase certificate.
10. Signing a broad power of attorneyConvenience for someone else, exposure for you. Draft it for the transaction and no wider.

Common questions