Buying Property in Turkey as a Foreigner
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- In short
- How does a purchase work, step by step?
- What can a foreign buyer not buy?
- What does the title deed tell you, and why does iskan matter?
- Forest, coast, olive groves and farmland: which restrictions apply?
- Deposits, reservation agreements and promises to sell
- What does buying cost?
- Buying off-plan: what protects you?
- Do you need a lawyer, and what do I handle?
- Frequently asked questions
In short
- Between private parties, a reservation agreement does not bind the seller: a promise to sell land is valid only in official form, and a deposit paid under an invalid agreement must be returned, whatever it says about forfeiture (Law No. 6098 art. 29, 77 and 237). Off-plan purchases from a developer follow different rules (Law No. 6502 art. 41).
- The title deed fee currently applied is twenty per thousand of the declared price, charged to the seller and to the buyer separately; the declared price may not be lower than the property tax value (Law No. 492, tariff 4).
- The land registry may not register a transaction on a residential unit without a compulsory earthquake insurance (DASK) policy valid on that date (Law No. 6305 art. 11).
- Foreign nationals may not acquire property in second-degree military forbidden zones, and the President may extend the bar to zones designated for strategic reasons (Law No. 2565 art. 9 and 28).
- An off-plan home may not be sold to a consumer before a building permit is issued, and must be delivered within forty-eight months of the contract (Law No. 6502 art. 40 and 44).
Buying a house or land in Turkey is a land registry procedure, not a private contract. Ownership passes only when the transfer is registered, and the contract is, as a rule, drawn up by land registry officials. Most problems arise earlier: a deposit paid on an informal agreement, a plot that cannot be built on, a share of a field sold as if it were a plot of its own. This page sets out the process, the statutory costs and the checks to make before money moves.
How does a purchase work, step by step?
Ownership of immovable property in Turkey is acquired by registration in the land register (tapu sicili), and a contract intended to transfer ownership is valid only in official form. The sale is therefore normally made at the land registry office (tapu müdürlüğü): the official deed (resmi senet) is drawn up by the registry officials, signed by the parties and by the officials who prepared it, and approved by the director. Since 2022 the Notaries Law has also listed property sale contracts among notaries' duties.
- Before any payment, the land register record is examined. The register is open to anyone who shows a credible interest, and no one can later claim not to have known an entry in it.
- A Turkish tax identification number is needed: the deed records the parties' tax numbers with their identity details.
- For a flat or a house, the earthquake insurance policy must be shown to be valid on the date of the transaction, or the registration cannot be made.
- The title deed fee is paid, by the seller and by the buyer separately.
- The deed is signed. If a party does not speak Turkish, a sworn interpreter must be present and signs the deed too; staff of that registry office cannot act as interpreter.
- Registration. Ownership passes now, not when the price is paid or the keys handed over.
Legal basis: Law No. 4721Law No. 2644 art. 26Law No. 6305 art. 11
What can a foreign buyer not buy?
The starting point is permissive: citizens of countries designated by the President may acquire property, subject to two ceilings: the land held by foreign nationals in a district may not together exceed ten per cent of its privately owned area, and one person may not hold more than thirty hectares across the country, a figure the President may raise up to double. The President may also limit, suspend or prohibit acquisitions by country, region or type, so the position for a nationality depends on the decision in force.
The restrictions that matter in practice are territorial. Foreign individuals and legal entities may not acquire property in second-degree land military forbidden zones, and without permission may not even enter, reside or rent property there. The President may extend the ban, and require permission for renting, in zones designated for their proximity to military zones or for other strategic reasons.
The maps and coordinates of these zones are supplied by the Ministry of National Defence, and for special security zones by the Ministry of the Interior, to the ministry responsible for the land registry, and land registry transactions are carried out on the basis of that information. For property of foreign nationals inside a second-degree military forbidden zone or a zone designated by the President, the President decides on liquidation and sets its form and conditions; the provisions refer to all such property in the zone, not only to property bought in breach. Separately, property acquired in breach of the Land Registry Law's acquisition rules is liquidated if the owner does not dispose of it within the period, not exceeding one year, given by the Ministry of Finance.
Buying through a company changes the route, not the restriction. A company incorporated in Turkey with fifty per cent or more foreign shareholding may acquire property for the activities in its articles of association, but in military and strategic zones it needs the permission of the General Staff, and in special security zones that of the governor. A company incorporated abroad may acquire property only under special laws.
Legal basis: Law No. 2644 arts. 35 and 36Law No. 2565
What does the title deed tell you, and why does iskan matter?
The word tapu covers several different entries, listed at the end of this section, and the type of entry decides what you are actually buying. For a finished building, the second document that matters is the occupancy permit.
The occupancy permit (yapı kullanma izni, usually called iskan) is the permission required before a completed building, or a completed part of it, may be used. It depends on a finding that the building conforms to its building permit and annexes; if the authority does not decide within thirty days of the owner's application, permission is deemed given. It does not release the owner from liability for breaches of the law or the permit.
- Condominium ownership (kat mülkiyeti): separate ownership of an independent unit, tied to a share of the land (arsa payı) and to the common parts of the building.
- Construction servitude (kat irtifakı): a servitude attached to the land share, used before the building is converted. It becomes condominium ownership ex officio on the basis of an occupancy permit for the whole building, and a single owner can start the conversion.
- Shared ownership (paylı mülkiyet), the hisseli tapu: several people own the whole of an undivided property in defined shares. A share can be transferred, mortgaged or attached, but it is not a particular part of the land.
- Joint ownership (elbirliği mülkiyeti): typically heirs before an estate is divided. There are no defined shares; each person's right extends to the whole.
Legal basis: Law No. 634Law No. 4721Law No. 3194 art. 30
Forest, coast, olive groves and farmland: which restrictions apply?
Much of the Muğla coast lies close to forest, the shoreline or olive groves, each governed by its own statute. The rules below are general; whether one applies to a plot is a question for its register and zoning status.
- Forest. Communities of trees and shrubs count as forest together with the ground they stand on, subject to the exceptions listed in the Forest Law. Ownership of State forest cannot be transferred, and State forest cannot be acquired by prescription (Constitution art. 169). Land taken out of forest boundaries under art. 2/B of the Forest Law is registered in the name of the Treasury where it belonged to the State; a person shown as its user, or as owner of the buildings on it, is not the registered owner. Law No. 6292 lets a person shown in the register as its user, or as owner of the buildings on it, before 31 December 2011 buy it from the Treasury if they apply in time; where the register entry rests on lists or records made before that Law came into force in 2012, they must also accept the price set by the administration without objecting to it or taking it to court; for those who did not apply in time, Law No. 7579 (provisional art. 1) has extended the application period to 31 December 2026, with the price increased in line with consumer price inflation. Where no one is entitled to buy directly, the Treasury deals with the land under the general rules, including sale. A title deed does not settle the forest question on its own: a privately registered plot may lie within State forest under a finalised forest cadastre, and titles in that position have been cancelled by the courts. Since June 2026, additional art. 22 of the Forest Law lets a private title to land bounded as State forest by a forest cadastre finalised before that date be accepted as valid without a purchase price, on the owner's application if the General Directorate of Forestry approves it, or where the Directorate's own review establishes that the title records are accurate; the owner bears the costs. Where a title to land bounded as State forest was cancelled by a final judgment that has not yet been executed in the land register, additional art. 22 of the Forest Law applies only if no payment for the property was made under any court decision or the total paid is repaid to the Treasury. Where land bounded as State forest has already been registered in the Treasury's name after a final judgment cancelling the title, whether by execution of the judgment or by voluntary surrender, it is returned if the former owner or their successors apply within two years of additional art. 22 coming into force and, where a payment for the property was made, the total paid is repaid to the Treasury. Under additional art. 22, any amount repaid to the Treasury may not be less than the property's current market value. Additional art. 22 of the Forest Law does not apply to certain land, including land in tourism centres and tourism areas designated under Law No. 2634 and land in burnt forest areas.
- Coast. The shore is under the control and disposal of the State and open to everyone equally and freely. In the coastal strip, buildings may come no closer than fifty metres to the shore edge line (kıyı kenar çizgisi), which is not the water's edge but the natural landward limit of the sand, shingle, rock, reed, marsh and similar areas formed by water movements; the land in between may be laid out only for footpaths, rest, viewing and recreation. Where there is no implementation zoning plan (uygulama imar planı), no building or facility at all may be built in the coastal strip (sahil şeridi), the band at least one hundred metres wide running inland from the shore edge line. Where there is an implementation zoning plan, the Coastal Law names what a plan decision may allow in the coastal strip: the structures listed in its arts. 6 and 7, and day-use tourism buildings and facilities open to the public, excluding accommodation. Where a 1/1000-scale implementation zoning plan had been lawfully approved and partly or wholly built up before the Coastal Law came into force in 1990, its coastal-strip provisions remain valid; but there too, as in any coastal strip with an implementation zoning plan, walls, fences and similar barriers may not be put up, no rubble, soil or other polluting waste may be dumped and no excavation may be carried out.
- Olive groves. Within olive grove areas and within three kilometres of them, facilities that would impede the groves' vegetative and generative growth by leaving chemical waste or emitting dust and smoke may not be built or operated, olive oil mills excepted. Olive oil mills and small-scale agricultural industry plants in these areas need the permission of the ministry responsible for agriculture to be built and operated. Grove areas may not be reduced; where a grove within municipal boundaries is brought into a zoning plan, total construction may not exceed ten per cent of it.
- Farmland. Agricultural land may not be subdivided below the minimum sizes set by the Ministry or divided into shares, and the number of shares and co-owners may not be increased, except in sales of Treasury land. A share of a field offered for sale needs to be checked against this rule before anything is signed.
Legal basis: Law No. 6831Law No. 2709 art. 169Law No. 3621 arts. 4, 5, 8 and provisional art.Law No. 3573 art. 20Law No. 5403 art. 8
Deposits, reservation agreements and promises to sell
If you are asked to sign a reservation agreement and pay a deposit (kapora) before the transfer, that paperwork carries less weight than it looks. A sale of immovable property, and equally a promise to sell it, is valid only in official form, and a preliminary contract follows the form of the contract it prepares. A reservation agreement signed in an estate agent's office or by email does not oblige a private seller to transfer; for a developer selling an off-plan home to a consumer, see the off-plan section below.
That cuts both ways. A person enriched without just cause, in particular on a basis that is not valid, must give the enrichment back. The Court of Cassation's Assembly of Civil Chambers (Hukuk Genel Kurulu) applied this to deposits on 22 September 2022 (2020/551 E., 2022/1147 K.): a withdrawal payment is an ancillary obligation and requires a valid contract; where the contract is invalid, its clauses are invalid too and the money must be returned as unjust enrichment. The claim is time-barred two years after you learn that you are entitled to the money back, and in any case ten years after the payment.
Where the agreement is valid, money given when it is made is presumed to be evidence of the contract and is deducted from the price, unless otherwise agreed. Where a withdrawal payment (cayma parası) has been agreed, each party is entitled to withdraw from the contract: the payer by forfeiting it, the recipient by returning double.
The instrument that binds is a promise-to-sell agreement made by a notary, who may annotate it on the land register through the land registry's IT system at either party's request. If the sale is not completed within five years of the annotation, the annotation, not the agreement itself, is struck out ex officio.
Legal basis: Law No. 6098Law No. 1512 art. 60Law No. 2644 art. 26
What does buying cost?
The costs fixed by statute are rates rather than amounts. Fixed fees in lira are revised every year, so any lira figure should be confirmed for the year of the transfer.
- Title deed fee (tapu harcı): currently twenty per thousand (two per cent) of the declared price, charged to the seller and to the buyer separately. The declared price may not be lower than the property tax value (emlak vergisi değeri). The President may vary the rate within limits, so it should be confirmed for the day of transfer.
- Under-declaration: if it is found after the transfer that the declared price was below the property tax value or did not reflect the real position, the fee on the difference is assessed with a tax loss penalty of the same amount.
- Earthquake insurance (DASK): compulsory for units under the Condominium Law and for residential buildings on registered private land, taken out by the owner and renewed every year.
- VAT on a new building: the first delivery of a home or workplace to a foreign national not settled in Turkey is exempt, provided the price is brought into Turkey in foreign currency. The exemption is only for buyers not settled in Turkey, so a foreign national who lives in Turkey should check whether they qualify before relying on it. If you dispose of the property within three years, by sale or otherwise, you must pay the VAT that was not charged, with deferral interest, before the land registry transaction. If the conditions were not met, the buyer is jointly liable with the seller for the tax, the tax loss penalty and late-payment interest.
- Estate agent's fee: under the Real Estate Trade Regulation, at most four per cent of the sale price excluding VAT, shared equally between buyer and seller unless agreed otherwise, and only one fee for the same sale. A brokerage contract concerning immovable property is valid only in writing.
Legal basis: Law No. 492Law No. 3065 art. 13Law No. 6098
Buying off-plan: what protects you?
Where you buy a home from a developer before it is finished, acting for non-commercial purposes, the Consumer Protection Law treats the contract as a pre-paid housing sale (ön ödemeli konut satışı): you pay in advance, and the seller undertakes to transfer or deliver afterwards.
- No contract before the building permit (yapı ruhsatı) is obtained, and an information form at least one day before signing.
- The sale must be registered or the promise to sell made by a notary; otherwise the seller cannot rely on the contract's invalidity against you. Until a valid contract exists, no payment may be asked for under any name.
- For larger projects, completion insurance or another guarantee before sales begin.
- Fourteen days to withdraw, without reasons and without penalty.
- Delivery within the period promised and no later than forty-eight months from the contract; registration of the construction servitude in your name with handover of possession counts as delivery.
- Up to twenty-four months from the contract you may withdraw without reasons; the seller may claim taxes and fees and compensation of up to two, four, six or eight per cent of the price for withdrawal within three, six, twelve or twenty-four months. A seller in breach may claim nothing, and your money must be returned within one hundred and eighty days.
Legal basis: Law No. 6502Law No. 6098
Do you need a lawyer, and what do I handle?
No statute requires a buyer to be represented by a lawyer: the official deed is normally drawn up and signed before land registry officials, with an interpreter where needed. A lawyer's contribution is the work the registry does not do for you: reading the register, the zoning file and the restrictions above, and keeping money from being paid under an agreement the law will not enforce.
I advise foreign buyers on the matters below. This page is general information and does not replace advice on a specific property; fee rates and secondary legislation change, so the current position should be confirmed before acting.
- Review of the land register record, annotations and declarations, and of the zoning and occupancy permit position, before any payment
- Checks for military zone, forest, coastal, olive grove and agricultural land restrictions
- Drafting and review of reservation, promise-to-sell and off-plan sale agreements
- Attendance at the land registry transfer, or acting under a power of attorney where the buyer is abroad
- Recovery of deposits and claims against developers for late delivery
Legal basis: Law No. 2644Law No. 4721
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a lawyer to buy property in Turkey?
No law requires it. The sale contract is normally drawn up by land registry officials and signed before them, with a sworn interpreter where a party does not speak Turkish. A lawyer is useful before that appointment: the register and zoning checks, the terms of any deposit, and off-plan contracts. If you cannot attend, the transfer can be signed by a representative holding a power of attorney that expressly authorises it.
How much is the title deed fee in Turkey?
Currently twenty per thousand (two per cent) of the declared price, charged to the seller and to the buyer separately. The declared price may not be lower than the property tax value; if it is later found to understate the position, the fee on the difference is assessed with a penalty. The President can vary the rate within limits, so confirm it for the date of transfer.
Is DASK earthquake insurance compulsory when buying?
For a residential unit, yes. The policy is renewed every year, and the land registry cannot register a transaction concerning the unit unless a policy valid on that date is produced.
Do foreign buyers pay VAT on a new-build property?
The first delivery of a new home to a foreign national not settled in Turkey is exempt, provided the price is brought into Turkey in foreign currency; if you live in Turkey, check whether you qualify before relying on it. If you dispose of the home within three years, you, as the person disposing of it, pay the VAT that was not charged, with deferral interest, before the land registry transaction. If the conditions were not met, the buyer is jointly liable with the seller for the tax, the tax loss penalty and late-payment interest.
I paid a deposit and the seller pulled out. Can I get it back?
Usually, yes. A private reservation or sale agreement is invalid for want of official form, and the seller must return what was paid as unjust enrichment. The Assembly of Civil Chambers held in 2022 that a withdrawal-payment clause in such an agreement is invalid with it, so double repayment cannot be claimed on that clause. If the agreement was valid and a withdrawal payment was agreed, a seller who withdraws returns double. The claim for repayment is time-barred two years after you learn that you are entitled to it, and in any case ten years after the payment.
What is the difference between kat irtifakı and kat mülkiyeti?
Condominium ownership (kat mülkiyeti) is ownership of a unit tied to a land share. A construction servitude (kat irtifakı) is a servitude on the land share that becomes condominium ownership ex officio once an occupancy permit is issued for the whole building; one owner's request is enough to start it.
What is a habitation certificate (iskan) in Turkey?
It is the occupancy permit (yapı kullanma izni) required before a finished building may be used, issued once the building is found to conform to its permit. If no decision is made within thirty days of the owner's application, permission is deemed given.
What is a shared title deed (hisseli tapu), and is it risky?
It records a share in the whole of an undivided property, not a specific part. Each co-owner may use it only so far as the others' rights allow, and any co-owner may ask for division, which ends in an auction if division in kind is unsuitable. If you buy a share, the other co-owners may take it over by pre-emption within three months of notarial notification and at most one year after the sale.
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Can foreigners buy land or a field in Turkey?
Yes, provided the foreign-owned share of the district stays within ten per cent of its privately owned area, your own holdings stay within thirty hectares, and the land is outside restricted military and strategic zones. A buyer of land without a building must submit the project to be developed to the relevant Ministry within two years and carry it out within the approved period; otherwise the land is liquidated if the owner does not dispose of it within the period, not exceeding one year, given by the Ministry of Finance. Agricultural land may not be divided into shares or have its number of co-owners increased, which affects any purchase of a share of a field.
Can I buy with a mortgage from a Turkish bank?
Whether a bank lends is a commercial decision. Legally, a mortgage is created by registration and its agreement must be in official form. Since May 2026, a bank's valuation report under housing finance rules must be sent to the land registry administration on the day it is issued. A linked loan for an off-plan home takes effect only after the fourteen-day withdrawal period.
My off-plan property is late. What can I do?
As a consumer, delivery is due within the period promised and no later than forty-eight months from the contract; within twenty-four months you may withdraw, and a developer in breach may claim nothing. Under the general rules on default, once a period you gave to perform has expired you may always insist on performance with damages for delay; if you instead want damages for non-performance or to withdraw, you must declare immediately that you are giving up performance.
How do property scams in Turkey work, and how do I check the seller?
Whatever form a scheme takes, the exposure is money paid before you hold a registered right, since ownership passes only on registration. Anyone with a credible interest may inspect the register; a buyer relying on it in good faith is protected, but not one who knew or ought to have known an entry was wrongful. Estate agency requires an authorisation certificate. Fraud is a criminal offence under arts. 157 and 158 of the Turkish Criminal Code (No. 5237).
Related pages: Property Taxes in Turkey for Foreign Owners · Power of Attorney for Turkey from Abroad · Selling or Gifting Property in Turkey as a Foreign Owner · Property Lawyer in Muğla
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