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Purchasing real estate in Turkey

Purchasing real estate in Turkey is not as difficult as many people think it is. As long as you know the rules and legalities the buying process is relatively easy and safe.

Having selected your ideal property, Marina Estate Agency will give you an expert and reliable guidance through every legal and financial aspect of purchase and your rights in this country.

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Legal matters

Turkey has a reciprocal agreement on property purchase with nearly 90 countries, including most of the European countries.

According to Turkish property legislation foreigners may purchase land and property in their own names provided that the property is outside of militairy zones or strategically important areas.

According to the most recent property law, which has been released in January 2006, foreigners may purchase land and property in Turkey in their own names provided that those properties are located within the planning zones of a municipality. This means that foreign nationals can only purchase property/plots with building consent. For companies other rules apply. Please contact us for detailed information.

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Below you will find the most important legal aspects concerning the purchase of property in Turkey:

In contrast to most European countries the entry in the property register in Turkey is not performed by a public notary, but at the Property Registery Department, the so called Tapu office. In order to acquire the title of a property an application has to be submitted to this office. The next step is the military research for the antecedents of the buying party and the property which is subject of the sales, the transfer of the deed can be completed. This procedure takes approximately 2 to 3 months.

For registering a purchase (deed of transfer) the buyer and seller will have to bring their identity cards or passports and recent pass photographs to make the purchase official. According to the Turkish law foreigners have to be accompanied by an authorized interpreter. When the purchase is registered, the purchaser will receive a proof of ownership, which is called tapu (title deed).

It is legally compulsory for both sides to be present at the entry together. If the property is to be in joint names both parties must be present. However, if you are not in Turkey you can authorize us to act on your behalf through a notarial deed (costs: ± £ 100,- p.p.). This is a very convenient, economic and legal way to complete the purchase for you. With this notarial deed we can act on your behalf while saving time, bureaucratic hassle and travel expenses for you.

In this case we arrange the following matters in your behalf:

After the necessary checks and searches of the Property Registry Department the title deed (tapu) will be produced in your name(s) and we will safely hold it for you until you return to Turkey. We can also send you a copy to your home address.

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Financial matters

Prior to your purchase we will inform you in detail about all the financial aspects, so that you can arrange your finances accordingly. In the first place there is a 3% agency fee. For all the other extra costs you can budget roughly that the total of the administrative fees and taxes payable on a Turkish property will be approximately 2 till 3% of the total purchase price. For example: if you buy a house for £ 70.000,- the extra costs will not be more than £ 4.200,-.

Having selected your ideal property we will make a sales agreement. To secure the purchase you must make a deposit of 10% to 25% of the property price depending on the vendors conditions. This deposit will be paid to the vendor to secure the sale. For the rest of the sales price installments will be made. The final payment or installment will be made on the date of the deed transaction a couple of months later. If you want to use the property immediately the downpayment will be in most cases 95% of the total sales amount. The balance of 5% will then be paid at the official title deed transaction a couple of months later.

If required the sales agreement can also be made by a bi-lingual sollicitor. You can also give the sollicitor a full power of attorney to act on your behalf during the whole buying procedure. The extra costs for this will be approximately £ 500,-.

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Payment:

Once you have decided to buy property and the sales agreement has been prepared, you can pay the deposit in cash. In this way you secure the purchase of the property. If you come to Turkey with serious buying intentions, the best thing to do is make financial arrangements before you come tot Turkey to pay the deposit.

If you plan to pay with cash from a cash advance on a credit card, be sure you have already informed your credit card company that you will be making a large transaction while in Turkey. Most credit card companies do not allow large transactions to guard their clients against fraud, unless they're already informed by their clients.

The easiest and most convenient way to pay the rest of the sum is when you open a Turkish bank account and make international money transfers to this account if you are back home. If you don't have a Turkish bank account, we can help you open one while you are here. You can transfer the remaining sum according to the installments of the sales agreement. At the same time we need your authorization through power of attorney in order to arrange the payments to the selling party.

If you want to secure a property while you are not in Turkey, you can pay the deposit via international money transfer, which takes 2 up to 7 days, depending on which bank you use.

Please make sure you know what commission the banks charge, before you make any transaction! Some banks have relatively high commission rates for international money transfer.

Ownership of a property is only obtained once the full amount has been paid. If you buy a building which is under construction, you will have to wait for the official ownership until the cunstruction has been finished and the habitancy permit has been obtained form the local government.

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The sales tax you will have to pay while purchasing property in Turkey is 3% of the official value of the property which is registered at the municipality.

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The annual property tax, which is collected by the municipalities or local governments, is maximum 0,3% of the official value of the property. In most cases the annual amount you have to pay will not exceed £ 100,- for an average house.

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Your ownership of the purchased property needs also to be registered with the local government for council and environmental/rubbish taxes.

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Please don't hesitate to contact us for additional or more detailed information. We would be happy to make calculations of all the costs if you have a specific property in mind you would like to purchase.

For additional services and information such as resident visa applications, various insurances, etc. click on Property Management & Consultancy.