Turkey has become extremely popular over the years. There are many expats who reside in Turkey permanently, those who own holiday homes and those who have invested to earn good money from letting their properties here.
Turkey has a wonderful history with many ancient historical sites. This accompanied by beautiful weather, picturesque coastlines and a wonderful friendly culture. The most popular locations are those in Fethiye, Antalya, Alanya and Istanbul. It is so much easier to buy a property in Turkey than many other European countries including a fast turnaround which is a great prospect for investors globally.
Foreigners will first need to find a property and location that suits their needs and lifestyle. There are so many options available including locations with stunning shorelines like Fethiye, Alanya and Antalya, or large cities like Istanbul.
Once you have found your perfect property for either permanent living, for a holiday home or for an investment property, a contract will drawn up with all the agreed terms and conditions of the purchase. This contract will include the amount of the holding deposit for the property, a date agreed by both the seller and buyer of the full deposit payment and the date of the final balance payment. A legal translator can be present from the Government Notary Office during this process so everything can be understood by the buyer.
Your passports will then go to the notary for translation. This is necessary for security and property location checks. This will only take half an hour after which the passports will be returned.
After this you will go to the local solicitor with the contract. Your solicitor is responsible for overseeing your application for the TAPU (Title Deeds) and to check all the information in the contract. They will also check the ISKAN (Habitation License) The ISKAN is a technical passport for the real estate that holds information about the property including the number of floors and the indoor infrastructure. The TAPU is the official document that shows property ownership. The TAPU will include the owner’s photo and an official stamp signature. It is vital that the TAPU is checked for authenticity by making sure that the name on the TAPU matches the sellers. Your solicitor will check all of this for you as well as checking that the TAPU does not have any debts, and matches the property in question.
After this is all complete, all parties will sign the contract which is written up and witnessed by the solicitor, the legal translator and one other witness.
On the contracts completion you will be required to leave a holding deposit to secure your property (A minimum of 1000GBP or equivalent) A date will then be decided when the buyer will pay the full deposit, which normally comes around 1-2% of the purchase price of the property .It usually takes around a month for the security and property location checks to be carried out.
In order to acquire the TAPU, an application must be submitted to the local Land Registry Office in which the property is located. After all the checks have been completed for the items mentioned above, the TAPU is prepared by the Land Registry Office. In Turkey, it is legally compulsory for both the seller and the buyer to be present for the entry in the property register. During the transaction, the proofs or the documents concerning the transfer of the full purchase price into Turkey must be presented to the Land Registry Office.
Once the application has been approved by the Land Registry Office, and all the paperwork is in place, you will pay the remaining balance of the property and your solicitor will sign over the title deeds (TAPU) of the property.
At this point of the deeds transfer, all taxes and charges will be paid. You will pay a buyers fee to your agent which is around 3% of the property’s value. You will also pay the purchase tax (stamp duty) which amounts to 4.4% of the assessed value of the property. The assessed value is normally around 60% of the purchase price, so the tax will be 4.4% of 60% of the property’s value. This tax goes to the local council (municipality)
Once all of this is complete and you are the property owner, you will receive your TAPU (title deeds)
You will need to register with the local tax office and open a Turkish bank account, which is needed in order to register a property in Turkey. You will receive a Tax number and you must register the fact that you now own a property with the local council (municipality)
Once this is all completed, you will need to pay one off connection fees for utilities such as electric and water. You will also need to take out earthquake insurance (DASK) All new builds in Turkey come with an earthquake warranty certificate by developers.
An annual property tax is collected by the council and is the same as council tax in the UK. This is calculated at the rate of 0.3% for land and 0.1% for a house. In the big cities it can be double the price but costs vary slightly.
All properties are subject to re evaluation every year for tax purposes.
This whole process can look complicated on paper but you can be sure, the process is actually very straight forward.