Title deed transactions for foreign buyers

• Under article 24 of the Land Registry Regulation, where one or more of the parties does not speak Turkish, a sworn interpreter is present.
• The sworn interpreter must submit to the land registry office the record of the oath they took before a court under the Code of Civil Procedure.
• The interpreter signs the official deed or the request document; their place of residence and identity details are entered on it. The interpreter must be literate and have legal capacity.
• Staff working at the office where the transaction takes place may not act as witnesses or interpreters.
• Not speaking Turkish is not in itself one of the cases requiring two witnesses: an interpreter is compulsory, but two additional witnesses are not.
• Under article 35 of the Land Registry Law, the total area of immovable property and independent, permanent limited rights in rem acquired by a foreign individual may not exceed ten per cent of the privately owned area of the district, nor thirty hectares per person nationwide.
• Foreign individuals who buy undeveloped property must submit the project they intend to develop for the approval of the relevant ministry within two years; the approved project is recorded in the declarations section of the land register.

This page is compiled from the regulation and the law; it contains no information on fees, taxes or service charges. The land registry office may ask for additional documents depending on the type of transaction — check the current list before you proceed.

The law limits acquisition by foreign individuals by two measures: ten per cent of the privately owned area of the district, and thirty hectares per person nationwide. The President may double the amount per person, and may also determine, restrict, partly or wholly suspend acquisitions by country, person, geographical region, period, number, proportion, type, character and area. Maps and coordinates of military prohibited zones, military security zones and strategic areas are supplied by the Ministry of National Defence, and special security zones by the Ministry of the Interior, with land registry transactions then conducted on the basis of that data — the check is systematic. On the documentary side the critical point is the spelling of your name: the name in your land registry record must match the Latin spelling in your passport and your tax record. Where the same Cyrillic name has been rendered differently across documents, the records will not line up, and this usually surfaces years later when you come to sell. The same spelling must therefore be used in the passport translation, the power of attorney translation and every other document submitted.