Foreign nationals buy property in Türkiye in their own name, with full freehold ownership, and the process is well established. You need no company, no local partner and no residence permit to do it.
This guide is the whole sequence in the order it happens, from the first viewing to the deed, with what decides the outcome at each stage. It is written from the transactions we run for buyers every week.
Two facts worth holding before the detail. Ownership transfers the day the Tapu (title deed) is issued in your name, and getting you to that day cleanly is most of what we do. The second is easier: you do not have to be in the country for any of it.
Before you start: what you are allowed to buy
Foreign ownership in Türkiye is freehold and recorded in your own name. You do not need a company, a local partner, or a nominee. If an adviser suggests one for an ordinary residential purchase, ask them why.
Two rules narrow the field, and we check both against your chosen parcel before you commit. Some nationalities face restrictions on residential purchase, and property inside military or strategic zones is not sold to foreign nationals. Because the second follows the map rather than the project, we verify it on the parcel itself.
Each municipality also carries a cumulative area limit for foreign nationals. Almost no residential buyer comes close to it, and we check it anyway. It takes an afternoon, and it means your purchase is clear on every count.
1. Preparation: the three things to arrange first
None of this is difficult and all of it is faster arranged before you need it than during a transfer appointment.
- A Turkish tax number. Free, issued the same day, and required for almost everything that follows: the bank account, the utilities, the deed itself.
- A Turkish bank account. Not legally required to buy, but it makes payments, utilities and later rental income considerably simpler, and some developers will only accept payment from one.
- Your passport, and a notarised translation of it. Some steps also need a sworn translator present, which we arrange.
2. Choosing: the questions that actually decide it
Most buyers arrive with a district and a budget. Those are the two least useful filters, because they narrow to hundreds and tell you nothing about which of those hundreds is right.
The questions that narrow properly are about purpose. Is this for a family to live in, for letting, or to qualify for citizenship? Each answer points at different stock, and a residence that lets well to a young professional is rarely the one a family wants.
Then the questions that decide how you will actually live there: which block, and which floor. Two apartments at the same price in the same development can face the sea, or face the block that faces the sea. So we look at the specific residence rather than the show flat, and send you two minutes of live video from inside it.
Finally, the developer's record: which projects they have completed, and on what schedule. We bring you that history for any project you shortlist.
3. Reservation: what a deposit does and does not buy
A reservation takes the apartment off the market while contracts are prepared. It is a normal step, and we make sure yours is written so that it works for you.
A reservation should be short, dated, and specific about two things: what happens if you withdraw, and what happens if the developer cannot deliver the residence you reserved. We get both answers in writing before you pay anything, in a sentence you can read without a lawyer.
The reservation period is also the window in which the checks below happen. Its length should be set by how long they take, not by how quickly the seller would like to convert you.
4. Due diligence: the checks that happen before money moves
This is the stage where we do the quiet work, and you get its result rather than its labour. Every check below runs inside the reservation window, before any money moves.
We search the Land Registry record on the specific property, so the ownership position is clear before you commit. You get that result in writing, and it is the reason a purchase completes without surprises.
We confirm the seller's right to sell. On an off-plan purchase that means checking the entity signing your contract is the one that owns the land, so your agreement is with the party that can deliver it.
We check the approved plans against the apartment you are buying, so the floor, the layout and the area you were shown are the ones on the register. For a completed building we confirm the İskan (habitation certificate) is in place.
We read the contract line by line and negotiate the terms that carry weight for you: the delivery date, the payment schedule, and what each one commits the developer to. You sign an agreement we have already been through with you.
5. Valuation: the number that is not your price
An SPK-licensed appraisal is mandatory where TKGM's foreign-buyer transaction rules require one, including a citizenship-by-property file. It is not a blanket rule for every ordinary foreign residential purchase, although many buyers still commission one as a practical price and due-diligence check.
For citizenship, the appraisal matters far beyond the paperwork. The official threshold is checked against three legs separately: the value declared on the Tapu, the licensed appraisal, and the bank transfers evidenced through the DAB (foreign-currency purchase certificate) sequence. The appraiser's value judges the threshold; the seller's listing price does not.
This is the single most common expensive surprise in a citizenship purchase, and it is entirely avoidable: the valuation question is asked before the offer, not after the contract.
6. Payment and currency: the document you will need later
Payments follow the schedule in the contract: for a ready property usually a short sequence, for off-plan a down payment and instalments through to delivery.
Where funds come from abroad, they should be converted through a Turkish bank and a foreign-currency exchange document (döviz alım belgesi) obtained. This is not optional bureaucracy. It is required for a citizenship application, and it supports the VAT exemption available to foreign buyers on a first residential purchase where the payment is brought in from outside Türkiye.
Buyers who move money informally to save on the conversion lose the exemption, and in a citizenship file they lose the file. The saving is a fraction of a percent. The cost is several.
7. The Tapu: the moment ownership actually moves
The transfer happens at the Land Registry Office (Tapu Dairesi). Both parties attend, or their attorneys do, with a sworn translator if you do not speak Turkish. The registry confirms the ownership position on the day, the transfer tax is paid, and the deed issues in your name.
Your deed records you as the owner, with the property's location and its share of the building. We read it with you at the appointment and check it against the search we ran earlier, so you leave the office knowing exactly what it says.
On an off-plan purchase the title may issue as kat irtifakı, a construction servitude: a valid, registered title to a residence in a building not yet completed. It converts to kat mülkiyeti, full condominium ownership, once the building is finished and approved. We tell you which one you are receiving and what the conversion follows.
8. If you cannot travel: buying by power of attorney
A large share of foreign purchases in Türkiye complete without the buyer entering the country. It is ordinary, and it turns on one document.
A power of attorney for a property purchase should be a limited one, drafted for this transaction, this property and these acts. A general power of attorney is a far larger instrument than the job needs, and there is no reason to sign one to buy an apartment. It is prepared at a Turkish consulate in your country, or at a notary in Türkiye, with your passport and a photograph.
With it in place, the reservation, the valuation, the tax number, the bank account and the deed appointment can all be handled on your behalf, and you receive the deed without having boarded a plane.
9. After the deed: what still has to happen
The purchase is not finished when the deed issues. It is finished when the property is habitable, insured, and registered to you in every system that matters.
- Utilities transferred into your name: electricity, water, gas, and the building's own accounts.
- DASK, the compulsory earthquake insurance. It is inexpensive, it is legally required, and a lapsed policy will stop a future sale at the Land Registry.
- For a completed building, confirmation that the İskan is in place.
- Snagging, if the property is new. A defect raised at handover is the developer's. The same defect raised a year later is usually yours.
- Then, if you want it: furnishing, letting, management, a residence permit, or a citizenship application.
How long the whole thing takes
For a completed property with the documents in order, the transfer itself can happen within days of the due diligence and any required appraisal being complete. Realistically, expect a few weeks from decision to deed. Most of that is the pre-transfer checking, not the registry.
For off-plan, the timeline is the payment plan. Contract and initial title registration happen early; full ownership follows the building. Anyone who quotes you a fixed number without seeing the specific project and its stage is guessing.
The five things we settle for you
Each of these is settled at the right moment, which is what makes the rest of the purchase straightforward.
- Your reservation deposit, with the conditions for its return written down before you pay it.
- Your contract's delivery date, with the terms that sit behind it agreed and written in.
- The licensed appraisal on a citizenship purchase, established before the offer so the Tapu value, appraisal and bank-transfer evidence all clear the threshold.
- Your purchase funds routed through a Turkish bank, so the VAT exemption and the citizenship file are both supported.
- The Land Registry search on the specific property, so the ownership position is clear before you commit.
Terms used in this guide
Every term links to its full definition in the glossary.
