Taxes & Fees When Buying Property in Turkey

What you pay at the point of purchase

These are one-time, and they land in the few weeks around the transfer. Budget for them and none of them is a surprise. Carry only the price of the apartment in your head and all of them are.

• The Tapu (title deed) transfer fee, a percentage of the declared value, paid at the Land Registry on the day of transfer.
• VAT (KDV) on the property, which varies by the size and type of the residence, and which can be exempt for a foreign buyer only when the statutory conditions are met (see below).
• An SPK-licensed appraisal, where TKGM requires it for the transaction, including citizenship files, or where you commission one as a practical price check.
• Notary fees, sworn translation, and a power of attorney if you are buying from abroad.
• DASK, the compulsory earthquake insurance, which must be in place before utilities are connected.
• The revolving fund fee at the Land Registry, quoted only after the current TKGM tariff amount is verified for the transaction, and the cost of bringing your funds into Türkiye through a bank.

The declared value: the most expensive thing most buyers get wrong

The transfer fee is calculated on the value declared at the Land Registry, not below the municipal property-tax value. The declared value should reflect the price you actually paid. In practice buyers are routinely encouraged to declare a lower one so the fee comes down, sometimes by the seller and sometimes by an agent. The saving is immediate, visible and small. The costs are deferred, invisible and a great deal larger.

First, your acquisition cost is now officially the lower figure. When you eventually sell, any capital gain is measured from that declared number, not from what you actually paid. You have converted a small saving today into tax on a gain you did not make.

Second, if you are buying to qualify for Turkish citizenship, the declared value undermines the file. The threshold is assessed against the official valuation and the registered value, and a deed that says less than you paid is a problem you cannot fix afterwards by producing bank statements.

Third, it is an under-declaration of tax. The exposure is not theoretical: assessments can be reopened, with penalties and interest, and the buyer is the person whose name is on the deed.

Our position on this is not negotiable. We declare what you paid. If an adviser proposes otherwise, ask who carries the consequence. It is not them.

VAT and the foreign-buyer exemption

VAT applies to a property bought from a developer. There is no single rate; it depends on the size and category of the residence. It is also the largest single tax in a new-build purchase, which is why the exemption matters as much as it does.

Foreign buyers can be exempt from it entirely on a first-hand purchase, and a large share of our buyers are. The exemption is not automatic and it is lost more often through paperwork than through ineligibility, so the conditions are worth stating plainly:

• The purchase must be first-hand: bought from the developer, not from a previous owner. A resale does not qualify, however new the building.
• You must be a non-resident: a foreign national not resident in Türkiye, or a Turkish citizen who has lived abroad continuously for the required period.
• The purchase price must be brought into Türkiye in foreign currency and converted through a Turkish bank, with the foreign-currency exchange document (döviz alım belgesi) issued in your name and retained.
• The funds must arrive before or at the time of the transfer. Money that arrives afterwards does not qualify, no matter that it paid for the same apartment.
• You must hold the property for the required period after purchase. Selling too soon claws the exemption back, with interest.

Why buyers lose the VAT exemption

Almost never because they were ineligible. Nearly always because of how the money moved.

The most common failure is an informal transfer. Funds move through an exchange office, a relative's account or a currency dealer to save a fraction of a percent, and afterwards there is no bank record in the buyer's name and no exchange document. The exemption is gone. The saving was a small fraction of what losing it cost.

The second is timing. Funds arrive after the transfer has already happened, because the deed appointment came up sooner than expected. The third is a buyer who qualifies personally but lets a company or a family member make the payment, so the exchange document names somebody who is not on the deed.

All three are avoidable with one conversation before the first payment, which is when we have it.

What you pay every year that you own

The annual burden of owning property in Türkiye is driven by a few recurring lines, and the largest recurring cost is usually not a tax at all.

• Emlak Vergisi, the annual municipal property tax, calculated on the municipality's assessed value rather than on the market price. Residence rates are higher inside a metropolitan municipality (which includes all of Istanbul) than outside one, and Law 7566 changed the valuation mechanism from 19 December 2025, so the current assessed value must be checked rather than remembered.
• Aidat, the building's monthly service charge. It is not a tax and it is usually the biggest line: it pays for security, cleaning, landscaping, lifts, pools, gyms and the site's staff.
• DASK renewal, annually.
• Utilities, and management fees if the property is let.
• Income tax on rent, if you let it.

Aidat: the number to ask for before you buy, not after

In an amenity-rich Istanbul development, with pools, a gym, 24-hour security, landscaped grounds and a residents' club, the aidat is a serious monthly figure. It is also the cost most often missing from a buyer's model, and the one that decides whether a rental yield survives contact with reality. A gross yield that looks strong can turn ordinary once the service charge comes out of it. The service charge does not pause when the apartment is empty.

Ask for the current monthly aidat on the specific apartment, in writing, before you commit. Ask what it covers and when it was last raised. A building that has not raised it in three years is not being generous. It is deferring a rise, and you will be there for it.

For a project still under construction the figure is an estimate by definition, and it should be given to you as one.

Tax on rental income

Rental income from Turkish property is taxable in Türkiye whether you live there or not, on a progressive scale, with an annual exemption for residential rental income below a threshold and deductions available for certain expenses. A declaration is filed annually.

Two points matter more than the rate. Short-term letting is treated differently from a long residential tenancy and carries its own licensing requirements, which have tightened. If the plan is to let on a nightly basis, find out what that specific building permits before you buy, not after.

Your home country may tax the same income. Türkiye has double-taxation treaties with many countries, and which one applies, and how relief is claimed, is a question for an adviser in your own jurisdiction. We will tell you what is taxable here. We do not advise on what is taxable where you live, and you should be wary of any agent who does.

What you pay when you sell

Capital gains tax applies to a sale within a defined holding period. Hold the property beyond it and the gain is exempt. That rule quietly shapes a great deal of foreign investment in Turkish property, and it happens to align with the holding requirement on the citizenship route.

The gain is measured from your registered acquisition value to your sale value, which is where the declared-value decision made years earlier finally presents itself. A buyer who declared less than they paid pays tax on a gain that is partly fictional.

There is also a transfer fee on the sale, legally charged to each side on its own share, and an agency fee if you sell through one. A foreign buyer may need an appraisal where TKGM requires it for that transaction. And a property whose documents are in order, with DASK current, the İskan in place and no annotations on the deed, is easier for a buyer's lawyer and bank to clear than one where each check opens another question.

The costs buyers forget to budget for

None of these is large on its own. Together they are the difference between a budget that holds and one that does not.

• Any required or commissioned appraisal, paid by you.
• Sworn translation and notarisation, including the power of attorney if you buy from abroad.
• Currency conversion, which is a real cost and should be compared between banks rather than accepted from the first one.
• Furnishing, if the apartment is unfurnished and you intend to let it, because an unfurnished apartment lets more slowly and for less.
• The first year's aidat and DASK, which fall due whether or not you have moved in or found a tenant.
• Utility connection deposits.
• For an off-plan purchase, the possibility that delivery slips and you carry a rent or a mortgage elsewhere for longer than planned.

Official 2026 cost anchors we use

These figures come from the official-fee review accessed on 24 August 2026. They are not a full calculator; they are the fixed anchors we use before we calculate a specific purchase.

• Tapu transfer fee: legal liability is 2% for the buyer and 2% for the seller on the declared acquisition value, not below the municipal property-tax value. If a buyer pays both sides, that is a contract or market assumption, not the tax rule.
• VAT/KDV on taxable first deliveries: standard residence treatment is 10% for the first 150 m2 and 20% on the part above 150 m2. Qualifying urban-transformation residences are 1% for the first 150 m2 and 20% above. A non-resident foreign-buyer first-delivery exemption can reduce VAT to 0% only if all statutory conditions are met, including FX payment evidence and the three-year disposal lock.
• Stamp duty applies only if a taxable money-bearing written contract is signed: 9.48 per mille, with the 2026 per-paper cap of 29,115,961.10 TL.
• SPK/TDUB minimum appraisal fees for residences, offices and bureaux in 2026 start at 16,500 TL for 1-149 m2, 17,622 TL for 150-250 m2 and 20,217 TL for 251-500 m2, plus 176 TL GBM and 125 TL TDUB shares, excluding KDV and other costs. Actual quotes can be higher.
• DASK is tariff-based. As of 1 August 2026 the insured-value unit is 11,562 TL/m2 for reinforced concrete and 7,708 TL/m2 for other structures, with maximum cover of 2,451,062 TL.
• Annual Emlak Vergisi on residences is 0.1% outside metropolitan areas and 0.2% inside metropolitan or adjacent areas; Law 7566 changed the valuation mechanism from 19 December 2025, so the current municipal or tax value matters more than remembered assumptions.
• TKGM döner sermaye has an official 2026 tariff, but the exact residence or foreign-buyer amount was unverified in the fee review. We do not quote that number until it is rechecked for the transaction.

How we give you the numbers

Before you commit to a specific property, you receive a written cost summary for that purchase: every one-time cost with its current rate and what it is calculated on, the annual costs including the building's actual aidat, and the VAT position with the reason for it.

Where a figure is an estimate, it is labelled one. The aidat on an unfinished building is an estimate. So is a conversion cost that depends on the day. If we show a TL cost in USD for planning, we use a dated official FX input and label the date. And if a rate has changed since the last time we published anything, you get the current one, because we look it up rather than remember it.

That is the whole reason this guide has no rate table. A number you can trust is one checked on the day, for your property, by somebody who will still be there when it is paid.