For International Clients
Real Estate
Legal guidance for foreign buyers acquiring property in Turkey, from the purchase contract to title transfer.
We guide foreign buyers through the legal side of acquiring property in Turkey: reviewing the purchase contract, verifying the title and any encumbrances, and carrying out due diligence before you commit.
Acquisition by foreign nationals is governed by Article 35 of Law No. 2644 (Land Registry Law). It is not unrestricted: eligibility is tied to the nationality framework determined by the President, statutory area limits apply, and separate rules govern military prohibited and security zones. We establish where a given property and buyer sit within that framework before any commitment is made.
We handle the steps up to and including title transfer at the land registry, and advise on the compliance requirements that arise where the purchase also supports a residence or citizenship application.
Two consequences are easier to avoid than to undo. Immovables acquired contrary to Article 35 of Law No. 2644, or used contrary to the purpose of acquisition, fall under a liquidation regime rather than simply remaining in place. Where undeveloped land is bought, a project must additionally be submitted for the approval of the relevant Ministry within the statutory period, and its realisation is monitored. Both points are settled before the purchase is structured rather than after the title has passed.
Matters we handle in this area
- Purchase contract review and negotiation
- Title and encumbrance checks (due diligence)
- Eligibility and area-limit assessment under Article 35 of Law No. 2644
- Title transfer at the land registry
- Compliance for residence- or citizenship-linked purchases
- Liquidation exposure where the statutory limits are exceeded
- Project approval obligations attaching to undeveloped land
Frequently Asked Questions
- When should a lawyer be involved in a property purchase?
- Before the purchase contract is signed and before any payment is made. Whether a buyer may acquire at all depends on the nationality framework in Article 35 of Law No. 2644, while the statutory area limits and the military and security zone restrictions attach to the specific property. All of these are fixed at the moment of the transaction, and an acquisition made contrary to statutory limits is considerably harder to unwind afterwards than to avoid beforehand.
- What is checked before a purchase goes ahead?
- Whether the buyer’s nationality falls within the acquisition framework, whether the statutory area limits would be exceeded, whether the property lies in a military prohibited or security zone, the state of the title and any encumbrances recorded on it, and the valuation. Each of these can independently prevent or complicate a transfer, so they are established before commitment rather than at the land registry.
- What changes if the purchase is also meant to support a residence or citizenship application?
- The purchase then has to satisfy conditions beyond ordinary property law. Ownership may ground a short-term residence permit under Article 31 of Law No. 6458, and real estate investment may be taken into account for exceptional citizenship under Article 12 of Law No. 5901. Those qualifying conditions sit in secondary legislation and have changed over time, so we work from the rules in force on the day of the transaction.
- Is the position different for a company buyer?
- Yes, and it should be settled early. Article 35 of Law No. 2644 regulates acquisition by foreign real persons, whereas acquisition by foreign commercial companies falls under separate provisions and special legislation. Because the two are assessed differently, the buyer’s legal form needs to be decided before the structure of the purchase is fixed.