Buying Procedure

REAL PROPERTY ACQUISITION OF FOREIGNERS IN TURKEY

Article 12 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey has stated ‘Every person has individual, inviolable, untransferable and unrenouncable fundamental rights and freedoms.’ And has also involved the foreigners in the content of this provision. However, article 16 of our constitution concerning the status of the foreigners has stated ‘ The fundamental rights and freedom may be limited for foreigners by law in accordance with the international law.’ and clarified by this provision that the rights and the freedoms of the foreigners in our country may be arranged and the limited as different from what is it for the turkish citizens, under article 1 of the Protocol under the EuropeanHuman Rights and main Provisions Agreement.

Reciprocation Principle: Immovability of the foreign people and commercial companies depends on the fact that whether Turkish citizens and commercial companies are allowed to acquire a property in the said foreign countries. And this right must be put into practice.

THE LAW (RESTRICTIVE DECISIONS)

The second principle for foreign people to acquire property are some restrictive decisions. There are some legal limitations for foreign citizen acquiring property in Turkey and these are as follows; A – According to the Law The Military Forbids some geographical areas for strategic reasons to be sold and transfered to foreign people. B – According to article 35 of the Land Registry Act number 2644, the foreign real people in our country can not acquire more than 30 hectare property. C – Since the 87th article of the Village Act no 442 has been altered, foreign citizens are not allowed to aquire property in villages.

TITLE DEED TRANSACTIONS

1st stage :Permission is required from The Aegean Army for foreign citizens to purchase a property following the paper work to be made for this permission. a- A special map is drawn by the Directorate of Cadastry Office. b- A translated and certified copy of the foreign citizen’s passport. These documents are delivered to the Title Dead Office, together with the owner. The Directorate forwards the application to The Aegean Army.

2nd stage : When this permission is received from the Army (which takes 6 weeks at least), the owner and the purchaser or their legal representatives applies to the Title Deed Office to start the transfer. These official steps may take 1 or 2 days depending on the position of the Office.

Required Documentation
- The Purchaser’s 2 photographes - If the Seller or the purcahaser is represented by another person, a Power Of Attorney issued by a notary public. - A tax to be the 3% of the established value of the property is paid as the tax. This value is determined at the Town Hall presenting the relevant title deed and in return a Valuation Paper is issued. This value is determined taking the location of the property into account. - There are also some charges to be paid at the Title Deed Office, detailed information about which can be obtained directly from the Directorate of Title Deed.

THE BUYING PROCESS

Purchasing a property in Turkey is actually much easier than in many European Countries. In order to acquire the title deed of a property, an application has to be submitted to the Land Registry Office local to the area in which the property is situated. After carrying out the necessary searches and checks, the transfer of the title is completed by the Land Registry Office. In Turkey it is a legal requirement that both the seller and the buyer must be present at the entry into the property register. A purchase tax of 3% is collected from the purchaser during the transaction. An annual property tax is collected by local government at the rate of 0.3% for land and 0.1% for a house in the Fethiye area. In the bigger cities these figures are double. All properties are subject to revaluation every year for tax purposes. On newly built properties, within three months of completion the buyer must complete an affidavit and submit it to the local government for these tax purposes. We are happy to guide customers through this process for the first time.

The purchase of a property is completed in four stages:

Stage 1: A reservation contract is signed to secure the property. A £ 2,000 deposit is required per property.

Stage 2: We recommend an independent lawyer where a sales agreement is prepared and signed, by both parties.

Stage 3: Visit the Notary public for issuing a Power Of Attorney to assign Tufan aftersales department to act on your behalf for the title deed transactions, utility connections and opening a bank account.

Stage 4: Once the application has been approved by the Land Registry Office (it takes 2-3 months for the security and property location checks to be completed and approved) the title deed of the property will be assigned over to the buyer, assuming all outstanding payments have been received. It is at this point of title deed transfer that the purchase tax will be paid.