Buying Property In Turkey

Buying Property in Turkey is not as complicated as in Europe

Before you start buying property in Turkey you need to decide exactly what you are looking for. Are you buying a property for your own house, renovate an existing property or buy off-plan property in Turkey? Would you like a city centre property, a mountainside villa or an apartment near the beach in Turkey?

Buying property in Turkey is not as complicated as you might imagine. The procedure is often far simpler than in most other European countries.

Buying property in Turkey under one’s own name is allowed for foreigners provided that the properties are not located close to a military airport, station etc.

Every year property prices have been rising but buying property in Turkey is still considerably less costly than buying property in other major tourist areas such as Spain and France, making Turkey an ideal overseas property investment.

After an agreed sale, in order to acquire the title of a property, an application has to be made to the local land registry office. The title may be transferred once checks have been made to ensure the property meets all necessary requirements.

A 1.5% duty both for the purchaser and seller must be paid. In addition, there is an annual property tax, collected by the local government at the rate of 0.1% for houses and 0.3% for developed lands.

New properties are exempt from 25% of the annual property tax for 5 years. All properties are subject to revaluation every year for tax purposes. Generally property agents in Turkey charge 3% as their fee.

When buying property in Turkey, a cooperative is a good bet for many Turkish people. It is possible for non Turkish citizens also to buy a property in a cooperative but foreigners should make sure that a Turkish lawyer investigates properly to ensure that the cooperative is well run and has no outstanding debts.