A foreigner sells property in Türkiye like a Turkish owner: the deed is signed at the land registry in person or through a power of attorney from a Turkish consulate or apostilled abroad. The title deed fee is 2% of the declared price from the seller and 2% from the buyer (Law No. 492, Tariff No. 4), unless agreed otherwise. Individuals pay capital gains tax only if they sell within five years (Law No. 193, Mükerrer Article 80). From 1 December 2026 cash and transfer payments use the state safe payment system; Decision No. 32 lets sellers resident abroad transfer proceeds out through banks.
Most foreigners who sell a flat or villa in Türkiye are no longer in the country when they decide to sell. They bought in Antalya, Alanya, Bodrum or Istanbul, spent a few summers there, and now want to sell from London, Moscow, Dubai or Berlin and bring the money home. The legal steps are the same as for a Turkish owner, but several points work differently for a foreign seller: who orders the valuation report, how a power of attorney must be drawn up, whether capital gains tax is due and how a seller living abroad declares it, and how the price, often paid in Turkish Lira after the buyer converts foreign currency, is moved out of the country. The rules on payment are also changing: under an amendment to the Regulation on Real Estate Trade, a state safe payment system becomes mandatory for property sales paid in cash or by bank transfer from 1 December 2026. This article sets out the process in the order a seller meets it, with the costs, taxes and documents involved.
A sale that collapses at the land registry usually collapses because of something the seller could have fixed months earlier. Start with the register, your own documents and any debts attached to the property.
Obtain a current extract of the land register, tapu kaydı, the official record held by the land registry directorate, either through Web Tapu or through a lawyer. Check that your name, passport number and share are recorded correctly, and look at the annotations and declarations sections. A mortgage, an attachment by a creditor, a court injunction or a no sale annotation will stop or complicate the sale. Under Article 1010 of the Turkish Civil Code, Law No. 4721, restrictions such as court decisions protecting disputed rights, attachments and bankruptcy can be annotated on the register and then bind anyone who later acquires the property. A buyer's lawyer will see them on the first day, so you should see them first.
Under Article 26 of the Land Registry Law, Law No. 2644, the tax identification numbers of the parties are recorded in the official deed together with their identity details. A foreign seller therefore needs a Turkish tax number, usually already obtained at the time of purchase. If your passport has been renewed since you bought, bring both the old and the new passport, or a document linking them, because the register carries the number used at purchase. Name spelling differences between the register and the passport are a frequent cause of delay and may need a correction at the directorate before the sale.
Settle or at least document property tax, building management dues, utility bills and any mortgage balance. If the property is mortgaged, agree with the bank how the loan will be closed and the mortgage released on the transfer day, since most buyers will not pay against a mortgaged title.
A valuation report, değerleme raporu, is a report on the market value of the property prepared by a valuation firm licensed by the Capital Markets Board. Whether the land registry asks for one depends mainly on the buyer, not on the seller.
Under TKGM Circular 2024/2, last updated on 28 September 2026, applications for a valuation report are made by the owner of the property through Web Tapu, and the report is valid for land registry transactions for 12 months. In practice this means that when you sell to a foreign buyer, the application is filed in your name as owner, often by your lawyer or agent, and the fee is paid online before a valuation firm is assigned. Who bears that fee is a matter for the sale agreement. Our guide to ordering a valuation report through Web Tapu shows the screens step by step.
Once a buyer is found, the parties agree the price, the payment method, the transfer date and who bears which costs. Many buyers pay a deposit. Be careful with the form: under Article 237 of the Turkish Code of Obligations, Law No. 6098, and Article 706 of Law No. 4721, a contract for the sale of real estate, and a promise to sell, is valid only in official form. A private signed agreement can still regulate the deposit, which under Article 177 of Law No. 6098 is presumed to be earnest money, but it cannot oblige the other party to transfer the title. If either side wants a binding commitment before the transfer, a promise to sell signed at a notary, which can be annotated on the register under Article 26 of Law No. 2644 and Article 1009 of Law No. 4721, is the safer tool.
The sale application is made either at the land registry directorate where the property is registered or online through Web Tapu, the TKGM portal that has a separate entry for foreign users and allows applications, tracking and fee payment. The directorate checks the file, calculates the fees and gives an appointment. Have ready the passports, the tax numbers, the valuation report if required, a valid DASK policy, the foreign currency purchase certificate if the buyer is a foreign national, and the power of attorney if someone signs for you.
Both parties, or their attorneys, sign the official deed, resmi senet, the sale contract drawn up by the land registry official. If you do not speak Turkish and attend in person, the directorate will in practice require a sworn interpreter. Ownership passes on registration, and the new title is usually issued to the buyer the same day. Before you sign, the price should already be in your account or secured through the payment system described in section 8.3 below, because once the deed is signed the title belongs to the buyer whether or not you have been paid.
The title deed fee, tapu harcı, is set by the Law on Fees, Law No. 492, in Tariff No. 4, paragraph 20(a). The rate applied in 2026 is 20 per thousand, that is 2 percent, charged separately from the transferor and from the transferee, so 4 percent of the price in total. Under Article 63 of Law No. 492 the fee is calculated on the declared price, which may not be lower than the property tax value set by the municipality. If the declared price is later found not to reflect the real price, the missing fee is assessed with a tax loss penalty of one times the amount.
The law places 2 percent on each side, but the parties may agree otherwise, and they often do. In resale between private persons each side commonly pays its own 2 percent; in markets where foreign buyers dominate, buyers are frequently asked to cover the whole 4 percent. Whatever is agreed, write it into the deposit agreement, because the directorate collects both shares before the deed is signed.
| Cost | Rule for the Seller |
|---|---|
| Title deed fee | 2 percent of the declared price by law (Law No. 492, Tariff No. 4); the split can be changed by agreement |
| Declared price | Not lower than the property tax value (Law No. 492, Article 63); understating leads to an extra fee and a penalty |
| Estate agent fee | At most 4 percent of the price plus VAT for the whole sale, split equally between the parties unless agreed otherwise (Regulation on Real Estate Trade, Article 20) |
| Valuation report | Paid online when ordered through Web Tapu; who bears it is agreed between the parties |
| Capital gains tax | Only for individuals selling within five years of acquisition (Law No. 193, Mükerrer Article 80) |
| VAT clawback | Only if the property was bought new with the foreign buyer VAT exemption and is sold within three years (Law No. 3065, Article 13(i)) |
| Safe payment system fee | Usage fee deducted from the price paid to the seller; amount and sharing set by protocol |
| Power of attorney and translation | Notary or consulate fees, sworn translation and apostille where signed abroad |
For the buyer's side of the same numbers, see our article on the cost of buying property in Türkiye; a buyer who has read it will negotiate on that basis.
You do not need to travel to sell. Article 26 of Law No. 2644 allows the declarations of the parties to be taken separately at different directorates or at TKGM's organisation abroad, but this facility is limited in practice, and most sellers abroad appoint an attorney in Türkiye.
There are two routes. At a Turkish consulate, the power of attorney is drawn up under the Notaries Law, Law No. 1512, and can be used in Türkiye directly. Before a local notary in your country, the document must then carry an apostille if your country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, or consular legalisation if it is not, and must be translated into Turkish by a sworn translator and the translation notarised in Türkiye. For land registry use, the power of attorney must be a full notarial deed rather than a simple signature certification, and must carry a recent photograph of you sealed by the issuing authority; a photograph attached only with a staple is rejected.
Under Article 504 of Law No. 6098, an attorney needs express special authority to transfer or encumber immovable property. The power of attorney should identify the property by province, district, neighbourhood, block, parcel and unit number, authorise the sale at a price the attorney may set or at a minimum price you fix, and authorise the attorney to sign the official deed, pay fees, apply for the valuation report and DASK, and deal with the tax office. Whether the attorney may receive the price on your behalf deserves thought: it is safer to require payment directly into your own bank account. Our guide to the power of attorney in Türkiye explains the clauses and the consulate procedure in detail.
A broad power of attorney is the most common tool in property fraud against owners who live abroad. Limit it to the sale of the named property, consider a time limit, and give it to a lawyer bound by professional rules rather than to an agent paid on commission. Under Article 42 of Law No. 6098 you may revoke the authority at any time; if you do, notify the attorney and the directorate, since a good faith buyer may otherwise rely on it.
For private individuals, a gain on the sale of real estate is taxable only if the property is sold within five years of its acquisition, under Mükerrer Article 80 of the Income Tax Law, Law No. 193. Property acquired by inheritance or gift falls outside the rule. Under Mükerrer Article 81, the purchase cost may be indexed to the producer price index if the index has risen by at least 10 percent over the holding period, which in recent years removes much of the nominal gain. For 2026 the first 150,000 Turkish Lira of such gains is exempt, and the remainder is taxed at the progressive rates of 15 to 40 percent.
The filing route depends on your tax status. A seller resident in Türkiye declares the gain in the annual return in March of the following year. A seller who is not resident and is not otherwise required to file an annual return declares it on a special return to the tax office where the property is located within 15 days, under Article 101 of Law No. 193. Your home country may also tax the gain, subject to any double taxation treaty. The calculation, the indexing method and the return are explained in our guide to capital gains tax on property in Türkiye.
A property bought for citizenship by investment carries an annotation on the register that it will not be sold for three years, under Article 20 of the Citizenship Regulation. The directorate will not transfer the property while the annotation stands. When it may be lifted and what happens to the citizenship afterwards is covered in our article on selling property after citizenship by investment.
Heirs must first register the inheritance in their names, which requires a certificate of inheritance and, in practice, an inheritance tax clearance, before they can sell. Our guide to selling inherited property in Türkiye covers that procedure. Inherited property is outside capital gains tax, as noted in section 6.
Many foreigners bought new property from developers with the VAT exemption for foreign buyers not settled in Türkiye under Article 13(i) of the Value Added Tax Law, Law No. 3065. If such a property is sold within three years, the seller must pay the VAT that was not collected, with deferral interest, before the land registry transaction. Check your purchase invoice before you set the price.
If you own a share rather than the whole property, the other joint owners have a statutory right of pre-emption. Under Article 733 of Law No. 4721 the sale must be notified to them through a notary, and the right lapses three months after notification and in any case one year after the sale. A buyer will hesitate to buy a share that can be taken from him by a joint owner, so obtain the joint owners' written waiver where possible.
Article 4(g) of Decision No. 32 on the Protection of the Value of the Turkish Currency prohibits residents of Türkiye from agreeing prices in foreign currency in sales between themselves, except where the Ministry of Treasury and Finance allows it. The Ministry's communiqué permits foreign currency prices where the buyer is not a Turkish citizen. A seller living abroad is not a resident for this purpose, so the restriction does not apply between you and a resident buyer; a foreigner whose legal domicile is in Türkiye, however, counts as a resident.
Since 24 January 2022, a foreign national buying property must sell foreign currency to the Central Bank through a Turkish bank and present the resulting döviz alım belgesi, the foreign currency purchase certificate, at the land registry. The practical effect for you is that the buyer converts the money into Turkish Lira and you usually receive Turkish Lira. If the buyer is applying for citizenship, the land registry also asks for the bank receipt of the transfer from buyer to seller, so insist on a bank payment. Our article on the foreign currency purchase certificate explains the buyer's side.
Additional Article 1 of the Regulation on Real Estate Trade, added on 29 April 2026, requires that where all or part of a property price is paid in cash, by wire transfer or by electronic funds transfer, the payment passes through a payment system that makes the title and the price change hands at the same time. It applies to sales by businesses and by other natural and legal persons, so private foreign sellers are covered. The part of the price financed by a bank loan is excluded. A usage fee is charged for each transaction and deducted from the price paid to the seller. Use of the system was optional until 1 July 2026, and an amendment published on 1 October 2026 moved the mandatory start to 1 December 2026. The details, including excluded sales and the amount and sharing of the usage fee, are left to a protocol between the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change and an authorised integrator, so check the position at the time of your transfer.
Türkiye has no general capital controls on transfers of sale proceeds. Article 16(1) of Decision No. 32 provides that persons resident abroad may transfer, through banks and without restriction, the income from and the sale price of real estate they own in Türkiye. Article 4(e) of the same Decision allows both residents and persons resident abroad to transfer foreign currency abroad through banks, and requires banks to report transfers above 50,000 US dollars, other than trade payments, to the authorities within 30 days. This is a report made after the transfer, not a prior approval.
In practice the bank, not the law, sets the pace. Under the Law on the Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime, Law No. 5549, banks identify customers and examine the source of large amounts, so expect to be asked for:
If you receive Turkish Lira, you can buy foreign currency at your bank and transfer it, but exchange rates move, so plan the conversion and transfer for the days immediately after the sale. Carrying cash is not a good alternative: under Article 4(f) of Decision No. 32, taking more than 10,000 euros or its equivalent in cash out of Türkiye is subject to declaration rules, and undeclared cash can be held at the border.
A careful buyer, or the buyer's lawyer, will check the property before paying. Preparing the answers shortens the sale and supports your price.
Compulsory earthquake insurance, DASK, is governed by the Disaster Insurance Law, Law No. 6305. Under Article 11(2), the land registry may not register a transaction concerning a building subject to the insurance unless a policy valid on the transaction date is documented, so a policy must exist at the transfer. Under Article 11(3), DASK is also checked when water and electricity subscriptions are opened, which matters to the buyer immediately after the sale. Agree whether the buyer will take out a new policy in his own name and ask your insurer about cancelling yours.
Close or transfer the electricity, water, natural gas and internet subscriptions in your name, with final meter readings on the handover day, and ask for the return of any subscription deposits. Give the building manager written notice of the new owner so that dues are no longer charged to you. For property tax, Article 9 of the Real Estate Tax Law, Law No. 1319, read with Article 33(6), means that a change of owner takes effect for tax from the following budget year, so the tax for the year of sale remains yours.
A lawyer who handles the sale end to end, from the register check to the transfer of the proceeds, removes most of these risks. Our real property sales and title deed transfer service is built for owners who are abroad.
Yes. Most foreign sellers appoint an attorney by a power of attorney signed at a Turkish consulate or before a local notary with an apostille and a sworn Turkish translation.
By law the seller and the buyer each pay 2 percent of the declared price under Tariff No. 4 of Law No. 492, but the parties may agree a different split in the sale agreement.
It depends on the buyer: it is always required if the buyer uses the purchase for citizenship and has been requested for foreign buyers, while a sale to a Turkish citizen has not required one under earlier TKGM practice.
Under TKGM Circular 2024/2 a valuation report can be used for land registry transactions for 12 months.
No. For private individuals, real estate gains are taxed under Mükerrer Article 80 of Law No. 193 only if the sale takes place within five years of acquisition.
On a special return filed with the tax office where the property is located within 15 days, under Article 101 of Law No. 193, unless an annual return is required anyway.
Yes. Article 16(1) of Decision No. 32 allows persons resident abroad to transfer the sale price of their Turkish real estate through banks without restriction.
There is no legal limit, but banks report transfers above 50,000 US dollars to the authorities and will ask for documents showing the source of the funds.
If the buyer is a foreign national, he must convert foreign currency through a bank to obtain the foreign currency purchase certificate, so you will usually receive Turkish Lira, which you can convert back at your bank.
From 1 December 2026 it is mandatory where the price is paid in cash, by wire transfer or by electronic funds transfer, except for the part financed by a bank loan and any sales excluded by protocol.
Not while the three year no sale annotation is on the register; after that, the sale follows the ordinary procedure described in this article.
A valid policy must exist on the transaction date under Article 11 of Law No. 6305; the buyer usually takes out a policy in his own name, and you should ask your insurer about cancelling yours.
The seller, because under Articles 9 and 33 of Law No. 1319 the new owner becomes liable from the following budget year; the parties may agree a refund between themselves.
Only if it expressly says so, and it is safer to require payment into your own account and leave that authority out.
Selling property in Türkiye as a foreigner follows the ordinary land registry procedure, but the seller who lives abroad must prepare more: a correct register record and tax number, a power of attorney drawn up in the form the land registry accepts, a valuation report when the buyer needs one, a clear agreement on the 4 percent title deed fee, a check on capital gains tax and any VAT clawback, and a payment route that passes through the safe payment system from 1 December 2026. The proceeds can be transferred abroad without restriction under Decision No. 32, provided the bank receives the documents that show where the money came from.
If you own property in Türkiye and plan to sell from abroad, send us the title details and your timetable before you accept an offer. We can check the register, prepare the power of attorney, deal with the buyer's lawyer and the land registry, and document the transfer of the proceeds. To discuss your sale, contact our legal team.
