Following a minor law revision in late 2013, Turkish rural property which consists of property outside of the town planning boundary, comes under new laws in respect of the right of foreigners to purchase. These new laws affect all foreign nationalities without exception. Prior to the 2013 change these properties would have been acquired in general by forming of a Turkish company and holding the property in the company name.

There has been a lot of different interpretations about what the new laws mean and still at the time of writing things are not 100% clearly defined and different regional ministry’s appear to be giving different interpretations and decisions.

Before reading further we recommend you read our Property Buying Guide first.

The New Right To Purchase In A Name Rather Than Company

The new laws stated that foreigners may now purchase property outside the town boundary area in their own names. There are however it seems several provisos:

• a) The property must have land registry title deed and
• b) The title deed must be registered as house and land (Ev ve Arsa) rather than land only .

If the deed is registered as land only a project to build a house and the completion of a construction has to be undertaken and finished within 5 years of the land purchase, otherwise the land may be compulsory repurchased by the government.

Purchase of land described in the deed as olive grove, or fields is subject to approval of the Agricultural Ministry in Antalya and will require the buyer to accept and undertake an agricultural project on the land within 2 years of purchase. If the project is not completed in that time frame the government may make an obligatory requisition of the land.

Terminology of the deed it appears is very important in how the new laws may be interpreted and we are aware of regional differences in interpretation.

Important Notes:

If the property is already owned at land registry by a Turkish company then it may still be sold to a foreigner by sale of the company via the Turkish Notary.

Formation of a Turkish company by the foreigner buyer in order to acquire the property (the former route to purchase) is no longer a valid route to purchase. The property must first be purchased by a Turkish company formed by a Turkish national and then the company may be resold to the foreign buyer.

Conclusion:

If you are seriously interested in property outside the town boundary of we will refer you to lawyer for a more detailed comment at a very early stage of your interest until things have become more clearly defined.