Istanbul is one of the most popular locations for real estate investment. Every year millions of properties are sold in Istanbul. Since property prices are reasonable in terms of dollar currency and return of investment is high, lots of foreigners choose to buy real estate in Istanbul
You may be looking to buy real estate in Istanbul for different reasons such as investment, living or citizenship purposes. For all cases, there are series of steps that you need to follow in order to buy real estate in Istanbul. However, you don’t need to be scared. Because buying real estate Istanbul doesn’t require too much bureaucracy and the process is easy for foreigners.
1 – SUITABLE PROPERTY SELECTION
Buying the right type of property is the first and most important step of the process. Usually, for new properties (built within last 10 years) all the requirements are fulfilled. Nevertheless, you can use following bullets to make a check list in order to be sure about the property you are buying.
The type of the property written on the tittle deed must be “kat mulkiyeti” which means the property allocation is completed and approved for the building. Otherwise the property you are buying could be not suitable for bank mortgage. Even though you make the purchase all in cash, this could be a problem when you decide to re-sale.
Seller (developer or individual) must declare the sales from the price you buy. Some of the buyers may not be willing to declare full amount in order to pay less amount of tax. If you don’t declare the full amount, you may need to pay extreme income tax when you sell your property back.
You must be sure that the property that you decide to buy doesn’t have a military zone inclusion. Foreigners aren’t allowed to buy property near military zones. Even though it’s a small chance that the property you decide to buy near military zone, you may want to check it in order to save time and money.
2 – DEPOSIT PAYMENT
Once you make sure that the property you decide to buy fulfills all the requirements above, the seller usually demands a deposit to reserve the property for you while you are preparing your documents for sales transaction. Usually deposit amount doesn’t exceed to %10 of the total price. As long as you pay your deposit via bank (EFT) you don’t need to be scared because the law allows you to ask refund for 14 days. Which means when you pay deposit for reserving the property, you have a right to give up in 14 days without declaring any reason.
3 – APRAISAL REPORT
If you buy real estate in Istanbul for citizenship requirements, the law demands an appraisal (expertise) report for the property. This report must be prepared by SPK licensed appraisal firm and must be declared to tittle deed office by the appraisal firm. If you don’t have an appraisal report, you cannot use your property for citizenship application.
4 – TAX NUMBER & BANK ACCOUNT
You need a tax number and bank account to buy real estate in Istanbul. Tax number can be taken from any tax office in Istanbul in 10 minutes. To open a bank account in Turkey what you need is your tax number, passport and a utility bill from your home country. Once you declare these documents, your bank account will be activated within a week.
5 – PAYMENTS
Payments must be completed before the sales transaction. Besides to the property payment, you need to pay 2% tittle deed tax via bank at the sales application process.
For paying the property amount, there are 2 ways that you can choose as in EFT or blocked check. However, because you need to declare the sales bill for citizenship application, you can only pay by EFT method for purchases that made for citizenship application.
6 – TITTLE DEED REGISTRATION
After all these steps are completed, you are delivered your tittle deed that registered on your name. Tittle deed delivery usually is completed at the same day of sales transaction.