PURCHASE PROCEDURE FOR BUYING PROPERTY IN TURKEY

The Turkish legal system is very different from the British and Irish. However, provided that the appropriate procedures are followed and precautions are taken, buying a property in Turkey is quite safe. First of all choose a reputable estate agent, one used to dealing with international property and one which can provide comprehensive and understandable information about the property you are thinking of buying. This is at the heart of the Prime way of doing business. If you decide to purchase you will sign a simple reservation contract (Reservasyon Sozlesmesi) in Turkey, which reserves the property for you. A reservation contract takes the property off the market for around two to four weeks during which time your lawyer can make all the necessary checks on the property. You pay a reservation deposit of typically £2,000/€3,000. During this period, your lawyer will make the necessary checks about the property but s/he will also need to deal with the key issue of who should become the legal owner of the property.

In Turkey, the law states that only Turks can own either pure land or houses built in militarily sensitive areas. These are found in seemingly random locations throughout the country. Your lawyer will tell you whether the property you want to buy is affected by this restriction. However, this will usually only apply if you are looking to purchase something off the ‘beaten track’. In the case of buying a new property, military permission is purely a formality as no reputable builder will be building in military sensitive zones anyway. It is a simple procedure of clearing every new purchaser to get the Tapu (title deeds) and this will be done as a matter of course by your solicitor. After all the necessary checks have been carried out and providing you are satisfied, you then sign the preliminary contract (On Sozlesme) and, usually, pay over a deposit of 10% of the price (on a resale property) or a down-payment of, perhaps, 30% (on a new or 'off plan' property). There then usually follows a series of staged payments as the construction process progresses. Eventually, the property is finished and a certificate is produced to say that the property is ready for handover. You can then inspect it and identify any snagging.

Once the property has been finished (or, in the case of a resale property, as soon as everyone is ready to proceed), your lawyer will arrange for payment of the taxes on your behalf and the Final Contract of Sale/Title Deed (Son Sozlesme) is signed. This is the document transferring the right to ownership to you and is usually signed at the Land Registry. Buying a property in Turkey in the case of a resale property with no mortgage will typically take about seven months, largely due to delays in getting the necessary permission. In the case of a property under construction, the pace is usually determined by the speed of construction – typically, perhaps, 18 months. In many of the main areas in which property is being built for the European market, there can be no building at all between May and October. This can slow down the building time but during the holiday period there is no machinery or the danger of having a holiday next to building noise.