If you acquired Turkish citizenship by buying property, the title deed carries a commitment that the property will not be sold for three years. Owners tend to assume it disappears when the three years are up. It does not.

The Land Registry's guidance on the citizenship regulation says it in one line: the commitment is removed on the owner's request once the three-year period has expired. No request, no removal. The annotation simply stays on the register, and it will stop a sale at the registry counter years later just as firmly as it did in year one.

This guide covers the procedure: when you can apply, what has to happen first, and what the visit involves. Whether you should sell once it is gone (and why year three is rarely the best year) is a separate question, answered in selling a Turkish citizenship property once the three years are up.

What exactly is on your deed

It is a commitment entry in the declarations section of the register (beyanlar hanesi), recording that the property will not be sold for three years. You will hear it called a şerh; the registry's own documents call it a belirtme. Either way it does the same thing: while it stands, the registry will not complete a sale.

Worth knowing what else the commitment says, because it outlives the three years: a sale back to the person you bought from, or to their first-degree relatives, leads to the cancellation of the investment certificate the citizenship rested on — before or after the three years.

When you can apply

For a purchase, the three years run from the date you acquired the property. If the commitment was declared later, on a separate application, they run from that declaration instead. The relevant date is on the deed record; the registry office can confirm it.

Two exceptions:

  • Citizenship through a promise-of-sale contract (satış vaadi): the three years run from the date the contract was annotated, and the commitment cannot be removed until the property has actually been transferred to you.
  • Early removal is possible, but it is reported. If you ask for the annotation to be removed before three years are up, the registry informs the citizenship and migration authorities immediately. Do not do this without a lawyer's advice; it puts the citizenship at risk.

The order it has to happen in

If you bought as a foreign national, the deed may still be registered under your passport or foreign identity number rather than your T.C. number (the number on your Turkish ID card). That has to be fixed first. At the registry the officer matches the identity card in front of them to the owner on the register; a T.C. card against a passport-number record is a mismatch, and the removal cannot go ahead.

The sign is simple: if e-Devlet does not show the property under your T.C. number, start with the identity correction. The two are separate applications. We have handled both on the same day, the correction first and the removal straight after.

What the visit involves

The removal is an application to the Land Registry Directorate for the district where the property is registered: the district on the deed, which is not always the one the complex is marketed under.

  • Your T.C. identity card, matching the register.
  • A sworn translator if you do not speak Turkish. The registry regulation requires one whenever a party does not speak Turkish; it applies to citizens too, and registry staff cannot act as your translator. The translator signs alongside you.
  • Your signature on the application.
  • An updated deed record afterwards. Do not treat "three years have passed" as the same thing as "the deed is clear". Get the record that shows the annotation gone before you promise anyone a completion date.

A representative can do this for you under a power of attorney from a Turkish notary or consulate. Have it drafted to cover this application expressly: a power written to sell the property does not necessarily authorise removing an annotation, and they are different acts.

Where the time goes

As with the identity correction, the application is the short part. The time goes on the parts around it: a sworn translator available on the right day at a sensible price (rates for the same job vary widely), the right office and counter, and knowing what will be asked for so the visit happens once.

That is what we take on: we prepare the application with you, arrange the translator, and walk you through the day. With the annotation gone, the property is yours to let or sell like any other, through property management while you live abroad, or with a free valuation if you are weighing up a sale.