Turkish Property Terms Explained for Owners Abroad

The official title deed issued by the Land Registry. It records the owner, the share, the plot (ada/parsel), the independent unit number and the property's legal type. Ownership in Turkey passes only when the tapu is transferred at the registry office, not when a contract is signed or money changes hands.

Two stages of title in a multi-unit building. Kat irtifakı is the title issued while the building is under construction or before its occupancy permit; kat mülkiyeti is the full condominium title issued once the building is complete and permitted. A flat still on kat irtifakı years after delivery is a question to ask before buying or selling.

The municipal certificate confirming the building was completed according to its approved project and may be occupied. Without it, gas, water and electricity can only be connected on a construction-site subscription and the title stays as kat irtifakı. Banks and careful buyers ask for it.

The legal name for a single flat, shop or office within a building that has its own entry in the land registry. Your tapu identifies it by number, block and floor; note that the registry's floor number does not always match the physical floor.

The fraction of the building's plot allocated to your unit, written on the tapu as a ratio. It sets your vote and cost share in building decisions under the Condominium Law and matters a great deal in urban-renewal or reconstruction votes, where compensation follows the land share rather than the flat's size.

The cadastral coordinates of a property: the block (ada) and the plot (parsel) within a neighbourhood. Together with the district and neighbourhood they identify the land unambiguously, and they are what the municipality, the tax office and any valuation report ask for first.

Tapu ve Kadastro Genel Müdürlüğü is the national land registry. Web Tapu is its online service through which an owner can view their deeds, apply for transactions and, importantly for owners abroad, submit applications without visiting the office. Logging in requires e-Devlet credentials.

A note entered on the tapu that restricts or informs: a mortgage, a lease annotation, a court order or the three-year no-sale annotation placed on properties bought for citizenship. Annotations do not remove themselves; each has its own procedure to lift.

The value the municipality assigns to a property for property tax, recalculated every four years from street-level land values and building-cost tables. It is usually far below the market price, but it is the floor for the declared price at a sale and the base for several other charges.

The fee paid to the state when a property changes hands, calculated as a percentage of the declared sale price and by law shared between buyer and seller. Declaring a price below the real one to reduce it is detected from bank records and carries a penalty.

A formal appraisal prepared by a company licensed by the Capital Markets Board (SPK). It is mandatory in a sale to a foreign buyer and for citizenship applications, and banks require it for a mortgage. It is a different document from the free market valuation an agency gives you.

The lease. Residential tenancies are governed by the Code of Obligations, which protects the tenant strongly. The agreement renews automatically each year unless the tenant ends it, and the landlord can end it only on the grounds the law lists. The Turkish text is the binding one.

The two parties to a lease. Kiraya veren is the person letting the property, who need not be the owner; kiracı is the tenant. On a listing you will see the words kiralık (for rent) and satılık (for sale), and sahibinden (from the owner) when no agency is involved.

The sum the tenant hands over against damage and unpaid bills. The law caps a residential deposit at three months' rent and intends it to be held in a bank account in the tenant's name that neither party can touch alone. In practice most deposits are simply paid to the landlord, who must return them at move-out net of documented deductions.

A third person who undertakes to pay if the tenant does not. A valid guarantee must state the maximum amount and the date in the guarantor's own handwriting, and a spouse's consent may be needed; a guarantee that misses these formalities is worthless. Common with student and first-time tenants.

A separate document in which the tenant promises to leave on a stated date. It is the fastest lawful eviction route, but only if it is signed after the tenant has moved in and dated later than the lease. One signed on the same day as the lease is routinely set aside by the courts.

A written warning served through a notary so that its date and content cannot be disputed. Two justified notices for late rent within one lease year give the landlord grounds to end the tenancy. A notice is also how a rent increase or a demand to vacate is put formally on record.

The maximum annual rent increase for a residential lease: the twelve-month average of the consumer price index published by the statistics office for the month before the renewal. A lease clause promising more is ineffective above the cap. The current rate is on our calculator.

The inflation measure the rent cap is tied to: not the headline annual rate, but the average index of the last twelve months against the average of the twelve before, published by TurkStat (TÜİK) on the 3rd of every month, or the next working day. Reading the wrong figure is the most common rent-increase mistake.

After five years of a tenancy, either party can ask a court to set a new rent free of the CPI cap; the judge works from comparable rents and usually applies a discount for the sitting tenant. It takes time and evidence, and the timing of the notice decides when the new rent applies.

The law that governs residential and commercial leases: rent increases, deposits, termination, the tenant's and landlord's duties. When a guide cites “TBK 344” or “TBK 347”, it is pointing at an article of this code.

The signed record of what the flat contained and in what condition at move-in, ideally with photos and meter readings, and its mirror at move-out. Without one, deductions from the deposit are nearly impossible to prove.

A credit-score and payment-history report produced by the Credit Bureau of Turkey that a prospective tenant can generate about themselves and share. Landlords ask for it alongside proof of income; it does not exist for foreign tenants without Turkish credit history.

A government service that lets landlord, tenant and guarantor sign a residential lease electronically inside e-Devlet, producing a contract whose signatures cannot be denied. Optional today, and especially useful when the landlord is abroad.

The tenant's official address registration with the population registry, done at the district registry office or online. It is the tenant's obligation, but it is also how the landlord can later prove who lived in the flat, and foreign tenants need it for residence permits.

The monthly contribution every unit pays for the building's shared costs: doorman, cleaning, lifts, security, pool and garden upkeep, and a reserve. Day-to-day usage charges are the tenant's; capital works are the owner's. The building can always pursue the owner for arrears, whoever should have paid.

The elected manager or professional management company that runs a building or gated complex under the Condominium Law: collects the aidat, keeps the accounts, calls the owners' assembly and enforces its decisions. It is a separate role from a property manager acting for an individual owner.

The law governing life in multi-unit buildings: owners' assemblies, the manager, cost sharing by land share, and the majority rules for renovation and reconstruction decisions. It is the source of the owner's liability for aidat.

The live-in or daytime caretaker employed by the building in older Istanbul apartment blocks: cleaning, the boiler, deliveries, the door. Their salary and social security are paid through the aidat, and their employment is the building's, not any single owner's.

The wall-mounted gas boiler that heats most Istanbul flats and their hot water. Annual servicing is the tenant's usage cost; replacement is the owner's. It is the single most common emergency call in winter and the reason a manager needs a key and a plumber's number.

Gas, water and electricity accounts, each with its own provider and a subscription that must be in the occupant's name. A tenant registers with a copy of the lease and a deposit; an owner should confirm at move-out that the accounts were closed or transferred, or the arrears follow the property.

The state-backed earthquake policy every residential unit must hold. It is the owner's duty, not the tenant's, is required for utility subscriptions and title transfers, and covers the structure up to a capped sum, not contents or rental loss. Renewable online from anywhere.

Optional private cover for fire, flood, theft and contents, and for the part of earthquake damage above the DASK ceiling. It is not a legal requirement and it is not a substitute for DASK; the two are usually bought together.

The municipal tax on owning a building or land, paid in two instalments, by the end of May and the end of November, and doubled inside metropolitan municipalities such as Istanbul. It is calculated on the municipal tax value, not the market price, and it is payable whether or not the property is let.

The tax category for rent. Rental income from a property in Turkey is taxable in Turkey whatever the owner's residence, declared in March for the previous calendar year. Residential rent enjoys an annual exemption that is revised every year.

The one real choice on a rental income return: deduct a flat percentage of the rent with no receipts, or deduct actual documented costs such as insurance, interest, repairs and depreciation. Once chosen, the lump-sum method binds for two years.

The annual declaration. Rental income is filed online through the tax office's portal or by an accountant; the tax is paid in two instalments, March and July. Owners abroad usually file through a mali müşavir acting on their behalf.

A licensed accountant who prepares and files returns in a client's name. For an owner abroad this is the usual route for the rental income return, and the accountant's fee is a deductible expense under the actual-expense method.

The number a foreign national needs before opening a bank account, buying property, taking out DASK or filing a return. It is issued free by any tax office on sight of a passport, and can be obtained online through the tax office's interactive portal without visiting Turkey.

A small municipal charge for waste collection. For residential property it is collected through the water bill and is therefore paid by whoever holds the water subscription, normally the tenant; for empty property it falls to the owner.

An additional annual tax on residential units whose municipal tax value exceeds a threshold that is revised each year. It sits on top of ordinary property tax and is declared separately in February.

Tax on the profit from selling a property held for less than five years, calculated on the inflation-adjusted gain. After five full years from the acquisition date on the tapu, the gain from a private individual's sale is not taxed.

The bank document proving that a foreign buyer's purchase funds were converted into lira through a Turkish bank before the title transfer. It has been required for sales to foreign nationals since 2022 and matters again when the proceeds are sent abroad.

A treaty between Turkey and another country deciding which state taxes what. Under most of Turkey's treaties, rent from Turkish property is taxed in Turkey and the owner's home country gives a credit or an exemption, so the same rent is not taxed twice in full.

turkiye.gov.tr, the single login for government services: title deed records, tax debts, address registration, listing authorisations, the electronic lease. Turkish citizens abroad can obtain the password at a consulate; foreign nationals with a Turkish ID number obtain it from a PTT branch in Turkey.

The identity number beginning 99 that a foreign national receives with a residence permit or on buying property. It is the number the land registry, the tax office and e-Devlet know you by. Owners who later became citizens sometimes find their deed still filed under this number, which then has to be linked to the new one.

The Ministry of Trade's electronic system through which a property owner authorises a licensed agency to advertise a specific property. A portal may not publish a listing without it. Granted in two minutes on e-Devlet and revocable by the owner at any time.

The licence every estate agency must hold, issued by the provincial trade directorate and searchable in the Ministry's public registry. An agency without one cannot lawfully take listing authorisation or charge a fee. Ask for the number before anything else.

A notarised authority for someone in Turkey to act for you: sign a lease, collect rent, sell, appear at the land registry. It is issued at a Turkish notary or a Turkish consulate abroad, or by a foreign notary with an apostille and sworn translation. Its scope should be written narrowly for the exact transaction.

The international certificate that makes a document issued in one Hague Convention country valid in another. A power of attorney or company document notarised outside Turkey needs one, plus a sworn Turkish translation, before a Turkish notary or registry will accept it.

A public notary. In property matters the notary certifies powers of attorney, serves formal notices, witnesses undertakings to vacate and certifies translations. A lease does not need a notary to be valid, but a notarised one is harder to dispute.

Since 2023 a landlord must attempt mediation before filing most tenancy cases, including eviction and rent determination. It adds a few weeks; a settlement reached there is enforceable like a judgment.

The debt-collection process through the enforcement office, used against unpaid rent and, through a special track, for eviction after a valid vacate undertaking. It runs on strict forms and deadlines, which is why a complete file matters more than a strong case.

The Ministry of Tourism permit required since 2024 for letting a home for periods of 100 days or fewer, which needs the unanimous consent of every owner in the building. Since April 2026 the platforms verify it, so an unpermitted holiday let simply cannot be listed.