Buying Turkish Property

Please note that property conveyance is executed only at the Land Registry Office.

This is a State Department and no other department, authority, company or person has the power to transfer property deeds to your name.

Whether a property does belong to a person can be checked through the pictures and names appearing on the TAPU. If the TAPU is a Xerox copy, then make sure it has been ratified by a notary public. Otherwise, a fake TAPU might have been handed over to you.

With regards to the names, you can ask for the ID card of the seller(s) and compare the TAPU to the ID card in terms of names. Whether cadastral / map coordinates on a TAPU are genuine can be double checked by means of a private cadastral or a civil engineering bureau.

Furthermore, one can ask the TAPU office to put an annotation (Serh) on the TAPU so as to specifically prohibit an unwanted transaction regarding the ownership. If the conditions described in the annotation are not met, the property can neither be sold out nor transferred into the names of third parties.

A deed called a 'promise to buy and sell contract' between the owner and the buyer of the property will be signed before a Notary Public. This document is official and includes the personal details of both the buyer and seller as well as details of the property price, how payment is to be made, and the time of conveyance at the Land Registry.

In the presence of a Notary Public, a Certified Translator will be sworn to honest translation before proceeding to translate the 'promise to buy and sell contact' to the foreign party. After translation the document will be signed by both parties.

As military permission is needed before these procedures can go ahead, an application to the Land Registry will be made. Unfortunately, this process may take several months.

On receipt of the military permission, the parties, or their legal representatives go in person to the Land Registry for conveyance. Again, a Certified Translator is required when one of the parties is a foreign national.

You're then given the key and deeds to your property. The completed Tapu must have the owners photo attached in the box at the top right hand corner and the photo should be stamped by the issuing Tapu Officer.

NB: Should you purchase a property on a complex and the contracts are signed outside of the Land Registry Office, it could mean that you have only become a member of a co-operative and therefore have no automatic property ownership status under Turkish law. Caveat emptor.

See: Tapu Details

Housing Co-operatives

Housing Co-operatives are legal entities established in line with Law No. 1163 and aim at providing their partners (or participants) with residential flats or houses.

(These entities are one of the most favorable methods of acquiring a property among
Turkish citizens, who are generally at the middle income levels. Tax advantages and relatively cheaper loans provided by State organizations, great potential for economies of scale, and convenient financing requirements evenly distributed to a time scale extending to a couple of years are some of the appealing features of these entities).

However, right management of a co-operative is of high importance. The Board should assure a sound financial status and employing the right contracting company which will construct the
complex is very crucial. Unless a good Board which is composed of trustworthy and talented people is in office, the designated targets may not be attained.

In this regard, if you are planning to purchase a flat, house or villa on a complex, as a part of a cooperative, you are strictly advised to search for all important and relevant aspects.

You can hire a professional to do this on behalf of you. In case you need professional help, please be sure that you assign the professional in question through a sound Power of Attorney.

The following information briefly explains how co-operative mechanism works.

A co-operative has to have at least 7 partners (or participants or members).

The Articles of Association (AA) has to be stamped by a notary public and to be registered to the Trade Registry.

The followings are to be clearly stated in an AA:

The name and address of the co-operative,

Purpose and activities of the co-operative,

The conditions which cause participants to lose their partnership,

Shares of participants,

The degree of the rights and liabilities of participants,

How the co-operative can be represented,

Methods for how revenues and expenditures accrue,

Names and addresses of the founders,

How contributions will be made by the participants,

Other issues, where applicable.

Co-operatives have to arrange partnership in the name of each partners and these documents have to be signed by participants and the representatives of the co-operatives. These notes are
delivered to the partners and indicate that the note holder has a legal partnership in the co-operative.

Main decisions regarding a co-operative activities are made by the General Assembly, composed
of partners. Usual General Assembly meeting has to be held within a period up to 3 years following the previous meeting. Participants are officially invited to General Assembly meetings by the people authorised to represent the cooperative. These representatives are selected by the General Assembly.

Bringing the partnership to an end is allowed by the Law. In some cases, there might be some special time restriction clauses in the AA.

AA may envisage that partnership cannot be brought to an end within a period up to 5 years following the date of partnership.

If any force majeure ( some unforseen event beyond the control of the party concerned), conditions are specified in the AA and a participant falls in a force majeure, then he is exempt from such time restriction.

Partnership rights can be transferred to others or sold out. According to the regulations, any partner is allowed to ask the Board of a Co-operative to provide him/her with the information about the financial status of the co-operative.

A cooperative dissolves if:

All works envisaged by the AA have been materialized and the properties have been registered in the names of the participants.

The General Assembly decides upon that the co-operative will no longer continue:

Bankruptcy is declared.

Relevant Courts have made a decision to dissolve the cooperative.

Another co-operative takes over or purchases it.

Usual General Assembly meeting has not been held for at least 3 years.

The relevant ministry finds out that the co-operative can no longer attain the designated targets.

See: Co-operative Details