Tourism has risen dramatically over the last few years, ensuring that demand for quality rental properties in the popular tourist areas will continue to outstrip supply, making rental yields very lucrative. It’s also growing in popularity as a retirement destination, due to its warmer climate, lower costs of living, and excellent property values.
For many, it’s simply a more cost effective location at the moment and certainly seems to be on an upward trajectory, especially now that the Turkish government is easing property ownership rules.
In addition to relaxing its reciprocity laws in 2012, which opened the doors to foreign buyers outside Europe, the government has now amended its TAPU system. This is very similar to how title deeds work in the UK, and without this documentation, it’s extremely difficult to prove legal ownership.
Previously, foreign nationals buying property or land in Turkey have had to apply for military clearance, which ensures that the property or land is not located in a military zone. This process can take up to 10 weeks and has often deterred prospective buyers from going ahead with their purchase, as it can complicate other parts of the purchase process such as obtaining a mortgage. However, a recent revision to the real estate registration process for foreign nationals purchasing property in Turkey has cut the time it takes to obtain title deeds (TAPU) to as little as one day.
Under some circumstances, buyers won’t need to go through the process of getting military approval at all. This applies if the property in question was granted approval after 5th May 2011, or if the buyer is buying into a new development where an existing owner has already gained it.
This is a very welcome development for the Turkish real estate market as it will now be much easier, and much quicker, for foreign nationals to purchase a property. It will also ease the previous problems relating to exchange rates fluctuations and finance availability which were caused by the delays in obtaining TAPU. In addition, it will allow buyers to take part in property auctions and consider bank repossessions, things which were out of the question before due to the inability to obtain legal ownership from the very start.
