Selling property after Turkish citizenship by investment is where many investors discover that the title deed they have held for three years cannot simply be signed over to a buyer. The Land Registry office will not process the sale, and the reason is not a dispute about ownership. The register still describes the owner as a foreign national with a passport name and a foreigner identification number beginning with 99, while the person standing at the counter is now a Turkish citizen with a different identity number and, in many cases, a different legal name. Over the same property there is also an annotation stating that it will not be sold for three years. Both records must be brought up to date before the Land Registry can treat the owner as the person entitled to dispose of the property.
A lawyer in Turkey who handles these transactions explains the sequence to clients at the first meeting, because the order matters. The identity on the register is updated first. The three-year annotation is lifted second. The sale itself comes third. Behind that sequence sit several questions that investors rarely ask until the sale is imminent: from which date the three years actually run, what happens if the annotation is lifted or the property sold before the period ends, who is legally able to buy a property that was once used for a citizenship application, why selling back to the original developer is now a serious risk, and why a property that may be sold freely after three years can still produce a substantial income tax bill if it is sold before five. This article addresses each of those questions as a practitioner would address them with a client, and it treats selling property after Turkish citizenship as what it is in practice: a sequence of three registry transactions with a tax decision attached.
Why Selling Property After Turkish Citizenship Cannot Proceed Immediately: Two Registry Problems Behind One Title Deed
An Istanbul Law Firm advising a foreign national who acquired Turkish citizenship through real estate starts by explaining how the Land Registry identifies owners. The Turkish land registry system records each owner by reference to an identity number held in the central population register. When the property was purchased, the buyer was a foreigner, and the record was created using the foreigner identification number, the name as it appears in the passport and the nationality at the time. When citizenship was granted by Presidential decision, the population register created a new Turkish identity number for the same person, and the foreigner identification number ceased to be active. From the Land Registry's point of view, the owner recorded in the title register and the citizen presenting a Turkish identity card are two different identities until a formal update links them. No disposition, whether a sale, a gift, a mortgage or the removal of an annotation, can be processed until that link is established.
A Turkish Law Firm then explains the second record. Under the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law, a property acquired for citizenship purposes must carry an annotation in the title register stating that it will not be sold for three years. Where the acquisition was structured through a notarised preliminary sale agreement rather than an outright purchase, the annotation states that the agreement will not be transferred or cancelled for three years. The annotation is entered on the basis of a written undertaking signed by the owner at the Land Registry, and it appears in the declarations section of the register. It is not a mortgage and it does not transfer any right to the state, but it is a formal statement that the property is tied to a citizenship application, and the Land Registry will not register a sale while it stands.
Turkish lawyers who have handled these files point out that the two problems are independent of each other. An owner whose three years have long expired still cannot sell until the identity record is updated, and an owner whose identity record has been updated still cannot sell until the annotation is lifted. Investors who arrive at the Land Registry with a buyer, a notarised power of attorney issued years earlier on the strength of a foreign passport, and a title deed in their old name find that none of those documents is sufficient. In our filings before Istanbul land registry offices, the identity update is completed as a separate prior transaction, and the request to lift the annotation follows once the register shows the owner under the Turkish identity number. Practice may vary by authority and year, but the principle is consistent across offices: the register must describe the owner correctly before the register can be changed at the owner's request.
Step One: Updating the Title Register From Foreign Identity to Turkish Identity Number
A lawyer in Turkey frames the identity update correctly from the outset, because the legal basis determines what the Land Registry may do without a court order. The Turkish Civil Code provides that an inaccuracy in the land register may be corrected by the registrar only with the written consent of those concerned or by court decision, except for simple clerical errors, which the registrar corrects on his own authority. The Land Registry Regulation adds the detail: changes to the register are made at the request of the right holder or on the basis of a decision by a competent authority or court; simple corrections contrary to the supporting document are made by the registry itself; and the updating of information in the register and the completion of missing information follow the same procedure as corrections to the owner's identity details. The Regulation also provides that an application to the Land Registry office is mandatory before any such correction or update, and the courts treat that application as a precondition to litigation. The update required after naturalisation is therefore not the correction of a mistake. It is the updating of a record that was accurate when it was made and has since been overtaken by a change in the owner's civil status.
An English speaking lawyer in Turkey assembles the documents the registry officer needs to establish that the foreign owner in the register and the Turkish citizen at the counter are the same person. The core set is the Turkish identity card; a population registry extract showing the acquisition of citizenship and, where the system displays it, the former foreigner identification number linked to the new record; the passport used at the time of purchase, so that the registered name can be matched to the identity in the passport; and the title deed or title information. Where the owner adopted a Turkish given name or surname at the time of naturalisation, the population record evidencing that change is added, because the name on the register and the name on the identity card will not otherwise match. The population registry extract is obtained in minutes through the e-Government portal once the Turkish identity number is active, and the version that lists former identity numbers should be selected where the portal offers it; an owner abroad can obtain the same extract through a Turkish consulate. The appointment itself is booked through the Land Registry's online appointment system, where the transaction type selected is the updating of identity information rather than a sale; selecting the wrong transaction type is the most common reason an appointment is wasted, because the officer cannot convert one transaction into another on the day. In our filings the Land Registry has collected only the revolving fund service fee for this update, with no title deed fee, and since the 2026 investigations the offices we work with have not asked for any document beyond the identity card and, where a representative acts, the power of attorney. Practice may vary by authority and year.
A Turkish Law Firm warns clients about one document in particular: the power of attorney. Many investors granted a power of attorney during the purchase, issued by a Turkish notary or a consulate on the strength of their foreign passport, and assume it remains usable. For transactions by a Turkish citizen, the Land Registry expects a power of attorney drawn up on the basis of the Turkish identity document. The official land registry guidance for foreign investors confirms that powers of attorney executed at Turkish consulates abroad by Turkish citizens must be based on the Turkish identity card, while powers of attorney executed before foreign notaries may be based on the Turkish identity card or a Turkish passport. A power of attorney that identifies the principal only by a foreign passport number describes a person who, in the eyes of the register, no longer exists. If the owner lives abroad and intends to complete the update, the annotation removal and the sale through a representative, a fresh power of attorney on the Turkish identity is the first practical step, and it is far cheaper to arrange it before the sale is agreed than to discover the problem at the counter.
Step Two: Lifting the Three-Year Non-Sale Annotation
Turkish lawyers who deal with the Land Registry regularly correct a misconception at this stage: the annotation does not disappear when three years pass. The land registry's own guidance for foreign-related transactions states that once the three-year period has elapsed, the annotation is removed directly by the Land Registry office upon request. Two elements of that sentence carry the practical weight. The removal is upon request, which means the owner or an authorised representative must apply; the register will carry the annotation indefinitely if nobody asks. And the removal is made directly by the Land Registry office, which means that no approval from the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, no clearance from the population and citizenship authorities and no confirmation from the migration directorate is required. The officer checks the date, confirms the period has run, and strikes the annotation. In our practice the documents required are the title deed, the updated Turkish identity and, where applicable, a power of attorney on that identity, and the office collects the revolving fund fee for the entry. Before applying, the owner should obtain a current registry extract, which is available through the e-Government portal for the owner's own properties, and read the declarations section: the annotation appears there with its own date and journal number, and that date is the one the officer will compare against the calendar. An extract showing no annotation means either that the undertaking was never entered, which would have prevented the citizenship application from proceeding, or that it has already been removed; an extract showing the annotation with a date more than three years old means the request can be made at once.
An Istanbul Law Firm then addresses the question that generates more errors than any other in these files: from which date the three years run. The annotation text itself refers to three years from the date of acquisition or declaration. Where the property was purchased outright, the period runs from the date the purchase was registered in the title register. Where the undertaking was given later for a property already owned, it runs from the date the undertaking was declared. Where the structure was a notarised preliminary sale agreement, it runs from the date that agreement was annotated. In no case does it run from the date of the Presidential decision granting citizenship, which is frequently many months later, and in no case from the date the passport was collected. Investors who count from the passport date routinely conclude that they are still bound when in fact the period has expired, or conclude that they are free when a few months remain. The registry extract shows the registration date of the acquisition and the date of the annotation; those two dates settle the question.
A Turkish Law Firm also explains what the Land Registry does if removal is requested before the period has run. The registry guidance is explicit: the removal is still processed, and the office notifies the Provincial Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs and the Provincial Directorate of Migration Management so that the cancellation of citizenship can be considered. The same applies to a sale completed while the annotation stands. The Land Registry does not refuse the transaction; it carries it out and reports it. The Procedures and Principles on the Exceptional Acquisition of Turkish Citizenship by Foreign Investors provide that where the conditions set out in the Regulation are not maintained for the prescribed period, the decision granting citizenship is cancelled under Article 31 of the Turkish Citizenship Law, and Article 32 extends that cancellation to the spouse and children who acquired citizenship through the investor. An early sale is therefore not blocked at the counter; it is permitted and then becomes the basis for losing the status the property was bought to obtain. Practice may vary by authority and year, and the consequences of the report are described in detail in our article on citizenship cancellation after the 2026 investigations.
What the Undertaking Prohibits and Permits During the Three Years
An English speaking lawyer in Turkey is asked almost weekly what an owner may and may not do with the property while the annotation stands. The undertaking is a promise not to sell, and in the preliminary sale structure a promise not to transfer or cancel the agreement. Any transaction that moves ownership to another person falls within it: an ordinary sale, a sale to a family member, a gift, an exchange of properties, a contribution of the property as capital to a company the owner controls. Each of these is a transfer, each is registered by the Land Registry if requested, and each is reported to the citizenship authorities as a breach of the undertaking. Investors sometimes assume that a transfer to a spouse or a wholly owned company is a formality that does not count. In the eyes of the register it is a change of owner, and the consequences are the same as a sale to a stranger.
Turkish lawyers who advise on the holding period distinguish those transfers from dealings that leave ownership where it is. Letting the property to a tenant is not a transfer and is not restricted by the undertaking; many investors rent the apartment out for the entire three years. Granting a mortgage over the property to secure a loan is likewise not a transfer in itself, and Land Registry offices generally register mortgages over annotated properties, although the owner should remember that enforcement of the mortgage would end in a forced sale and should also expect some offices to ask questions before registering a charge over a citizenship property. Transfer by inheritance on the death of the owner is not a voluntary disposition, but the treatment of the undertaking in that situation is not addressed in the published guidance in a way that allows a firm statement, and an estate facing it should obtain the position of the competent office before acting. Practice may vary by authority and year on each of these points, and the safe course for anything beyond letting is to ask the Land Registry in writing first.
A lawyer in Turkey also addresses the question of exceptional situations: a forced relocation, a medical emergency, a financial collapse that makes holding the property impossible. The honest answer is that the law does not contain a hardship exception. The Land Registry will process a sale, and the citizenship authorities will then reassess the file under the ordinary cancellation provisions. Whether a particular family's circumstances persuade the Ministry not to propose cancellation is a matter of administrative discretion on which no published practice exists. An owner in that position should document the circumstances thoroughly, consider whether a mortgage against the property can bridge the gap until the period runs, and take advice before signing anything, because the cost of an early sale is not a fine but the status of every family member who acquired citizenship through the investment. Practice may vary by authority and year.
Who Can Buy When Selling Property After Turkish Citizenship: The Buyer Pool Is Narrower Than Sellers Expect
A Turkish Law Firm delivers the piece of information that most sellers find hardest to accept: the property cannot be sold to another foreigner who wants to use it for a citizenship application. The land registry's official portal for foreign investors states that persons who acquired Turkish citizenship exceptionally through investment are treated as foreign nationals for the purposes of the property acquisition rules, and that a property to be used for a new citizenship application must not be acquired from such persons, nor from among properties that such persons have transferred to a Turkish citizen or company within the previous three years. The Land Registry's implementing guide goes further: once a property has been the subject of an Investment Eligibility Certificate, it cannot be used again as the basis for citizenship by another foreigner, even after the undertaking period has ended and even if the owner has changed in the meantime. The property leaves the citizenship market permanently. The rule is enforced not at the sale itself but at the next stage: a foreign buyer who later applies for an Investment Eligibility Certificate on the strength of the property will be refused, because the certificate process checks the property's history for a prior certificate and for acquisition from a person who obtained citizenship exceptionally. For a seller who is selling property after Turkish citizenship, this means the restriction operates on the buyer's plans rather than on the seller's ability to transfer, which is precisely why sellers so often learn of it only when a prospective buyer withdraws.
An Istanbul Law Firm translates that rule into the practical shape of the market. The eligible buyers for a former citizenship property are Turkish citizens, Turkish companies, and foreign nationals who are buying for residence, rental income or investment and have no intention of applying for citizenship with the property. Foreigners seeking citizenship, who in many Istanbul districts form the most active segment of the market for apartments in the relevant price range, are excluded. A Turkish buyer who purchases the property can resell it freely, but if that Turkish buyer sells it on to a foreigner within three years, that foreigner also cannot use it for citizenship. The one exception in the guidance concerns properties developed and sold through a company owned by the naturalised person under project conditions set out in the guide, which is relevant to developers and not to an individual owner of a single apartment. Sellers who were told at the time of purchase that the apartment would be easy to resell to "the next investor" should recalibrate: that buyer does not exist for this property.
Turkish lawyers who review sale offers for these owners see the consequence in pricing. Properties in projects marketed heavily to citizenship applicants were often sold at a premium that reflected the citizenship outcome rather than the underlying real estate value, and the resale market for the same apartment, now limited to buyers who are paying for the apartment alone, may not support the original price. This is not a legal problem but it shapes the legal advice: a seller who needs to realise a particular figure may be better served by holding and letting until the five-year tax threshold has also passed, while a seller who needs liquidity should set expectations against comparable sales to Turkish buyers in the same building. Practice may vary by authority and year in how the Land Registry checks the buyer's intentions, but the rule itself is applied through the Investment Eligibility Certificate process, and a foreign buyer who later applies for citizenship with the property will simply be refused the certificate.
Selling to a Foreign Buyer Who Is Not Seeking Citizenship
An English speaking lawyer in Turkey handling a sale to a foreign buyer who wants the apartment for its own sake confirms that the ordinary rules on foreign acquisition apply to the buyer, and that the seller's new status changes which rules apply on the seller's side. Under the Land Registry Law, foreign natural persons may acquire property in Turkey subject to the limits set by the President on nationality, total area and the share of a district that may be foreign-owned, and subject to the exclusion of military forbidden zones and security areas. The Land Registry checks the buyer's nationality against the list of permitted countries and runs the location of the property against the military zone data before registering the sale. These checks are the buyer's concern, but a seller should know that they exist because they add time and, in a small number of locations, can block a sale entirely.
A Turkish Law Firm explains the payment documentation. Since early 2022, a foreign natural person buying property in Turkey must document that the purchase price was converted to Turkish lira through a bank and obtain a foreign currency purchase certificate, which the Land Registry requires before registering the sale. The requirement attaches to the buyer's side of the transaction. The seller, who is now a Turkish citizen, is not subject to it, and the sale is from the seller's perspective an ordinary domestic transaction. The buyer will also need a valuation report from a licensed appraisal company, which the Land Registry requires for acquisitions by foreign nationals, and the seller should expect the buyer's bank, if financing is involved, to conduct its own appraisal. A seller who has lived through the appraisal fraud investigations of 2026 will appreciate why these reports are now examined closely.
Turkish lawyers who prepare sale contracts for these transactions pay attention to a point that follows from the rule in the previous section. The contract should record that the buyer is acquiring the property for residence or investment and is aware that the property cannot be used as the basis for a citizenship application. This protects the seller from a later claim that the buyer was misled into believing the property qualified, and it avoids a dispute if the buyer applies for an Investment Eligibility Certificate and is refused. A buyer who is honest about intentions and a seller who is honest about the property's history produce a transaction that closes; a buyer who intends to try for citizenship regardless should be told plainly that the application will fail. Practice may vary by authority and year, and the Land Registry's eligibility check is the mechanism that enforces the rule, but a clear contract prevents the parties from reaching that point in conflict.
The Clawback Risk: Selling Back to the Developer or a Related Party
A lawyer in Turkey raises this issue before the client does, because the client often regards it as the easiest route. Many citizenship properties were sold with an informal understanding, sometimes a written side agreement, that the developer or an affiliated company would buy the apartment back once the three years had passed, often at or near the original price. In 2026 that understanding became the central element of two criminal operations. Prosecutors described a pattern in which properties were sold at inflated appraised values to foreign buyers, citizenship was obtained, and the properties were then transferred back to the seller or an affiliate. The Ministry of Interior cancelled the citizenship of more than six thousand people in connection with files showing that pattern. A sale back to the original seller or a related party after three years is now the single transaction most likely to draw scrutiny from the Land Registry and the citizenship authorities.
An Istanbul Law Firm explains the legal mechanism. The citizenship was granted on the basis that a genuine investment of the statutory amount had been made. A pre-arranged return of the property to the seller, particularly at a price unrelated to market value or accompanied by a refund, is evidence that the original transaction was a sham and that the investment condition was never truly met. That evidence supports cancellation under Article 31 of the Turkish Citizenship Law on the ground of false statement or concealment, with the consequences for spouse and children that Article 32 attaches. A seller who completed a genuine purchase, paid the real price and held the property has nothing to fear from an ordinary sale to an unrelated buyer. The same seller who accepts a buy-back offer from the developer converts a clean file into one that looks exactly like the files the prosecutors described.
Turkish lawyers who advise sellers therefore apply a simple rule: the buyer should have no connection to the original seller, the developer, the sales agent who arranged the purchase, or any company in which those parties hold an interest. Where a developer makes an unsolicited offer to repurchase, the owner should decline and seek buyers on the open market. Where the owner is bound by a side agreement promising a resale to the developer, the agreement itself is a liability and should be reviewed before anything is signed, because performing it may be more dangerous than breaching it. The property's history is visible in the register; the Land Registry can see who sold it, who bought it and who is buying it now. Practice may vary by authority and year in how actively these transfers are examined, but after 2026 the prudent assumption is that a return transfer will be examined.
Tax: The Gap Between the Three-Year Annotation and the Five-Year Capital Gains Rule
A Turkish Law Firm regards this section as the most valuable advice in the file, because it concerns money the seller does not expect to lose. The three-year undertaking is a citizenship rule. Turkish income tax has its own rule for individuals who sell real estate, and it uses a different period. Under the repeated Article 80 of the Income Tax Law, a gain realised on the sale of real estate acquired for consideration is taxed as a capital gain if the sale takes place within five full years of acquisition, and the five years run from the date of registration in the title register. A property that may lawfully be sold after three years therefore remains within the capital gains rule for a further two. A sale in the fourth or fifth year is free of citizenship consequences and fully exposed to income tax. A sale after five full years is outside the capital gains rule entirely, whatever the size of the gain.
An English speaking lawyer in Turkey then explains how the gain is computed, because the computation produces results that foreign investors find counterintuitive. The gain is measured in Turkish lira. The acquisition cost is the lira value recorded at purchase, indexed for inflation using the producer price index where the increase in the index between acquisition and sale is at least ten percent. From the lira sale price are deducted the indexed cost, the seller's expenses of sale and the title deed fee paid. The resulting net gain, less the annual exemption, is taxed at the progressive income tax rates, which in 2026 run from fifteen to forty percent. The exemption for sales in 2026 is 150,000 Turkish lira; it was 120,000 lira in 2025 and is revalued each year. An investor who paid in dollars, held the apartment while the lira depreciated and sold at a dollar price equal to or below the purchase price can still show a substantial lira gain after indexation, and can owe tax on it. The indexation mitigates but does not eliminate the effect of currency movement, and the exemption is small relative to the values involved.
Turkish lawyers who plan these sales therefore advise clients to count two periods, not one. Where the client's circumstances allow, holding the property past the fifth anniversary of registration removes the capital gains exposure completely and simplifies the transaction. Where the client must sell between the third and fifth year, the gain should be computed before the price is agreed, the seller should expect to file an annual income tax return in Turkey for the year of sale, and a seller resident abroad should take advice on the interaction with the tax rules of the country of residence, which a Turkish lawyer does not assess. The title deed fee is separate from income tax: under the Law on Fees it is charged at two percent of the sale price from the buyer and two percent from the seller, four percent in total, on the real price. Declaring a lower price to reduce the fee is a tax offence that the Revenue Administration has pursued aggressively through "invitation to explain" procedures and penalised assessments, and in a market where the original purchase was already scrutinised for its declared value, an understated resale price invites exactly the attention the seller should avoid. Practice may vary by authority and year in the exemption amount and the brackets, but the five-year rule itself has been stable.
Sequencing the Sale of Property After Turkish Citizenship: Timeline, Power of Attorney and Closing-Day Checklist
An Istanbul Law Firm closes the advice with the practical sequence as it runs in Istanbul land registry offices. First, the dates are verified from the registry extract: the registration date of the acquisition, from which both the three-year undertaking and the five-year tax period run, and the date of the annotation. Second, the population record is checked: the Turkish identity number exists, the name on the identity card is compared with the name on the title, and the record linking the former foreigner identification number to the new identity is confirmed. Third, an appointment is booked through the Land Registry's online appointment system for the identity update, which is completed as a transaction in its own right against the revolving fund fee. Fourth, a second request is made for removal of the annotation, which the office processes directly once the period has run. Only after both entries appear in the register is the sale appointment booked. In our filings these steps are taken separately and in this order; attempting to combine them in a single appointment has not worked in the offices we deal with. Each appointment is ordinarily completed on the day it is held, so the practical timeline is governed by appointment availability rather than processing time; in busy Istanbul districts the interval between booking and appointment can be longer than the transaction itself, and an owner working to a buyer's deadline should book the update and the removal before the sale contract is signed rather than after. Where the owner holds more than one property under the same undertaking, each property has its own annotation and each requires its own removal request, although the identity update is made once and applies to every title in the owner's name. Practice may vary by authority and year.
A lawyer in Turkey then addresses representation, since many owners live abroad. A power of attorney for the update, the removal and the sale should be issued on the basis of the Turkish identity card, at a Turkish consulate or, if issued before a foreign notary, legalised by apostille and translated by a sworn translator in Turkey. It should expressly authorise the representative to apply for the updating of identity details in the land register, to request removal of annotations and undertakings, and to sell and transfer the specified property or all property of the principal, with the authority to receive the price if that is intended. A power of attorney limited to the purchase, or one that does not mention annotations, will be refused for the removal step. Where the family acquired citizenship together and the property is registered in one name, only that owner's authority is needed for the sale, but the family should understand that the sale closes the citizenship file for everyone and that no further undertaking is required of anyone once the annotation is lifted.
Turkish lawyers who attend the closing bring a short list to the counter. The seller presents the Turkish identity card and, if acting through a representative, the power of attorney on that identity. The register must show the updated identity and no annotation. The municipality's confirmation that property tax is paid to date is obtained in advance, since the Land Registry requires it. Compulsory earthquake insurance must be in force. The buyer, if foreign, presents the foreign currency purchase certificate and the valuation report, and the Land Registry runs the nationality and military zone checks. The declared price is the real price, and the title deed fee is paid by each side at two percent before the signing. If the sale falls within five years of acquisition, the seller leaves the counter with a tax return to file in the following March. The property, once a citizenship investment, becomes an ordinary asset sold in an ordinary transaction, and the family's citizenship, if the undertaking was honoured and the original purchase was genuine, is unaffected. Related guidance is available on our pages on Turkish citizenship by investment, real estate transactions for foreign nationals, tax matters for foreign investors and title deed verification.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When can I sell the property I bought for Turkish citizenship? Once three years have passed from the date the purchase was registered in the title register, or from the date the undertaking was declared if it was given later, and once the annotation has been formally lifted at the Land Registry on your request. The period does not run from the date of the citizenship decision or the date you received your passport. Check the registration date on your title registry extract; that date, not the citizenship date, controls.
- Does the three-year annotation come off automatically? No. The Land Registry's guidance states that after three years the annotation is removed directly by the office upon request. If nobody applies, the annotation remains on the register indefinitely. The removal does not require approval from any ministry; the registry officer verifies the date and strikes the entry against the revolving fund fee.
- Why does the Land Registry say my title is still in a foreign name? Because the register recorded you as a foreign national with a foreigner identification number when you bought, and your citizenship created a new Turkish identity number in the population register. Until the Land Registry updates the title to your Turkish identity, the two records describe different persons and no transaction can be processed. In our filings this update is a separate transaction completed before the annotation is lifted, and the office collects only the revolving fund fee for it.
- I took a Turkish name when I became a citizen. Does that change anything? It makes the identity update essential rather than merely procedural. The title register shows your passport name; your identity card shows your Turkish name. The Land Registry will match the two using your population record, which shows the name change and the acquisition of citizenship, together with the passport used at purchase. Bring all three.
- Which documents do I need for the identity update and the annotation removal? Your Turkish identity card, a population registry extract showing the acquisition of citizenship and your former foreigner identification number, the passport used at the time of purchase, and the title deed or title information. If a representative acts for you, a power of attorney issued on the basis of your Turkish identity card. Since the 2026 investigations the offices we work with have asked for nothing beyond the identity and the power of attorney.
- Can I use the power of attorney I signed when I bought the property? Usually not. That document identifies you by your foreign passport, and for a transaction by a Turkish citizen the Land Registry expects a power of attorney based on the Turkish identity card. It should also expressly cover updating identity details in the register, requesting removal of annotations and selling the property. Arrange a new power of attorney before the sale is agreed.
- What happens if I sell before three years? The Land Registry processes the sale and reports it to the Provincial Directorate of Population and Citizenship Affairs and the Provincial Directorate of Migration Management. The citizenship authorities then reassess the file, and under the Procedures and Principles on exceptional acquisition the citizenship decision may be cancelled under Article 31 of the Turkish Citizenship Law. Under Article 32 the cancellation extends to the spouse and children who acquired citizenship through you. There is no hardship exception in the legislation.
- Can I rent out or mortgage the property during the three years? Letting the property is not a transfer and is not restricted. Granting a mortgage is also not a transfer, and offices generally register it, although enforcement would end in a forced sale and some offices ask questions before registering a charge over a citizenship property. Gifts, exchanges and contributions to a company are transfers and breach the undertaking.
- Can I sell to another foreigner who wants Turkish citizenship? No. The official guidance treats persons who acquired citizenship through investment as foreign nationals for property acquisition purposes, and a property acquired from such a person cannot be used for a new citizenship application. A property that has been the subject of an Investment Eligibility Certificate can never again be used for citizenship by anyone. Your buyers are Turkish citizens, Turkish companies and foreigners who want the property for its own sake.
- If I sell to a Turkish citizen, can that buyer sell to a foreigner for citizenship? Not within three years of your transfer, and in practice not at all, because the property itself is excluded from further citizenship use once it has carried an Investment Eligibility Certificate. A Turkish buyer may resell freely to anyone, but no later foreign buyer can use the property for a citizenship application.
- The developer has offered to buy the apartment back. Should I accept? No. A return transfer to the original seller or a related party after the three years is the pattern that the 2026 criminal operations identified as evidence of sham transactions, and it supports cancellation of citizenship for false statement. Sell on the open market to an unrelated buyer. If you signed a side agreement promising a resale to the developer, have it reviewed before performing it.
- Do I pay tax if I sell after three years? Possibly. The capital gains rule in the Income Tax Law uses five years from registration, not three. A sale in the fourth or fifth year is taxed on the gain, computed in Turkish lira, with the acquisition cost indexed for inflation where the index rose at least ten percent, less expenses and the 2026 exemption of 150,000 lira, at rates from fifteen to forty percent. A sale after five full years is outside the rule entirely.
- I did not make a profit in dollars. Why would I owe tax? Because the gain is measured in lira. If the lira depreciated between purchase and sale, the lira sale price may exceed the indexed lira acquisition cost even where the dollar price fell. Indexation reduces the effect but does not remove it, and the annual exemption is small relative to property values. Compute the gain before agreeing a price, and if your circumstances allow, consider holding past the fifth anniversary.
- What fees are payable at the sale? The title deed fee under the Law on Fees is two percent of the real sale price from the buyer and two percent from the seller. Separate revolving fund fees are charged for the identity update, the annotation removal and the sale. Property tax must be paid to date and compulsory earthquake insurance in force. Declaring a price below the real price to reduce the fee is a tax offence that the Revenue Administration pursues through invitation-to-explain procedures and penalised assessments.
- I live abroad. Can the whole process be handled without me? Yes, through a representative holding a power of attorney issued on your Turkish identity at a Turkish consulate, or before a foreign notary with apostille and sworn translation, covering the identity update, the annotation removal and the sale. The identity update and the removal are booked as separate appointments through the Land Registry's online system, and the sale follows. Allow time for each step rather than planning a single visit.
About the Author
Attorney Mirkan Günay Topcu is the Managing Partner of ER&GUN&ER Law Firm in Istanbul and a member of the Istanbul Bar Association, registration number 67874. He graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Law in 2018, was admitted to the Istanbul Bar the same year, and completed a Master of Laws in private law at Galatasaray University in 2022. He has accumulated years of cross-border legal practice experience covering China, Europe, the Middle East and the CIS countries, with a concentration on Turkish citizenship and immigration law, real estate transactions for foreign nationals, and administrative litigation.
His citizenship practice covers the full life of an investment-based file: the acquisition and eligibility certificate stage, the holding period, and the post-acquisition phase in which the title register is updated, the undertaking is lifted and the property is sold. He advises foreign nationals who have become Turkish citizens on title updates at Istanbul land registry offices, annotation removal, structuring resales to eligible buyers, avoiding return transfers that invite scrutiny, and the timing of sales against the five-year capital gains rule, together with the preparation of powers of attorney that will be accepted for these transactions.
He works alongside Attorney Enes Erdoğan, Istanbul Bar registration number 68266, and Attorney Emircan Erkılınç, Istanbul Bar registration number 65729. The firm's clients are predominantly foreign nationals and foreign companies with legal matters in Turkey. All engagements are established by written agreement and a power of attorney, and all costs are collected against official receipts, with notary, sworn translation, apostille and Land Registry fees arising separately during the process. His professional profile is available on LinkedIn.
If you acquired Turkish citizenship through real estate and are planning to sell, the first step is to obtain a current title registry extract and your population record so that the registration date, the annotation date and the identity details can be checked against each other before any buyer is approached.
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