Foreign investors
Documents Required When Selling to a Foreign Buyer
Arriving at the land registry appointment with a missing document costs you the whole day. Which document is whose responsibility, and how long does each take to obtain?
A sale to a foreign buyer calls for more paperwork than a sale to a Turkish buyer, and some of those documents cannot be produced after the event. Turning up to the appointment with something missing is not merely a lost day: if the buyer has flown in, everything from the airfare to the power of attorney has to be arranged again.
The full list is below. Use the checklist at the foot of the page to tick items off and see where you stand.
The commonest cause of delay: unclear responsibility
In practice documents are late not because they are difficult but because it was never settled who would obtain them. Each side assumes the other has dealt with it, and it surfaces on the day of the appointment. That is why the list below names who is responsible for each document.
For the seller to prepare
- The title deed, original or photocopy — any mortgage, attachment or annotation must be cleared first.
- The municipal assessed value letter — where there are no property tax arrears the Land Registry Office can see this on the system.
- A valid compulsory earthquake insurance policy — no transfer is possible if it has expired.
- A copy of the identity document; where a power of attorney is used, the original power and the attorney's identity document.
For the buyer to prepare
- A notarised translation of the passport — the spelling of the names must match the passport exactly.
- A tax identification number — obtained the same day from the tax office or the Interactive Tax Office.
- The eleven-digit foreign identity number beginning with 99, if there is one.
- The declaration form of foreign identity details.
- Where the buyer will not attend to sign, the original power of attorney and the attorney's identity document.
Handled jointly
- The currency purchase certificate — required where the price arrives in foreign currency; it cannot be produced afterwards.
- A property valuation report from an institution licensed by the Capital Markets Board.
- The military prohibited zone check — no appointment should be booked before the result is in.
The most irreversible mistake is completing the transaction without the foreign currency having been sold to the Central Bank. If a citizenship application is intended, the file will be refused without this document and the property stays restricted for three years.
Timing: what should be started early?
Some documents are issued the same day, others take weeks. If the power of attorney is to be drawn up abroad, the apostille and translation are the longest item on the list and should be set in motion before anything else. The valuation report takes a few working days and has a validity period — obtained too early, it may have expired by the day of the appointment.
This is why we check the paperwork on every property in our portfolio before sale negotiations begin: when the bargaining starts, the file needs to be clean.
Document checklist
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Preparation status
0 of 15 documents
15 documents still missing.
On the day of the appointment
- The buyer and the seller, or their agents, must be present at the appointment.
- If the buyer does not speak Turkish, a sworn translator has to attend the appointment.
- The title deed fee must have been paid before the appointment.
- Both parties must have the original photo identity document with them.
The questions we hear most
- Must the buyer be in Türkiye?
- No. The transaction can be carried out by an attorney under a notarised power. Where the power is drawn up abroad, an apostille and a Turkish translation are required.
- What if the buyer does not speak Turkish?
- A sworn interpreter must be present at the land registry appointment. The interpreter not being there is the commonest reason a transaction is not completed on the day.
- Is a currency purchase certificate needed on every sale?
- It is needed where the price arrives in foreign currency. If the buyer intends to apply for citizenship it is indispensable to the file and cannot be produced after the event.
- Who commissions the valuation report?
- In practice the buyer usually commissions it and bears the cost, but it is a matter for agreement. The report must come from an institution licensed by the Capital Markets Board.
- How long does the military zone check take?
- It is carried out by the Land Registry Office and varies by area. It rarely causes difficulty in most of Istanbul, but booking an appointment before the result is in costs you a wasted day.
Where you can verify this
The information on this page is for general guidance and does not constitute legal or financial advice. The legislation may change; consult your accountant or lawyer before acting.