What buying property in Türkiye actually costs, beyond the price

The principle before the list

Two different questions get merged in this market, and merging them causes real losses: what does the transaction cost, and what counts toward the citizenship threshold. The second is answered by the currency-purchase certificate rules: only the property price counts. VAT, commission, expenses, taxes and fees are expressly excluded. A buyer who budgets USD 400,000 as one all-in number arrives at the deed short.

So: budget the threshold and the costs as two numbers. Here are the costs.

Statutory and official costs

Title-deed fee (tapu harcı). 4% of the sale price in total, split by statute into 2% payable by the buyer and 2% by the seller, calculated on no less than the property’s municipal tax value. In practice buyers are frequently asked to bear the whole 4% — that is a negotiating position, not the statutory one, and it is worth knowing the difference before you negotiate.

Official valuation fee. Foreign-buyer transactions require an official valuation report. For citizenship-route transactions the report is drawn by the designated valuer through the official channel; the fee is set within that system, not by the parties.

Notarisation and sworn translation. Powers of attorney, notarised contracts where used, and a sworn translator at the registry if you do not speak Turkish — each carries official tariffs.

VAT, where it applies. New-build deliveries from a developer may carry VAT depending on the property and the project’s status. A separate exemption regime exists for first deliveries of new dwellings to qualifying non-resident buyers, with conditions on how the price is brought into Türkiye and a holding period — whether it applies to your purchase is a question for your lawyer and the developer’s documentation, not an assumption.

Compulsory earthquake insurance (DASK) and municipal property-tax registration follow the deed.

Professional costs

Your own lawyer. Engage a bar-registered Turkish avukat, independently of everyone selling to you, with a narrowly scoped power of attorney. This is the one professional cost we would never advise economising on: it is the check on everything else.

Intermediation, where an intermediary charges you. The regulation governing real-estate trading caps the intermediation fee on a sale at 4% plus VAT in total, split 2% and 2% between buyer and seller unless agreed otherwise. Knowing the cap is useful when assessing what any intermediary in this market proposes to charge you. Weldenor’s own model is different: we charge buyers no commission and no separate advisory fee — how we are paid sets out our remuneration plainly.

Holding and exit costs, in one paragraph each

Holding: annual property tax to the municipality, DASK renewal, and site service charges (aidat) where the property is in a managed development — the aidat is set by the site’s management plan and varies widely; read it before buying, not after.

Exit: gains on a sale within five years of acquisition are taxable with indexation relief subject to conditions and an annually reset exempt amount; sales after five years are exempt for individuals. Buyers on the citizenship route also carry the three-year no-sale commitment on the title — selling within it puts the citizenship decision at risk, which is a cost of a different kind.

A budgeting rule that survives contact with reality

Take the price, add the buyer-side statutory costs and your professional costs, and hold a contingency for the items that are set by others — the valuation fee, translation, notary tariffs. Then check the citizenship arithmetic separately: deed price, official valuation and documented payments must each independently reach the statutory minimum. Two numbers, two tests. Buyers who keep them apart rarely have unpleasant surprises; buyers who merge them often do.