The December 2023 property-type change, explained

1. What the decree did

Cumhurbaşkanı Kararı 7938, published in the Resmî Gazete of 12 December 2023, No. 32397, and effective on publication, amended the property limb of Regulation Article 20. From that date the property must have kat mülkiyeti or kat irtifakı established, or be arsa-classified land with a building on it. Bare land and agricultural land without a structure no longer qualify for acquisitions made after that date.

The full text of the decree contains this property-type change and nothing else.

2. What the decree did not do

It did not change the amount. This is worth stating early and plainly, because the December 2023 decree is routinely cited in support of a threshold change that did not happen. The property threshold stood at USD 400,000 before the decree and stands at USD 400,000 after it.

Two related claims should be dealt with in the same breath: the widely reported move to USD 500,000 was a conflation with the six non-property routes, which do sit at that figure; and the rumoured increase to USD 600,000 was discussed but never enacted.

3. What the change closed

We do not speculate about motive; the structure of the rule speaks for itself. The observable effect is that the bare-land route closed: a plot bought with a plan to build on it later can no longer ground an application. Since 12 December 2023, “buy the land now, build later” pitches describe a route that no longer exists — treat them as a red flag, not a strategy.

4. The three qualifying forms, in plain terms

Kat mülkiyeti — the completed condominium regime, established once the building is finished and the occupancy permit issued.
Kat irtifakı — the construction-servitude regime, established over units in a building that is not yet complete.
Arsa with a building on it — land classified as arsa that actually carries a structure.

Each of these is read from the title record itself, not from marketing material. Ask to see the current tapu record for the specific unit, and have your own avukat confirm which regime it shows — the register, not the brochure, is what the condition is checked against.

5. Why this is one of the few conditions checkable in advance

The property-type condition is read directly from the land-registry record. It does not depend on who the buyer is and it does not depend on what happens at the transaction, which makes it one of a small number of conditions that can honestly be checked before anyone commits.

That is also why it is the condition most often over-sold. A property that satisfies it has satisfied one condition. The seller-related conditions, the buyer-dependent conditions, the three separate value tests and the state’s own security assessment are all still ahead.

6. Files that predate the change

Acquisitions completed before 12 December 2023 were governed by the previous wording. How the change interacts with a file that was still in progress across that date, or with a later transaction on the same property, depends on the specific file — it is exactly the kind of question your own bar-registered avukat should answer from your documents, not one to take from an article.

7. What this tells you about the shape of the rules

The amount and the property conditions sit in a Cumhurbaşkanı Kararı, which can be amended and published on the same day, with immediate effect. December 2023 is the working example: a rule that many buyers had planned around changed overnight, with no transitional period. Any plan built on today’s conditions should be built to survive that.