Famously, it can take many months, and for some people even years, to hear that their TAPU (title deeds) are ready to be transferred into their name after buying their Turkish property. What does this mean and why does it take so long?
Foreigners are allowed to buy and own property in Turkey as individuals, as long as their home country allows Turks to do the same and as long as the property they're buying meets certain conditions:
1. Must not be on militarily sensitive land
2. Must not exceed 2.5 hectares in total
All purchases of property by foreigners are screened for these things, in a process that is often referred to as the "military check" or title deeds check. When foreigners were first allowed to buy property as individuals in Turkey (instead of having to establish a business), the information needed to clear the purchase was held in several different locations including the regional army offices so each application had to physically go from office to office before it was allowed to go ahead! So even buying a property with a complete set of paperwork (quite an unusual thing in itself) could take many months.
Other things also slowed down the process - the demand for title deeds checks wasn't really anticipated so a backlog quickly grew as new requests came in quicker than the old ones went out; and the paperwork required before a new building can be given tapus for its individual habitations is quite complex, and you need to have a tapu to check before the process cab even start.
Now the process is a bit more streamlined - all the information needed to carry out the check is now kept at the Land Registry. But purchases are still coming in more quickly than they are being done, and the backlog still needs to be cleared, so the checks are still quite slow.
As there aren't the same restrictions on Turkish citizens when they buy property, their purchases don't need to be checked, and their purchases don't incur the cost of the admin. So purchases by foreigners are more expensive than purchases by Turks and the local municipalities often choose to charge for carrying out these checks. There is no law saying who should cover the cost, and the cost can vary from municipality to municipality. So one buyer might pay a few hundred pounds for their title deeds checks, while another's might be paid by the developer, and a third purchase might not incur any charge at all.
So essentially, when buying property in Turkey as a foreigner, you may or may not have to pay for your title deeds check; but if you do, get a receipt (as you should for all payments you make when buying your property). It'll give you peace of mind and something concrete to turn to should you ever need it.
Many thanks to Today's Zaman for being the reference point for this article.
