Turkish Citizenship by Real Estate: The USD 400,000 Property Route, Step by Step

Turkey citizenship by real estate investment starts with property worth at least USD 400,000, held for three years under a no-sale annotation on the title deed, after the official valuation and currency checks. Since December 2023 only condominium or construction-servitude units, or land carrying a building with an occupancy permit, qualify. Approval is never automatic.

This guide follows the route in the order the Land Registry runs it. At each step you get the rule, and the mistake that sinks the file.

On this page

• How the real estate route works
• Which properties qualify (and which do not)
• The seller rules: who you may not buy from
• Step by step: from offer to citizenship application
• The three-value test and the USD rules
• Your family in the same application
• Dual citizenship and military service
• Five myths the ranking pages still repeat
• Turkey’s property route vs EU property-based residency
• Frequently asked questions

This guide is general information about Turkey’s citizenship by investment rules and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Rules, valuations and eligibility can change and depend on individual circumstances. Citizenship is granted at the discretion of the Turkish President and is never guaranteed. Obtain independent professional advice, and confirm the current rules with the Land Registry and qualified Turkish counsel, before you buy property or apply.

How the real estate route works in one paragraph

Article 12(1)(b) of the Turkish Citizenship Law (Law 5901) lets the President grant citizenship to foreigners who hold an investor residence permit under article 31(1)(j) of Law 6458, together with their foreign spouse and their own and their spouse’s minor or dependent children. The investment rules sit in article 20 of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law. For property, article 20(2)(b) requires USD 400,000 or its foreign-currency equivalent in a qualifying property, with a three-year no-sale annotation on the title, or a notarised presale contract with the full amount paid upfront. The Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change attests the investment. Two limits frame the rest. Meeting the conditions gives you no absolute right to citizenship (Law 5901, articles 10(1) and 12(2)). And a grant obtained through a false statement or by concealing a material fact can be annulled (article 31), and the annulment also reaches a spouse and children who became Turkish through that grant (article 32).

The rules have moved often. The threshold rose from USD 250,000 to USD 400,000 by a Presidential Decision published on 13 May 2022, applying to purchases from 13 June 2022, and the property-type rule arrived on 12 December 2023. The consolidated Regulation shows no change to article 20 since then, but check the Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete) for any newer amendment before you sign.

Property is one of seven routes. The others, a USD 500,000 capital investment, deposit, government debt, fund or pension holding, or creating 50 jobs, are covered in our Turkey citizenship by investment guide. The Regulation also lets you switch between investment types to complete the three years (article 20(8)).

Which properties qualify (and which do not)

The December 2023 property-type rule

Since 12 December 2023, a qualifying property is one of two things. Either an independent unit under Condominium Law 634, held under full condominium ownership (kat mülkiyeti) or construction servitude (kat irtifakı). Or land registered as “arsa” that carries a permanent building with an occupancy permit (yapı kullanma izin belgesi).

Unbuilt land, land still under the two-year project obligation and agricultural land are out. Timeshare (devre mülk) does not count either.

Whole units only, in your own name

A share in a property (hisseli) does not qualify. Buying the whole of a jointly owned property does. The purchase must be in your own name: a property bought in the name of your spouse, your child, or a company you own or manage does not count. Several properties bought by sale can be combined to reach USD 400,000, provided each passes every other rule on this page.

Presale (off-plan) contracts

Off-plan purchases work through a notarised presale contract, on tight conditions. The unit must be a condominium or construction-servitude unit, and it must be ONE contract covering the full USD 400,000, paid no later than the contract date. You cannot top up a shortfall on a normal sale with a presale contract. The three-year undertaking not to transfer is annotated, and it cannot be lifted until the sale to you completes.

Where foreigners cannot buy

Foreign natural persons may buy only if they are nationals of countries determined by the President. A 2012 list covered 185 countries, but the current list is not public, so confirm your nationality’s position with a land registry directorate before you commit money. If you hold several nationalities, the least privileged one governs and a non-permitted nationality means refusal, unless you are also Turkish.

Location limits apply on top:

• Foreigners may hold no more than 10% of the private-property area of a district, and no one person more than 30 hectares nationwide (the President may double this).
• No acquisition in second-degree military forbidden zones, and the President may ban acquisition near military or strategic zones.
• Special security zones need the governor’s permission, and heritage (sit) areas get an extra check.

The seller rules: who you may not buy from

The Land Registry (TKGM, the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre) excludes:

1. Foreign owners and your Turkish relatives. Property registered to foreigners, or to your first-degree relatives who are Turkish citizens.
2. Property that went the other way. A second-hand property that you or your first-degree relatives previously transferred to a Turkish citizen or company.
3. Recent foreign sellers. Property transferred to a Turkish citizen or company in the last three years by any foreign person, or by someone who became a citizen through this route. Acquisitions under a construction contract are the exception.
4. Earlier investor-citizens. Property registered to someone who became a citizen under article 12(1)(b), who counts as a foreigner here.
5. Your own companies. Property registered to a company where you or your first-degree relatives are a partner or manager.
6. Foreign-capital developers. Units of a foreign-capital company, unless that company set up the condominium, built the unit and never transferred it.

Two more rules sit beside these. A property can be used for citizenship only once. And the dates matter: property bought or paid for before 12 January 2017 does not count, and neither do presale contracts signed before 7 December 2018.

Step by step: from offer to citizenship application

The sequence below follows the process as TKGM describes it on its official portal.

Step 1: Check the property and the seller

Before any money moves, run the property against every rule above. One “no” ends the route for that property, however good the price.

Step 2: Request the valuation (TTB) through WebTapu

The valuation that counts is the Tutar Tespit Belgesi (TTB, the value determination document), requested on WebTapu, the Land Registry’s online portal. Since 1 March 2024, under TKGM Circular 2024/2, the TTB is produced from a valuation report by the valuation company designated under that circular, prepared in the TADEBİS system and sent to TAKBİS and WebTapu. Paper TTBs are not accepted.

The trap is the number. For transactions after 13 June 2024 (TKGM Circular 2024/4), a TTB value below the required amount means the application is refused, whatever you paid. The TTB must also be no more than six months old at the application, or it is renewed. Sales by public bodies, municipalities and their companies, and real estate investment trusts are exempt from the TTB, though TKGM may still ask for one.

Step 3: Convert the price and obtain the DAB

For the property route, the Regulation requires your foreign currency to be sold to a bank in Turkey, and by that bank to the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT), before the transaction. The bank issues a Döviz Alım Belgesi (DAB, the foreign exchange purchase certificate) and sends it to the Land Registry by KEP, Turkey’s registered e-mail system. Hand delivery is not accepted.

The DAB states your identity, the property, the USD equivalent and that it is issued for Turkish citizenship, and several DABs can be added together. This is not only a citizenship rule. Under article 13 of the CBRT’s Capital Movements Circular, a buyer without Turkish citizenship pays in foreign currency sold to a bank for the CBRT before the deed, and the bank sends the DAB by KEP the same day. According to the TKGM portal, every property purchase by a foreign natural person has needed a DAB since 24 January 2022, with no exemption for natural persons, including long-term residents and spouses of Turkish citizens.

Step 4: The Land Registry checks the numbers

TKGM compares the DAB, the deed price and your payment receipts against the TTB (the three-value test below). Watch the currency on your receipts: transfers before the DAB must show foreign currency, transfers after it must show Turkish lira.

Step 5: Fees by SMS, deed signed, annotation entered

The Land Registry notifies the fees by SMS before signing. The deed is drawn at the lira amount on the DAB, and the three-year no-sale annotation is entered in the declarations section of the title register.

Step 6: The certificate of conformity

TKGM’s General or Regional Directorate issues the Taşınmaz Yatırımı Tespit Belgesi, the certificate of conformity for the investment, and sends it to NVI (the Directorate General of Civil Registration and Nationality) and to the Presidency of Migration Management.

Step 7: The investor residence permit

Citizenship under article 12(1)(b) goes to holders of the investor residence permit under article 31(1)(j) of Law 6458, which is issued for up to five years at a time.

Step 8: Citizenship application and presidential decision

The Ministry of Interior prepares the file and the President decides. There is no statutory timeframe, so any duration you are quoted is indicative only, and an application can be refused on security or public order grounds.

Step 9: After three years

The no-sale annotation is removed at your request once the three years pass (for a presale purchase, not before the sale to you completes). One trap survives the hold: transfer the property back to its previous owner and the Land Registry reports it to NVI for review of your citizenship grant.

The three-value test and the USD rules

Three separate numbers must EACH reach USD 400,000. One strong number does not rescue a weak one.

• Exchange rate. USD values are set at the CBRT effective selling rate and/or cross rate on the determination date (Regulation article 20(6)).
• Costs sit outside. VAT, agency commission, fees and taxes must not be inside the DAB amount. They come on top of your USD 400,000.
• Foreign-currency mortgages. The loan amount is deducted, and the remainder must still reach USD 400,000.
• Late valuation reports. A report dated after the sale is deflated back to the DAB date using Turkey’s domestic producer price index (Yİ-ÜFE).

A worked example. A married couple with two children aged 12 and 15 buys one apartment in a completed building for a declared price of USD 400,000. The TTB must also show at least USD 400,000, or the application is refused. VAT and agency commission are paid on top, outside the DAB amount. The whole family goes into one file: the spouse must be included, and both children are under 18.

Change one detail. If USD 100,000 of that price were financed with a foreign-currency mortgage, only USD 300,000 would count, and the purchase would not qualify. These figures are the Regulation’s thresholds, used for illustration, not market prices.

Your family in the same application

The law covers your foreign spouse and your own and your spouse’s minor or dependent children. A child means someone under 18. The statute does not define a “dependent” (bağımlı) adult child, so dependent adult children are assessed case by case. A child in your custody can be included with the other parent’s consent.

A grant to one spouse does not change the other’s nationality, so your spouse must be in the file to become Turkish too.

Dual citizenship and military service

Turkey permits multiple citizenship, and this route asks for no renunciation document. That settles the Turkish side only. Your home country’s rules decide whether you keep your original citizenship, so check with counsel there before you file.

Under Law 7179, article 43, men aged 22 or over in the year they naturalise, and men who document service in their former country, are deemed to have served. Younger sons join the regular cohort system, with a two-year deferral available on request, and the same article allows call-up in a mobilisation. Plan for this if your file includes a son under 22.

Five myths the ranking pages still repeat

1. “The threshold is USD 250,000.” It was, until 13 June 2022. It has been USD 400,000 since.

2. “USD 600,000 is already the law.” That figure is not in the Regulation, and we found no Official Gazette instrument that sets it.

3. “You need an SPK valuation report.” That describes the old process. For property, the valuation that counts has been the TKGM TTB since 1 March 2024.

4. “Property bought before 12 January 2019 does not count.” There is no such rule. The official cut-offs are 12 January 2017 for purchases and payments, and 7 December 2018 for presale contracts.

5. “A Turkish passport gets you a US E-2 visa straight away.” Since 23 December 2022, anyone who acquired a nationality through a financial investment needs three continuous years of domicile in the treaty country before applying, unless they held E status before (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(E)). Take the details to US immigration counsel.

Turkey’s property route vs EU property-based residency

Turkey’s route ends in citizenship. That makes it citizenship by investment (CBI), a different product from the residence by investment (RBI) programmes run by EU states, and the two should not be compared line by line. Our guide to residence vs citizenship by investment explains the distinction.

Inside the EU, property leads at most to a residence permit. Greece grants a residence permit for qualifying property (Greece golden visa property guide), and Cyprus grants permanent residence (Cyprus real estate permanent residency). Hungary’s direct property route ended with effect from 30 December 2024 (buying property in Hungary as a foreigner). The real question is what you want at the end: a Turkish passport after a three-year hold, or EU residence with a longer path to naturalisation.

Frequently asked questions

How much property do I need to buy for Turkish citizenship?
At least USD 400,000, and the deed price, the official TKGM valuation (TTB) and your payments must each reach that figure separately.

Can I buy land or an off-plan apartment?
Unbuilt land, land under a project obligation, agricultural land and timeshares do not qualify since December 2023. Off-plan units can qualify through a single notarised presale contract, with the full USD 400,000 paid by the contract date.

How long must I keep the property?
Three years. A no-sale annotation is entered on the title deed and removed at your request once the three years pass.

Can I buy the property from another foreigner?
No. Property registered to foreigners, to people who became citizens through this route, to your Turkish first-degree relatives or to your own companies does not qualify, and a property can only be used for citizenship once.

Does my family get citizenship too?
Your spouse and your own and your spouse’s children under 18 can be included in the same file. Dependent adult children are assessed case by case, and your spouse must be in the file to become a citizen.

How long does it take?
There is no statutory timeframe. The decision is made by the President on a Ministry of Interior file, and meeting the conditions does not create an absolute right to citizenship.

The bottom line

Every step of the Turkish property route has a rule that can undo the file: property type, seller, TTB value, currency trail, family composition. Get the order right and all three numbers to USD 400,000, and the Land Registry stage becomes a checklist. The final decision stays with the President, with no timeframe and no guarantee. For the other six routes, start with our Turkey citizenship by investment guide. We help investors and their families check a property and a seller before any money moves, and advisory fees are quoted per engagement.