Why
Buy Property in Turkey? With
its fantastic climate, charming towns and villages, golden beaches, wealth
of history and friendly, hospitable people, Turkey is becoming
more and more popular for European people buying homes in the
Mediterranean and Aegean area.It's also a vibrant, thriving country
which is proving to be an important new market for international companies.
What's more, with Turkey expected to join the European Union in 2007,
and more and more Europeans buying property in the Aegean and Mediterranean
regions, the potential for returns on investment in this area are enormous.
Last year alone, properties prices increased by around 50% and with more people
looking to buy property in Turkey, that extra demand is sure to push
prices even higher in 2004. So the best policy is to buy property now
and enjoy the benefit of an investment that should soon increase in
value.
Buying property
in Turkey is not as complicated as you might imagine. The procedure
is often far simpler than in most other European
countries. Foreigners may purchase land and property in Turkey under
their own names provided that properties are located outside of military
areas. After an agreed sale, in order to acquire the title of a property,
an application has to be made to the local Land Registry Office. The
title may be transferred once checks have been made to ensure the
property meets all necessary requirements (see above). During the
transaction, the proofs or documents concerning the transfer of the
full purchase price into Turkey must be presented to the Land
Registry Office. Sometimes this process can take a few weeks. Where
the owner of the property is already a foreigner, however, the
checks and searches have previously been carried out and the whole
procedure can literally take five minutes !!!
A 1.5% duty both
for the purchaser and seller must be paid. In addition, there is an
annual property tax, collected by the local government at the rate
of 0.1% for houses and 0.3% for developed lands.New properties are
exempt from the annual property tax for 5 years. The acquired
property may be resold and the proceeds of the sale may be
transferred out of Turkey.
Who Can Buy
Citizens of countries
who have a reciprocity agreement with Turkey can purchase a property, which
includes all countries within the EU.
