The lower limit for residential property sales to foreigners was increased from 75 thousand dollars to 200 thousand dollars by the Immigration Administration.
After the lower limit for the sale of housing to foreigners for citizenship purposes was increased from 250 thousand dollars to 400 thousand dollars last year, the limit for the sale of housing for residence purposes was also increased. According to the information on the 10Haber website, as of October 16, 2023, the lower limit for real estate purchases by foreigners in order to obtain a residence permit has been increased from 75 thousand dollars to 200 thousand dollars.
Exchange rate will be taken as basis
Making a statement on the subject, Real Estate Expert Dr. Mustafa Koçak said:
“In the application for a short-term residence permit for real estate purposes on immovable properties with an acquisition (purchase) date of 16.10.2023 or later, the sales price on the title deed must be a minimum of 200 thousand dollars, based on the Central Bank foreign exchange sales rate on the day the title deed was obtained (deed acquisition date) for all cities. “It will be required to be in Turkish Lira. For title deeds obtained after 16.10.2023, the real estate valuation report will not be accepted and the sales price on the title deed will be taken as basis.”
Providing information about the scope of the regulation, Mustafa Koçak said, “The application type (initial/transitional/extension) does not matter for this application. Applications to be made on immovable properties whose acquisition date is before 16.10.2023 are not within the scope of this application. From 26.04.2022 to 16.10.2023 “The requirement of 75 thousand dollars for metropolitan cities and 50 thousand dollars for other cities will continue to be required for real estate acquired until this date, and a real estate valuation report will continue to be requested for these applications,” he said.
reduced to 250 thousand
With the latest regulation made on June 13, 2022, foreigners who purchase real estate worth 400 thousand dollars gain the right to directly apply for Turkish citizenship.
As it is known, the price required for real estate purchases for citizenship was reduced from 1 million dollars to 250 thousand dollars as of September 2018, and was increased to 400 thousand dollars last year following the reactions.
Sales decreased
Housing sales to foreigners decreased by 42 percent in September and were limited to 2,930 houses.
During this period, the share of sales to foreigners in total housing sales was 2.9 percent.
In the January-September period, a 43.5 percent decrease was recorded in housing sales to foreigners, and 28 thousand 64 houses were sold to foreigners.
Foreigners bought an average of around 50 thousand houses annually between 2018 and 2022. The number of houses purchased by foreigners in June 2020 increased by 185 percent to 4,826 in June the following year.
The number of houses purchased in the first six months of 2021 exceeded 20 thousand. Housing sales to foreigners broke a record in 2022. While it was 46 thousand in 2019, it exceeded 68 thousand in 2022.