Isatis 4 | Famagusta | Northern Cyprus

Isatis 4 Famagusta is an apartment project by Isatis Construction Group in the Çanakkale area of Famagusta (Gazimağusa), Northern Cyprus, which the developer places near City Mall. This guide sets what the developer publishes about the Isatis 4 Famagusta project (three layouts of 65 to 83 m², and no published price, completion date or title-deed category) beside official and documented material on the city, the foreign purchase process, taxes and the letting of a flat to tenants or holiday guests.

Legal and tax rules are stated as of 17 October 2026, and several of them depend on a Council of Ministers decree whose 90-day validity ends on or about 5 November 2026 unless Parliament enacts it.

Overview of the Isatis 4 Famagusta project

According to the developer’s Isatis 4 page, the building stands in the Çanakkale area of Famagusta, which the page calls a developing part of the city with modern architecture. The page offers what it describes as 1 to 2 bedroom residential flats and lists three plans: a 1+1 apartment of 65 m², a 2+1 apartment of 75 m² and a two-bedroom penthouse of 83 m² with a 50 m² terrace.

Each plan has one bathroom. The page gives no street address, no map position, no number of floors and no number of units.

The developer adds that shopping centres, restaurants, a cinema, hospitals and a university are quickly accessible from the project. No distance or travel time accompanies that statement. The location section below therefore measures from City Mall, a named landmark with published coordinates, and says so wherever it does; no distance in this guide is measured from the Isatis 4 plot itself, because its position is not published.

The table collects the developer’s data in one place. Wherever the page is silent, the table says “not published” or “not stated” and this guide does not fill the gap with an estimate. Both the English and the Turkish versions of the page were read. They carry the same figures, with one difference in labelling: the Turkish plan tab for the top unit reads “çatı katı” (roof floor), where the English page says penthouse. Whether that unit has more than one level is not stated in either version.

The same developer lists other projects in Famagusta and Yeniboğaziçi, and section 7 compares them with this one. For the wider market, the Northern Cyprus properties page and the Famagusta city page on this site list further listings.

Isatis 4 Famagusta unit types and sizes

The developer shows each plan on its own tab, with a card giving bedrooms, bathrooms, size and type. The first table repeats the card data without change; the second table, further down, is calculated from those figures.

All figures in the second table are calculated from the developer’s figures. The step from the 1+1 to the 2+1 adds 10 m² (75 – 65), a rise of 15.4% (10 / 65), for one extra bedroom. Because the area is shared between more rooms, the size per bedroom falls from 65 m² to 37.5 m². That is arithmetic, not a judgement on quality, since the page publishes no room dimensions.

The penthouse has the same two bedrooms and one bathroom as the 2+1 apartment. Its listed size is 8 m² larger (83 – 75), which is 10.7% (8 / 75), and it carries a 50 m² terrace. The terrace equals 60.2% of the listed 83 m², and this is where the page leaves a question open: it does not say whether the 83 m² includes the terrace.

If it does, the enclosed part would be 33 m² (83 – 50), less than the 65 m² of the 1+1 and 44% of the 75 m² of the 2+1 (33 / 75). A two-bedroom flat of that size looks unlikely, which suggests the terrace is counted separately, giving about 133 m² in total, but that is an inference and has to be settled in writing.

Two other questions apply to every plan. The page does not say whether the sizes are gross or net, and it does not say how many units exist of each type, so a buyer should ask for dimensioned floor plans and for the contract to state which areas make up the quoted size. Because no price is published, a price per square metre cannot be calculated.

Placed beside the developer’s other Famagusta projects, the 75 m² 2+1 equals the 75 m² Type A of Isatis 5 and the 75 m² Type B of Isatis 2, and sits at the top of the 70-75 m² range of Isatis 1. The 83 m² penthouse is 7 m² smaller than the 90 m² penthouse of Isatis 2 and 68 m² smaller than the 151 m² penthouse of Isatis 5 (151 – 83), though those listed sizes may follow different counting rules.

Location: Çanakkale, City Mall and the wider city

What the developer says and what can be checked

The developer’s page names the Çanakkale area and City Mall and offers nothing more precise. OpenStreetMap, the volunteer-built map, does not settle which city ward City Mall belongs to: a reverse lookup returns a Greek-era quarter name, while the centre point of the Çanakkale ward lies 1.3 km in a straight line from the mall (1.6 km by road).

For that reason “Çanakkale area” is repeated here only as the developer’s wording. Coordinates and straight-line figures come from OpenStreetMap data; road figures are estimates from the OSRM public router and are indicative only.

The city in figures

The municipality of Famagusta had 40,920 permanent residents at the 2011 census (22,025 men and 18,895 women), the latest full count, and the district had 69,741 (municipality table, ward table). The State Planning Organisation’s 2020 projection, quoted by the municipality, is 55,868, with more than 20,000 university students and staff living in the city for most of the year. A census count and a projection should not be mixed; Wikipedia’s figure of 55,648 for 2019 is close to the projection but not identical.

The municipality’s own history says the city’s growth turned north and north-east after the university became a state institution in 1986, with dense building in Sakarya, Karakol, Baykal, north of Salamis Road and in Tuzla, while the historic centre remains the walled Suriçi.

At the 2011 census the Çanakkale ward counted 4,114 residents and Karakol 7,046, the second-largest ward after Sakarya. The developer calls Karakol the centre of Famagusta when describing two of its other projects; the municipal sources instead describe Karakol as a built-up northern ward next to the Walled City, about 2.9 km from its centre point in a straight line and 3.7 km by road.

City Mall and what is mapped around it

A local newspaper announced City Mall’s opening for 28 October 2016. The operator’s current site gives 65 stores, more than 130 brands, parking for 1,500 vehicles and daily opening from 10:00 to 22:00; the 2016 announcement spoke of 60 shops and 1,100 parking places, so only the present figures are used. A supermarket inside the mall is not confirmed by the operator. The table below lists nearby places; the OpenStreetMap points are volunteer-mapped, for orientation and not an official list.

Every distance is measured from City Mall, not from the Isatis 4 plot. Straight-line means the shortest distance over the map; road means the route estimated by OSRM.

Health, education, transport, heritage and climate

Gazimağusa State Hospital opened in its present building in December 2007 with 120 beds and now has about 160 (hospital page). The Statistical Yearbook lists 161 state beds and four private in-patient institutions with 104 beds in the district for 2024, and the Ministry of Health reported the hospital’s first vascular operation in July 2026. No official count of private hospitals was found, so none is given. Eastern Mediterranean University began in 1979 and became a state university in 1986 (EMU history page).

Ercan Airport lies about 40 km in a straight line from the Walled City and about 56 km by road, roughly an hour’s drive, and Wikipedia reports 4,842,134 passengers in 2024 and flights to Türkiye only. The Nicosia-Famagusta road is the busiest route in Northern Cyprus, with about 40,000 vehicles a day according to the Turkish Highways Directorate.

Larnaca Airport is 40.8 km away in a straight line, but a road time is not quoted because it depends on the crossing point and on who may use it. The sources do not confirm a passenger ferry from Famagusta, so none is claimed.

The Walled City, built by the Lusignans in the 14th century and redesigned by Venice, and Othello Castle are the main monuments, and the ruins of Salamis lie some 6 to 8 km to the north. Varosha is a separate matter: the UN Secretary-General’s report of 6 July 2026 records no reversal of the steps taken since October 2020 and no significant change in the 3.5% of the area whose military status was lifted in 2021.

Nothing on the developer’s page places Isatis 4 there. A general article covers beaches in Cyprus; no source used here measures the distance from Isatis 4 to a beach.

The nearest official climate series is the WMO station at Paralimni, a Republic of Cyprus station about 7.4 km south of the Walled City, not a Famagusta station. For 2002-2011 its mean daily maximum is 15.9 °C in January and 32.9 °C in July, the mean daily minimum is 8.1 °C and 23.4 °C, and the twelve monthly rainfall means sum to 331.1 mm, with June to August nearly dry (WMO data). Wikipedia’s Famagusta page, citing Meteomanz data, gives 360.1 mm a year.

Rental income, holiday lets and student demand around Isatis 4 Famagusta

What the developer says about rent

The developer’s Isatis 4 page states that a two-year rental guarantee at 6% will be offered to customers. That is marketing wording: the page does not say what the 6% is a percentage of, whether it is annual, who pays it, what conditions apply or what stands behind it, and the terms are not published. No rent figure, yield or occupancy for the project appears anywhere on the page, and with no completion date published there is no letting history to report.

Student demand: what the official figures show

Famagusta is a university city, and the developer lists the university among the places quickly accessible from the project, but the official series does not show growth. The Statistical Yearbook 2024 gives Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) enrolments of 16,318 in 2020-21, 16,640 in 2021-22, 16,067 in 2022-23, 16,289 in 2023-24 and 15,729 in 2024-25.

The last figure is 5.5% below the 2021-22 peak (911 / 16,640, calculated). Total higher-education enrolment in Northern Cyprus fell from 114,000 in 2021-22 to 104,873 in 2024-25, a drop of 8.0% (9,127 / 114,000, calculated). Other sources give other EMU totals (14,946 from Times Higher Education, more than 16,000 in the handbook), so the yearbook figure and its year are used here.

The municipality names four other universities in the city, and the yearbook gives their 2024-25 enrolments: Istanbul Technical University North Cyprus campus 1,209, Ada Kent 1,213, Cyprus West 372 and European Leadership 1,212. With EMU the five add up to 19,735 (calculated from the yearbook), which is consistent with the municipality’s statement of more than 20,000 students and staff (municipal page).

Placements through Türkiye’s 2025 university entrance exam brought 2,271 students to EMU, up from 2,185 in 2024 (+86, or 3.9%, calculated), and EMU’s own bulletin describes this as 70% occupancy of that intake. That occupancy figure relates to the Turkish-placed quota, not to total students.

On housing, the EMU handbook says that 19 on-campus dormitory complexes can accommodate about 10,000 students, that new students have priority, and that students may also rent private flats or rooms in Famagusta. Set against 15,729 enrolled students, that leaves roughly 5,700 without a campus place (15,729 – 10,000, calculated). This is arithmetic only, not an official shortage statement: it ignores the privately owned campus dormitories, whose capacity is not stated, and no official statement of a housing shortage was found.

The only 2026 rent figures found are in a press article of 16 April 2026 by SonDakikaCyprus, which names no data source: monthly asking rents in the city centre of EUR 200-400 for a 1+1, EUR 300-550 for a 2+1 and EUR 150-300 for a student 1+1 near the campus.

The same article says student flats near EMU are plentiful and that prices rise in September. It is an unattributed estimate, not market rent. On the supply side, the 2025 construction bulletin records final approval for 1,492 dwelling units in Gazimağusa district (538 urban and 954 rural, calculated sum), a district figure that counts only approved buildings.

Together the sources show a large student population, falling official enrolment and no reliable rent data.

Tax and rules for letting

As of 17 October 2026 the rules in the table apply. They come from the Income Tax Law as consolidated on 25 May 2026, the VAT regulation of 7 October 2026, the Stamp Duty Law and the Holiday Houses Law, not from the purchase decree. The gross monthly minimum wage is TL 70,893 from 1 July 2026 (Tax Department).

In plain figures, a 10% withholding means that for every 100 of gross rent, 10 goes to the Tax Department and 90 remains before other costs (calculated from the rate). At the July 2026 wage, one monthly minimum wage is TL 70,893 and ten times that is TL 708,930 (calculated); the amount that applies in a real case is set by the wage in force at the relevant date.

A unit counts as a holiday house only if it is let for tourism for up to 60 days at a time; longer lets follow the ordinary lease rules, for which no official tenancy guidance could be retrieved. A separate article on Airbnb and legal compliance in Cyprus is available; it is not one of the sources for the figures above.

Currency also matters for rent. Consumer prices in Northern Cyprus rose 35.02% over the 12 months to September 2026 (Statistical Institute). A lease in sterling or euros avoids exposure to the lira, but the stamp duty on an amount in foreign currency is computed in lira at the official effective selling rate on the stamping date.

Checklist before relying on rental income

1. Ask for the rental offer in writing: what the percentage applies to, the period, who pays, the conditions, and what secures payment.
2. Ask for the completion date and the handover condition of the unit, including whether it is delivered furnished.
3. Have the contract state which areas make up the quoted size, and whether the penthouse terrace is inside or outside the 83 m².
4. Decide before buying whether the unit will be let long-term or short-term, because the second route needs a registration and operating permit under the Holiday Houses Law.
5. Work out the 10% withholding and who will file it, especially for an owner living abroad without a representative.
6. Choose the currency of the lease with the lira’s inflation and the foreign-currency stamp duty calculation in mind.
7. Treat any statement about student rental demand as unsupported unless the data and the year are given, since official enrolment has fallen since 2021-22.
8. Ask an independent lawyer, not the seller’s, to confirm each point against the contract.

Buying property in Northern Cyprus in brief

The first question is who the buyer is. As of 17 October 2026, a foreigner needs a purchase permit from the Council of Ministers, applied for through the Interior Ministry, before title can pass (Law 52/2008). The numerical limits are set by Decree-Law 89/2026 (Resmi Gazete No. 147, 7 August 2026), a re-issue of Decree-Law 63/2026 (Resmi Gazete No. 87, 11 May 2026).

It is a Council of Ministers decree, not an act of Parliament, and its 90-day validity ends about 5 November 2026 unless Parliament enacts it. Under the decree a foreign buyer may hold up to 3 apartments. The consolidated Law 52/2008 on the official legislation portal still shows the stricter text of one apartment, and the developer’s FAQ also says one property per person, so sources differ depending on which text they quote.

The deadlines differ in the same way. Under the decree the stamped contract is registered at the district Land Registry and the permit applied for within 1 month, fees are paid within 75 working days of the permit’s publication, and the transfer is signed within 1 year.

The consolidated text shows 60 working days and 6 months. No official processing time for the permit exists in the laws read; the developer gives 1-2 months for Turkish citizens and 6-8 months for other nationalities, which is a developer statement only.

The developer also says a purchase can be made before arrival through a power of attorney. A unit needs condominium title or a condominium easement before the permit application can be filed; for two years from the decree’s entry into force, it allows a building permit or planning approval instead where condominium title could not be established.

The Land Registry fee for foreign buyers comes from a Council of Ministers regulation in Resmi Gazete No. 197 of 7 October 2026: 4% in total on the first property, 5.5% on the second and 6% on the third. The schedule is valid only until 5 January 2027 inclusive, so it needs checking again.

Agency pages quote 9% and 12% from earlier or unverified schedules, and the developer’s FAQ describes a 2% share for each side, which could not be matched to the official table; quotations therefore differ, and the official schedule is the one used here.

VAT on housing with up to 300 m² of closed area is 5% under the regulation of 7 October 2026. The cost of buying, building and renting article on this site gives a wider overview.

Risks, title and due diligence

No reading of the developer’s page can replace checking the title. The UK Government guidance on buying property in Cyprus states that ownership of many properties in the north is disputed, that thousands of claims come from people displaced in 1974, and that such purchases could have serious financial and legal implications.

It also lists problems found across Cyprus: lawyers acting for both vendor and builder, building without correct permits, payment plans left out of contracts, difficulty obtaining completion certificates and title deeds, and developer mortgages on the land. Its text dates from 27 November 2019, which is the last public update, so it is background and not a 2026 statement.

The Isatis 4 page states no title-deed category, so the question of whether the land has a pre-1974 history is open. The Land Registry fee schedule of October 2026 shows that equivalent-property titles exist beside ordinary titles, and an official definition table of the categories could not be found; a Tekce guide advises asking a lawyer for an official search report showing the category.

The article on title deeds on this site gives more background.

The courts have set the frame. The European Court of Human Rights treated the Immovable Property Commission as the remedy to use first for Greek Cypriot property claims, and the commission reports 8,807 applications and 3,757 concluded cases at 2 October 2026 (commission site).

The Court of Justice held in the Orams case that a Republic of Cyprus judgment on land in the north can be enforced elsewhere in the EU. None of this says anything about the land under Isatis 4; it explains why the checks in the table below matter.

Building quality is a separate subject: the Chamber of Engineers and Architects was reported in 2023 as saying that project approval checks compliance with the earthquake regulation, which no source here applies to Isatis 4 specifically.

How Isatis 4 Famagusta compares with the other Isatis projects

The table lists the seven listings by this developer, this page included, together with the Orchard complex, using only what each developer page states. Locations are the developer’s wording, not verified positions.

Among the five numbered Isatis buildings, this is the only page that lists a 1+1 apartment; Fiora also lists a 1+1, at 92 m². Its smallest listed unit, 65 m², sits just above the 62 m² low end of the one-bedroom penthouses at Isatis 3.

Its 75 m² two-bedroom apartment matches the 75 m² apartment at Isatis 5 and the larger apartment type at Isatis 2, and its penthouse terrace of 50 m² lies between the 30 m² at Isatis 2 and the 58 m² at Isatis 5.

None of this ranks the projects: the pages do not publish prices, completion dates or title-deed categories, so the comparison covers size and stated location only.

The developer’s menu also names Elysium 1, Elysium 2, Infinity and Hillside, and listings under those names are available as Elysium, Elysium 2, Infinity and Hillside; none of the sources used here relates them to Isatis 4. Other Northern Cyprus listings that this guide does not cover include Sakarya Gardens, Urban Oasis and Aura Gardens. For residence and citizenship questions that follow a purchase, see the articles on residency in North Cyprus and citizenship and immigration.

Isatis Construction Group

Everything in this section is the developer’s own statement, taken from its About page, its FAQ and its project page, and none of it has been checked independently. Isatis Construction Limited says it has operated in the construction industry since its establishment in North Cyprus in 2015.

It says it builds and sells apartments and villas in Famagusta and Yeniboğaziçi, and that it is working on projects in those regions. On its project pages the company describes itself as an engineering and construction company led by experienced engineers, executing building and infrastructure work.

The About page lists several service claims. The company says it uses environmentally friendly materials of high quality, that it assumes the management of the projects it delivers, that it supports investors in the procedures at the contract stage, and that it presents its projects to investors from many countries. The page does not name a licence, a registration number, a count of completed buildings or any past project with a delivery date, so none of those can be reported here.

The statements on the developer’s FAQ about purchase permits, one property per person and taxes are also the developer’s; where they differ from the official texts, as on the number of apartments a foreigner may hold or on the split of the Land Registry fee, the official texts are quoted in this guide and the difference is noted.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Isatis 4 Famagusta project?

The developer places it in the Çanakkale area of Famagusta, near City Mall, and calls the area a developing part of the city. No street address, map position or distance is published. City Mall is about 1.9 km from the Walled City centre point in a straight line (3.3 km by road), but those figures belong to the mall and not to the plot, so the exact position has to be requested from the developer in writing.

Which unit sizes does Isatis 4 list?

Three plans are listed: a 1+1 apartment of 65 m², a 2+1 apartment of 75 m² and a two-bedroom penthouse of 83 m² with a 50 m² terrace. Each has one bathroom. The page does not say whether the penthouse terrace is included in the 83 m², or whether sizes are gross or net, so a buyer should ask for dimensioned plans and have the contract state the basis.

Is a price published for Isatis 4?

No. The developer’s page gives no price, deposit, payment plan or instalment schedule, and no handover date. Any figure quoted elsewhere is not from the developer’s page and should be confirmed in writing. Without a price, neither a price per square metre nor a yield can be calculated, and the sections above avoid any such estimate.

Can a foreign buyer purchase in the Isatis 4 Famagusta project?

As of 17 October 2026, a foreigner needs a Council of Ministers purchase permit. Under Decree-Law 89/2026 (Resmi Gazete No. 147, 7 August 2026) up to 3 apartments may be held; the consolidated Law 52/2008 still shows one. The decree’s 90-day validity ends about 5 November 2026 unless Parliament enacts it, so the position must be checked again at signing. The unit also needs condominium title or a condominium easement before the application.

What fees and taxes apply when buying an apartment?

As of 17 October 2026, the Land Registry fee for foreigners is 4% on the first property, 5.5% on the second and 6% on the third, under a regulation valid until 5 January 2027 inclusive (Resmi Gazete No. 197). Stamp duty on the sale agreement is 0.5% of the stated sum, and VAT on housing up to 300 m² of closed area is 5%. Legal fees and utility connection charges have no official tariff in the sources used. Agency quotations differ from the official schedule.

How long does the permit take, and who says so?

No law read sets a time limit for the Council of Ministers’ decision. The developer’s FAQ states 1-2 months for Turkish citizens and 6-8 months for other nationalities, and no official source for those periods was found. Once the permit is published, the decree sets the deadlines for paying fees and signing the transfer, 75 working days and 1 year, against 60 working days and 6 months in the consolidated text.

Is Isatis 4 Famagusta suited to student tenants?

The sources show that a large student population exists, with about 19,700 students at five universities in 2024-25 (calculated), but they do not show rising demand: EMU enrolment is 5.5% below its 2021-22 level and Northern Cyprus enrolment is 8.0% lower. A press article names 1+1 student rents of EUR 150-300 near the campus without a data source. No source gives the distance from the plot to a campus, so suitability cannot be judged from published facts.

Can an apartment here be let to holiday guests?

Under the Holiday Houses Law, a tourism letting of up to 60 days of a unit built as housing needs the owner to register with the Tourism Planning Department and obtain a Registration Certificate and an Operating Permit before letting. Letting without them is an offence with a fine of up to 10 times the monthly gross minimum wage on conviction. Whether a particular unit may be used this way should be asked of the developer and the lawyer before purchase.

Does buying a flat give residence or citizenship?

A property can support a residence permit, not citizenship by itself. Under the Residence and Visa Regulation of 5 October 2026, title to property worth GBP 300,000 or more gives a 10-year permit, and below that a 5-year permit, both without an income test. Permanent residence needs housing worth EUR 125,000, continuous residence for 6 years and proven income. Citizenship law requires 5 years of uninterrupted residence, and UK travel advice records that the Republic of Cyprus does not recognise residence permits issued in the north.

What is the title-deed category of Isatis 4 Famagusta?

The developer’s page does not state one, so none is assumed. The category should be identified from the title copy at the Land Registry, with the parcel’s history before 1974, and checked by an independent lawyer before any reservation payment. UK Government guidance warns of restitution risk on some categories of land, and an official definition table of the categories could not be found.

Sources and last check

Last checked: 17 October 2026. Sources: developer pages for Isatis 4 (English and Turkish), About and FAQ pages on isatis.co and isatis.com.tr;

• OpenStreetMap Nominatim
• OSRM router
• Census 2011 municipality
• Census 2011 wards
• Municipality city history
• Detay Kibris
• City Mall site
• State Hospital page
• Statistical Yearbook 2024
• Ministry of Health
• EMU history
• Wikipedia Ercan
• Highways Directorate
• Wikipedia fortifications
• Wikipedia Salamis
• UN report S/2026/550
• WMO Paralimni
• Wikipedia Famagusta
• Municipality history
• EMU bulletin 2025
• EMU handbook 2024
• SonDakikaCyprus rents
• Construction statistics 2025
• Minimum wage 2026
• Income Tax Law
• VAT regulation
• Stamp Duty Law
• Holiday Houses Law
• CPI September 2026
• Law 52/2008 (mevzuat.gov.ct.tr)
• RG 147, Decree-Law 89/2026
• Isatis FAQ
• Land Registry notice 2025
• Interior Ministry documents
• RG 197, Land Registry fees
• UK property guidance
• Tekce guide
• Immovable Property Commission
• Orams press release
• Yeniduzen KTMMOB
• Law 67/2005
• Residence regulation 2026
• Permanent Residence Law
• Citizenship Law
• UK travel advice

Distances come from OpenStreetMap coordinates and OSRM road estimates; calculated figures are labelled as such. Nothing in this guide is legal, tax or financial advice.