Off Plan Property in North Cyprus: Contract, Payments, Delivery

Off Plan Property in North Cyprus: Contract, Payments, Delivery

Off plan property in North Cyprus is bought as a contract first and a title deed later: the buyer signs a sale agreement for a unit that is not yet finished, the agreement is stamped and registered at the district Land Registry, and the title passes only after a Council of Ministers permit has been issued and the fees have been paid. Every rule in this guide is stated as of 24 October 2026. The acquisition limits rest on Decree-Law 89/2026 (Resmi Gazete No. 147, 7 August 2026), a Council of Ministers decree whose 90-day validity ends about 5 November 2026 unless Parliament enacts it, so the rules described here depend on that decree staying in force or being enacted. The consolidated Law 52/2008 on the Central Legislation Office site still prints the stricter earlier wording.

This guide explains how a purchase of off plan property in North Cyprus works from the first reservation to the handover of keys. It sets out the registration deadlines, builds a worked payment example, compares the payment plans that developers print on the pages we list, shows how the “Ready to Move In” and “Pre Sale” labels contradict each other on several of those pages, and lists what can be checked at the Land Registry and the municipality before a first payment. Prices are shown in pounds sterling as the developers publish them, with the date they were read, and nothing here is a forecast of price, rent or resale value.

Off Plan Property in North Cyprus: Key Facts at a Glance

What Off Plan Property in North Cyprus Means in Law and in Listings

In everyday usage, off plan property in North Cyprus is a home sold before it is completed, sometimes before construction starts, with the price paid in stages. The law does not use a separate category for it. What matters is which documents exist at each moment: a building permit for the block, a condominium easement or condominium title that turns the block into separately owned units, a stamped sale agreement, a registered contract, a Council of Ministers permit and, once the building is finished, a final approval certificate (nihai tasvip) and the transfer of the title deed.

The final approval certificate is the document the TRNC Statistical Institute uses to define a completed building. Its bulletin on construction statistics for 2025, published in October 2026, compiles only buildings that obtained final approval. That definition is a useful anchor when a sales page says a home is “ready”, because a completed building has such a certificate and a building under construction does not. The bulletin counts 538 urban and 954 rural dwelling units with final approval in Famagusta district in 2025 (1,492 in total), 344 and 1,460 in Kyrenia district (1,804), 204 and 351 in İskele district (555) and 887 and 245 in Nicosia district (1,132), as the Statistical Institute bulletin shows. The bulletin does not separate off-plan sales from other homes.

Those completion figures give a sense of scale for the schemes in the listings below. The four Cyprus Constructions schemes that its pages place on the ongoing list, Aloha Homes (400 units on the detail page), Bahamas Homes (440), Hawaii Homes (450) and Phuket Wellness Resort (650), add up to 1,940 units on the detail-page totals (400 + 440 + 450 + 650, calculated), against 1,804 dwelling units given final approval in the whole of Kyrenia district in 2025. A developer’s unit count is a marketing figure and not a count of finished homes, and the pages disagree among themselves on several totals, as the comparison table below shows.

Three words recur on developer pages and are worth defining. “Pre-sale” (Ön Satış in Turkish) ordinarily means that units are offered before completion. “Ready to move in” is a claim about the state of the building and is tested by the final approval certificate, the condominium title and working utility connections. “Resale” means the counterparty is a private owner and not the developer, so the developer’s payment plan may not apply. Our guide to buying property in North Cyprus step by step covers the same sequence for completed homes, and the Northern Cyprus country page lists the schemes by town.

The Legal Sequence for Off Plan Property in North Cyprus

The sequence below follows the decree and the consolidated law. The clock starts at signature, not at the first payment, which is why the order of the steps matters more than the order of the payments.

The registration step is stricter than many sales pages suggest. The decree requires a foreign buyer to register the stamped agreement at the Land Registry, in person, through a lawyer or by proxy, within one month, after buyer and seller have paid the taxes and fees due on the sale, and to apply to the Interior Ministry for the purchase permit in the same month. The consequence is stated in the text: a contract that misses the deadline is void automatically. The decree does not require registration at a court. A reservation form or a deposit receipt signed before the sale agreement is a separate piece of paper, and the one-month period runs from the agreement itself, so a buyer’s lawyer normally wants the date of signature fixed in writing.

The permit application brings a document list from the Interior Ministry’s Property Unit: a petition, an information form, a passport or ID copy, a copy of the title (koçan), a location plan with the area marked, the original police record from the applicant’s country and the sale contract. The application fee is half of the monthly gross minimum wage, which at the TL 70,893 valid from 1 July 2026 is TL 35,446.50 (70,893 / 2, calculated). Our guide on whether foreigners can buy property in North Cyprus sets out the eligibility rules in more detail.

How a long payment plan interacts with the transfer clock

The off-plan case has one feature that a completed purchase lacks. The one-year period to sign the transfer starts, where no mortgage is registered in the seller’s favour, on the date the whole price stated in the document filed with the Ministry has been paid. A buyer who pays over several years therefore holds a registered contract during the plan and receives title only after the last instalment, unless a charge is registered.

The worked arithmetic uses a delivery date and an instalment count printed on one of the pages we list. Aloha Homes shows a December 2026 delivery date and, on its Phase II cards, 48 monthly instalments. If the first instalment fell in November 2026, the forty-eighth would fall in October 2030 (November 2026 plus 47 months, calculated), which is 46 months after the December 2026 delivery date. The one-year signing window would then open in October 2030 and close in October 2031. The listing page does not say whether the instalments continue after handover, so this is an illustration of how the clock works, not a statement about that project’s contract.

Payment Schedules Developers Publish for Off Plan Property in North Cyprus

The table below records what each page says, read on 23 and 24 October 2026. It reproduces the developer’s wording and does not endorse it. Where a page shows no figure, the cell says so.

The 35% down payment appears as a statistic panel on the Cyprus Constructions pages, and the listing guides on our site note that the same panel is repeated on nine of the ten detail pages the developer publishes. That repetition is a reason to ask for the schedule in writing for the specific unit, since a template line cannot show stage dates, stage amounts or what the 65% is paid against. The Edremit Villas page shows the arithmetic on its “from” price: 35% of GBP 1,450,000 is GBP 507,500 and the 65% balance is GBP 942,500 (1,450,000 x 0.35 and x 0.65, calculated).

For the Afik schemes the wording is “payment plans without interest” with nothing else. The developer’s blog post at afikgroup.com speaks of group-wide plans of up to 84 months with 30% down, but it does not name Caesar Breeze or Caesar Cliff, so it is a marketing statement about the group and not the terms of either scheme. The Afik projects page was last modified on 13 March 2025, according to its server header.

A worked example on an illustrative GBP 150,000 unit

The table below uses a round, hypothetical price of GBP 150,000 to show how the published percentages turn into cash flows and government charges. It is not a listing, not a quotation and not a forecast, and each rate is taken from the source named in the last column. The VAT row shows only the size of the amount in question if VAT were added to the stated price; whether and how VAT applies to a particular sale is for the contract and the buyer’s lawyer to settle.

Two points follow from the arithmetic. First, the Land Registry fee schedule in Resmi Gazete 197 is valid only until 5 January 2027, while a plan of several years ends long after that date, so a buyer on a long plan can ask the lawyer which schedule will apply at transfer. Second, stamp duty is computed in lira at the official effective selling rate on the stamping date, so the pound figure of GBP 750 is an approximation that moves with the exchange rate on the day of stamping. The extended cost picture is in our companion guide to North Cyprus property taxes and fees.

“Interest-Free” Plans, Currency and What to Compare

An instalment plan that carries no stated interest can still cost more than a cash price, because the difference can sit inside the price. The pages we list do not publish a cash price beside a plan price, so the comparison has to come from the draft contract. The arithmetic is simple: take the difference between the plan price and the cash price and divide it by the part of the price that is paid late. If the plan price on the illustrative GBP 150,000 unit were GBP 6,000 above a cash price of GBP 144,000 (a hypothetical difference), and the balance paid in instalments were GBP 97,500, the premium would be 6,000 / 97,500 = 6.15% of the financed balance over the life of the plan (calculated). The figures are invented to show the method. The real inputs are the two prices in writing and the dates of each instalment.

Currency decides who carries the exchange-rate risk. The TRNC’s legal tender is the Turkish lira, and the Statistical Institute reported that its consumer price index rose 35.02% over the 12 months to September 2026, with 28.15% of that since December 2025, in its September 2026 bulletin. Most of the pages we list quote pounds sterling. The Foreign Exchange Law 38/1997 allows contract amounts to be expressed in foreign currency and remittances to move freely provided banks are used and the sender and recipient are recorded, so a sterling plan avoids lira exposure on the price while the stamp duty is still converted into lira.

Bank finance does not replace the developer plan in the sources reviewed. The law allows foreigners to mortgage property they have acquired after paying the Land Registry fees, and registering a mortgage costs 1% of the secured debt. Agency pages disagree on what banks lend to foreign buyers (75% of the price in one guide, a cap of 50% in another), and the ncyprus.com.tr guide says developer-direct instalment plans dominate the off-plan market. That makes the developer’s own contract the instrument that carries most of the weight.

When Labels Contradict Each Other: “Ready to Move In” and “Pre Sale”

Several of the pages we list carry status information that cannot all be true at once. The table groups the contradictions by listing so a reader can see what kind of conflict to look for on any developer page.

The pattern is that the hero tags “Ready to Move In” and “Pre Sale” are identical on all ten Cyprus Constructions detail pages, including the Edremit Villas page with a January 2028 delivery date, so the tags carry no information about a specific scheme. The unit total is a second recurring conflict: 400, 450 and 80 for Aloha Homes, 440, 588 and 700 for Bahamas Homes, 450 and 490 for Hawaii Homes. A third is the price. The Hawaii Homes unit card of GBP 165,000 is 65% above the “from” price of GBP 99,950 (165,000 / 99,950 = 1.65, calculated), the lowest Phuket Wellness card of GBP 225,000 is 55% above its “from” price of GBP 144,950, and the lowest Bahamas Homes card of GBP 320,950 is 3.4 times the GBP 94,950 “from” price (320,950 / 94,950 = 3.38, calculated).

None of this shows that any statement is wrong. It shows that a web page cannot be the evidence. A label becomes a fact when a document backs it: the final approval certificate for “ready”, a building permit and a dated construction stage for “pre-sale”, and a Land Registry search for who the seller is on a “resale” card.

What to Verify Before the First Payment on Off Plan Property in North Cyprus

The table lists the checks the sources support, who holds each document and why it matters for a unit that does not yet exist as a finished building.

The district and the pin

The Aloha Homes listing guide shows why the parcel comes before the price. The developer names Esentepe, in Kyrenia district, while the map pin in its page script falls inside the OpenStreetMap boundary of Tatlısu, a village that the 2011 census places in Famagusta district. The pin may be approximate and OpenStreetMap is crowd-sourced, so the listing guide treats it as a conflict to resolve and not a finding. A parcel number settles which municipality issued the permit and which Land Registry office handles the transfer, and the Land Registry’s 2025 notice says transactions are handled at the office of the district where the property is registered.

Why the lawyer is independent

The UK Government’s guidance names lawyers acting for both vendor and builder as a recurring problem in Cyprus, and notes that the north has a separate bar association per district (Nicosia, Kyrenia, Famagusta and Morphou) under the Cyprus Turkish Bar Association. A buyer’s lawyer runs the searches, checks the permit and drafts or reviews the contract; a lawyer who also works for the builder cannot do those checks for the buyer without a conflict.

Title Category, Pre-1974 Claims and Developer Mortgages

Two title questions apply to every parcel, whether the building on it is finished or not. The first is the category of title. Agency guidance describes Turkish title, exchange (equivalent) title and allocation, and an agency guide says the deed should show whether it is Turkish, Exchange or another classification. The TRNC Constitution reserves to citizens who left property in the south the right to ask for property of equivalent value, and the Land Registry fee schedule of 7 October 2026 distinguishes land registered with a Final Disposition Certificate from points held under Value Documents, which is official confirmation that equivalent-property titles and points exist beside ordinary titles. Our guide to the North Cyprus title deed check explains the categories in detail.

The second is the position of pre-1974 owners. The UK Government’s guidance states that ownership of many properties in the north is disputed, that the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in a number of cases that pre-1974 owners continue to be regarded as the legal owners, and that buyers can face proceedings in the courts of the Republic of Cyprus. The Court of Justice of the European Union held on 28 April 2009 in Apostolides v Orams that a Republic of Cyprus judgment about land in the north must be recognised and enforced in other member states. In Demopoulos and Others v. Turkey (decision of 1 March 2010) the European Court of Human Rights treated the Immovable Property Commission as an effective remedy for Greek Cypriot property claims. The Commission’s site reported 8,807 applications and 3,757 concluded cases on 2 October 2026, and applications are open until 21 December 2027 under Law 67/2005. Our article on the risks of buying property in North Cyprus treats these cases at length, and the pre-1974 history of a village such as Esentepe, which was wholly Greek Cypriot until 1974 according to the PRIO Cyprus Centre, is a reason to read the title history parcel by parcel.

For off-plan buyers there is a third layer. A developer may finance construction with a bank loan secured on the land, and the UK Government lists developer mortgages on the land among the problems seen in Cyprus. The research document at the Land Registry shows registered mortgages, and the contract can state whether the developer will release the charge on each unit at transfer.

Developer Track Record and How to Read Marketing Figures

A developer’s history is checkable in two ways: completed schemes that have final approval, and title transfers that have actually happened on them. A buyer’s lawyer can ask for the permit and final approval numbers of earlier projects and test a sample of those units at the Land Registry. Counters on a website are a different kind of evidence. The Cyprus Constructions About page shows “28+” years in the industry, “2000+” properties delivered and “60+” nationalities served, while its company profile header shows “2,500+” projects completed, its About subtitle says “for over a decade” and the footer on every page says “for over 20 years”. The listing guides on our site do not rely on any of these figures because the developer’s own pages give different spans.

The same caution applies to counts of what remains for sale. The Phuket Wellness Resort page shows 14% remaining in English and 16% in the Polish and Persian versions. Aloha Homes shows “30% remaining” beside 400 units, which would be 120 units (400 x 30%, calculated), whereas the unit cards on the page list far fewer homes. A dated list of available units, signed by the developer, is the document that turns a percentage into stock.

Developer names also repeat. The Cyprus Constructions footer prints “Cyprus Constructions”, “Cyprus Construction” and “Cyprus Constructions Development”, and no registered company number appears on the pages read. The sale agreement names the legal entity that holds the permit, and the buyer’s lawyer can match that entity to the permit and to the registered owner of the land.

Delays, Refunds and What a Contract Can Settle

The instruments cited in this guide deal with registration, permits, fees and deadlines. Delivery dates, remedies for delay and refund terms are matters for the contract, and the UK Government’s guidance lists payment plans left out of contracts among the recurring problems. A contract for off plan property in North Cyprus can address each of the following points in writing:

• the legal entity of the seller, the parcel number, the block and the unit number, with the project name that appears on the building permit;
• the contractual completion date, defined by reference to the final approval certificate and not to a marketing date;
• a long-stop date after which the buyer may withdraw, and the amount refunded in that case, with the account the money is returned to;
• interest or a fixed sum for delay, if the parties agree one;
• the payment schedule by date, amount and currency, and the construction stage each instalment follows;
• the specification annex: finishes, furniture and appliance inventory with brands, and communal facilities with the phase that builds them;
• who pays stamp duty, the Land Registry fee and any other charge, since Law 52/2008 leaves the split to buyer and seller under the legislation in force;
• the owners’ association fee and the services it covers, for example the pools, landscaping, security and amenities that the Cyprus Constructions FAQ says the fee covers;
• the warranty, where the developer’s page mentions one: the Hawaii Homes text states a five-year structural warranty, and a warranty that exists only as a web sentence is not a contract term.

Refund and delay clauses matter for a second reason. The decree makes a contract void automatically if it is not registered within a month, and it lets the permit lapse if the fees are not paid within 75 working days or the transfer is not signed within the year. A buyer who has paid instalments to a developer that misses a registration or payment step can be exposed to those lapses. The sources reviewed also note that if a permit is cancelled for non-payment, a re-application costs double fees and a third application for the same property is not allowed. The contract is the place to say who bears that cost when the cause lies with the seller.

The transitional rules in the decree add one more point for buyers of homes that are already delivered. Completed and delivered homes may be transferred within 36 months for contracts made before the 2024 amendment, and contracts that exceed the legal acquisition right can be notified for 1% of the price (3% if late) and may receive a 10-year use certificate while ownership stays with the seller. Those provisions concern older contracts and are described in Resmi Gazete 147; a buyer of a delivered home from a developer’s stock can ask which regime the contract falls under.

Delivery Inspection and Handover

Handover is the point at which the buyer’s documents and the physical building have to agree. The sequence below lists what a buyer or the buyer’s representative can request before accepting keys.

1. The final approval certificate (nihai tasvip) for the block, with its date and number.
2. The condominium title or easement for the unit, matching the unit number in the contract.
3. A handover protocol that records the date, the state of completion and the list of defects found on inspection (a snagging list), signed by both parties, with a date by which each item is repaired.
4. The furniture, appliance and fittings inventory against the specification annex, with brands, warranty holders and delivery dates.
5. Working utility connections. The decree provides that until all taxes and fees are paid, neither the local authority may give a water connection nor the electricity authority an electricity connection, other than site connections during construction, so a December handover and a working home are not necessarily the same date.
6. The owners’ association fee in figures, the services it covers and who operates shared facilities.
7. The payment receipts, reconciled with the schedule in the contract.

The Statistical Institute’s use of the final approval certificate as the marker of completion, and the KTMMOB statements on supervision, explain why the certificate comes first. On 14 February 2023 the President of the Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Engineers and Architects said that structures must have static calculations to the earthquake regulation, that project approval checks seismic compliance and that municipalities are bound to have supervision done by the project authors. The same chamber’s president said in November 2025 that the 2015 regulation for buildings in earthquake zones should be reviewed periodically. These statements are press reports of the chamber’s position, and they point to the permit and supervision file as a document to ask for.

The state of local services is also part of what is handed over. The Aloha Homes listing guide records a 2025 statement by the Çatalköy-Esentepe mayor that too little water reached local storage tanks, and a grid-wide blackout lasting almost a day in August 2025 reported by the Cyprus Mail. Those are area facts, not defects of a particular building, and they are a reason to ask in writing what water and generator arrangements the project has, as the Cyprus Constructions pages list central generators for communal areas and for homes.

Residence, Rental and Resale Questions Linked to an Off-Plan Contract

Three questions regularly follow a reservation, and each has an answer tied to the stage of the contract. On residence, the Residence and Visa Regulation consolidated on 5 October 2026 allows a property-based short-term residence permit where the owner has a home suitable for residence and used for it. If the property was bought by contract, at least one-third of the price must have been paid and the Council of Ministers purchase-permit application lodged. With a stamped and approved contract and a total value of GBP 300,000 or more, the regulation provides a 5-year permit with no income test, and below GBP 300,000 it requires proof of regular monthly income of one minimum wage. A 35% down payment is above the one-third threshold (35% against 33.3%), although the permit also depends on the other conditions of the regulation. Our pages on the North Cyprus residency programme and on citizenship and immigration cover the rules. A purchase does not itself confer citizenship, EU rights or an EU residence permit.

On rental, the Holiday Houses Law treats a lease for tourism purposes of up to 60 days as a holiday-house letting that requires registration with the Tourism Planning Department, a registration certificate and an operating permit. The Cyprus Constructions pages say optional rental management is available and that no fixed rental return is offered, and the developer’s own brand knowledge file states that rental income and capital appreciation are not assured. Rent is subject to 10% withholding on gross rent under the Income Tax Law, and residential rent is at 0% VAT. Our article on renting out property in North Cyprus covers licences and management.

On resale, the Income Tax Law deems the net gain of a non-dealer seller to be 20% of the higher of the Land Registry’s assessed value and the sale price, exempts 30% of that gain and withholds 20% of the remainder as a final tax, which is 2.8% of the value (20% x 70% x 20%, calculated). The one-off exemption for a house acquired after 1 January 1982 is not available to foreigners, and a person selling more than 3 immovable properties in a calendar year, or more than 5 in three years, is treated as a property trader on a different basis. For a buyer who intends to assign a contract before completion, the contract is the document to read for any assignment clause.

Where the Schemes Are and How Prices Compare

The off-plan schemes in this guide sit on the north coast, in the districts that the Statistical Institute reports separately. Aloha Homes, Bahamas Homes, Hawaii Homes, Phuket Wellness Resort, Edremit Villas and Caesar Cliff carry an Esentepe label, which our Esentepe page groups with other listings tagged to the village, while Four Seasons Life III, Bellagio and Sea Pearl Residence are in İskele and the Famagusta page covers the city and district listings. For a comparison of towns and what each offers a buyer, see the town-by-town guide to places to buy in North Cyprus, and for pricing context by town see the North Cyprus property prices article.

A price per square metre can be computed only where the page gives both a price and a size. The Four Seasons Life III page shows developer minimums with sizes: a 36 m2 studio at GBP 135,000, a 53 m2 loft 1+1 at GBP 158,600, a 54 m2 1+1 at GBP 164,250 and an 80 m2 2+1 at GBP 252,000. Dividing price by size gives GBP 3,750, GBP 2,992, GBP 3,042 and GBP 3,150 per m2 (calculated, rounded to the pound). The page calls these minimums and not fixed prices or offers, and it gives no payment plan, so the figures describe the page and not a transaction. The Statistical Institute publishes a different kind of number: the official construction cost used in its bulletin was TL 43,408 per m2 for an apartment block in 2025, a cost and not a market price.

The villa and house comparison with the south of the island, including title types, taxes and currency, is the subject of our article on North Cyprus vs South Cyprus property, and the villas for sale in Cyprus guide sets the two sets of off-plan rules side by side. In the Republic, according to the Department of Lands and Surveys leaflet cited there, a unit under construction cannot be registered or have a title deed until completion certificates are issued, which is a different mechanism from the north’s registration of the sale contract.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is off plan property in North Cyprus?

Off plan property in North Cyprus is a home sold before it is completed, with a sale agreement signed first and the title deed transferred later. The agreement is stamped and registered at the district Land Registry within one month, the buyer applies for a Council of Ministers purchase permit, and the transfer is signed after the permit and the fees. Developer pages use labels such as “pre-sale” for this stage.

How is a contract for off plan property in North Cyprus registered?

Under Decree-Law 89/2026, as of 24 October 2026, a foreign buyer registers the stamped agreement at the district Land Registry within 1 month, after buyer and seller have paid the taxes and fees due on the sale, and applies to the Interior Ministry for the permit in the same month. The contract is void automatically if the deadline is missed. The decree is a Council of Ministers decree whose validity ends about 5 November 2026 unless Parliament enacts it.

How much is paid up front on off plan property in North Cyprus?

The Cyprus Constructions pages we list state “35% down, 65% until project completion”, and some cards show 48 monthly instalments. On a hypothetical GBP 150,000 unit that is GBP 52,500 down and GBP 97,500 in instalments, or GBP 2,031.25 a month over 48 months (calculated). The Afik pages show no percentage. A template line on a web page is not a contract term, so the schedule is read in the draft agreement.

What does an interest-free payment plan mean?

The Afik pages say “payment plans without interest” and give no down payment, months or currency. Whether the plan price differs from a cash price is a question for the draft contract. The premium, if any, is the plan price minus the cash price, divided by the part of the price paid after signing. The listing pages we cite state no promise on that point.

What is the difference between “Ready to Move In” and “Pre Sale”?

“Ready to move in” is a claim that the building is complete, tested by a final approval certificate, condominium title and working utilities. “Pre sale” ordinarily means units offered before completion. Several developer pages show both at once, and the Cyprus Constructions tags are identical on all ten of its detail pages, so for any listing of off plan property in North Cyprus the documents decide, not the tags.

What happens if the developer is late?

The laws cited in this guide set registration, permit and fee deadlines, while delivery dates and delay remedies are contract terms. A contract can fix a completion date by reference to the final approval certificate, a long-stop date, a refund amount and an interest or fixed sum for delay. The UK Government’s guidance lists payment plans missing from contracts and difficulty obtaining completion certificates and title deeds among the common Cyprus problems.

Can a foreigner buy several off-plan apartments?

While Decree-Law 89/2026 is in force, a foreign buyer may acquire up to 3 apartments, or one of the land and villa routes, and nationals of states that recognise the TRNC may buy 6 apartments or 3 two-storey villas. The older consolidated text of Law 52/2008 allows one property. The decree also caps sales of housing projects in zoned areas at 80% to foreigners, so the rule for off plan property in North Cyprus depends on the decree being in force or enacted.

Which taxes and fees apply to a purchase of off plan property in North Cyprus?

The sources show stamp duty of 0.5% of the stated sum, a Land Registry fee of 4%, 5.5% or 6% for foreigners by property count (valid to 5 January 2027), the application fee for the purchase permit (TL 35,446.50 at the July 2026 minimum wage) and the VAT regulation, which places housing up to 300 m2 of closed area in the 5% schedule. Whether VAT is included in the stated price is a contract question.

Does a deposit on off plan property in North Cyprus give residence?

No purchase gives residence as of right. The Residence and Visa Regulation of 5 October 2026 sets conditions for a property-based residence permit, including, for a contract purchase, that at least one-third of the price is paid and the purchase-permit application is lodged. The permit runs for 5 or 10 years depending on title, value and the stage of the purchase. A purchase does not give citizenship or EU rights.

What can be checked at the Land Registry before the first payment?

The district Land Registry issues a research document (araştırma belgesi), an information-only ownership query that shows the registered owner and, according to an agency guide, mortgages, restrictions and other encumbrances. A lawyer can use it with the building permit, the condominium easement and the title category to test the claims made for an off plan property in North Cyprus before any money moves.

Last checked: 24 October 2026. Sources: Resmi Gazete 147, Decree-Law 89/2026; Resmi Gazete 87, Decree-Law 63/2026; Resmi Gazete 197, Land Registry fees; Law 52/2008, consolidated; Interior Ministry Property Unit documents; Land Registry notice of 15 July 2025; Stamp Duty Law; VAT rates regulation; Income Tax Law; Tax Department minimum wage notice; Residence and Visa Regulation; Holiday Houses Law; Foreign Exchange Law 38/1997; Statistical Institute construction bulletin 2025; Statistical Institute CPI, September 2026; Immovable Property Commission; TRNC Constitution; UK Government guidance on buying property in Cyprus; ECHR, Demopoulos and Others v. Turkey; Court of Justice of the EU, Apostolides v Orams; Yenidüzen, KTMMOB statement; ncyprus.com.tr financing guide; Cyprus Constructions, Aloha Homes page; Afik Group projects page.