Isatis 3 | Famagusta | Northern Cyprus

Isatis 3 Famagusta is an apartment project by Isatis Construction Group in the Karakol region of Famagusta (Gazimağusa), Northern Cyprus, where the developer’s page lists 2+1 apartments of 74-82 m² and one-bedroom penthouses of 62-73 m². This guide reads the Isatis 3 Famagusta project through its published figures, adds sourced context on the area, and spends most of its length on taxes, fees and the cost of buying.

Price, completion date, unit count and title-deed category are not published, so none is estimated. Because Northern Cyprus changed its rules for foreign buyers during 2026, each legal figure names its instrument and says as of 17 October 2026 whether it depends on a decree that expires in November 2026.

Overview of the Isatis 3 Famagusta project

The developer’s page for Isatis 3 says the project is in the Karakol region, which it calls the centre of Famagusta city, and that shopping centres, the university, hospitals and restaurants are quickly accessible. It describes modern architecture and high-quality materials and refers to the flats as “luxury apartments” in its own words.

The page lists a 2+1 apartment and a one-bedroom penthouse whose terrace is listed at 24-75 m². It gives no street address, map point, unit count, price, payment plan, completion date or title-deed category, and the table keeps those fields as “not published” or “not stated” instead of estimating them.

It also gives no distance or travel time to any of the places it names, so “quickly accessible” is the developer’s description and not a measured figure. Source: the developer’s Isatis 3 page and its Turkish version, which agree on every figure.

On its About page the group says Isatis Construction Limited has operated in North Cyprus since 2015 and builds and sells apartments and villas in Famagusta and Yeniboğaziçi. One marketing sentence on the Isatis 3 page says a two-year rental guarantee at 6% will be offered to customers; its terms are not published and this guide does not rely on it. For the wider market around the project, the site’s Northern Cyprus properties page lists other listings in the country.

Unit types and sizes at Isatis 3

The developer lists two plans for the project, a 2+1 apartment and a penthouse, under the heading “Isatis 3 apartment”. The first table reproduces them as listed. The second derives simple ratios from the same numbers, calculated from the developer’s figures, so that a reader can see which statements the page supports and which it leaves open.

The calculated rows show how little the page says. The apartment range spans 8 m², about 10.8% of its lower bound, and the page does not say which flats sit at which end of it. Dividing by two bedrooms gives 37.0 to 41.0 m² per bedroom, but that figure includes the living room, kitchen and bathroom, so it is a rough way to compare plans and not a measure of room size.

The penthouse is the item that needs reading carefully. Its size range spans 11 m² (17.7% of the lower bound) and, with one bedroom, works out at 62.0 to 73.0 m² per bedroom, yet its terrace is listed at 24-75 m². Paired at the top of both ranges the terrace is 102.7% of the whole unit, and paired at the extremes it ranges from 32.9% to 121.0%.

Two readings are possible: the listed size leaves out the terrace, in which case unit plus terrace would be 86 to 148 m², or one of the figures is mistyped. The English and Turkish pages show the same numbers, and the page does not say which reading is right.

The two ranges do not overlap. The largest penthouse (73 m²) is 1 m² smaller than the smallest apartment (74 m²), and the penthouse midpoint is 86.5% of the apartment midpoint. Whether a buyer pays for the terrace area, and how it is measured, depends on the sale contract and not on this page. Neither language version states whether the sizes are gross or net. A signed floor plan that gives gross area, net area and terrace area separately would settle every open point in this section.

Location: Karakol and the Famagusta area around the project

The developer calls Karakol the centre of Famagusta city. The municipality’s city history page describes the walled Suriçi as the historic centre and says that after the Eastern Mediterranean University became a state university in 1986 the city’s growth turned north and north-east, with dense building in wards including Sakarya, Karakol and Baykal.

Karakol is therefore a built-up northern ward next to the Walled City, not the old centre. The 2011 census counted 7,046 residents in Karakol, the second most populated ward after Sakarya (7,647). Measured from OpenStreetMap data, the ward’s centre point lies 2.9 km in a straight line from the Walled City centre point (3.7 km by road), and the southern edge of the ward’s bounding box is about 0.4 km from it.

Isatis 3 has no published address, so the table below measures from the Karakol ward centre point and not from the building. Straight-line figures come from published coordinates; road figures are indicative estimates from a public routing service. OpenStreetMap assigns wards inconsistently in this part of the city, so the table is for orientation only.

Famagusta’s population depends on the source. The last census (4 December 2011) counted 40,920 people in the municipality and 69,741 in the district. The State Planning Organisation’s 2020 projection, quoted by the municipality, is 55,868 for the city and is a projection, not a count; Wikipedia gives 55,648 for 2019, and no census has been held since 2011. The municipality covers 93 km² (2008) and says more than 20,000 university students and staff also live in the city for most of the year.

Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) began in 1979 as the Institute of Higher Technology with 105 students and became a state university in 1986. The Statistical Institute’s 2024 yearbook gives 15,729 EMU students in 2024-25, down 5.5% from 16,640 in 2021-22 (calculated), while total higher-education enrolment in the TRNC fell from 114,000 to 104,873, down 8.0% (calculated).

The municipality also lists four other universities in Famagusta, for which the yearbook gives 1,209, 1,213, 372 and 1,212 students, so the five together enrol 19,735 (calculated). This guide makes no claim of rising rental demand, because the official series point the other way.

Gazimağusa State Hospital stands on Salamis Road. The hospital’s own page says it opened in a new building in December 2007 with 120 beds and now has 160, and calls it the second-largest state hospital in the TRNC after the one in Nicosia. On 9 July 2026 the Ministry of Health announced the first vascular operation there. City Mall’s operator lists 65 stores and more than 130 brands, open 10:00-22:00 every day.

By road, the routing service puts Ercan Airport about 53 km and 57 minutes from the Karakol ward centre point. Larnaca Airport is 40.8 km away in a straight line, but no road distance is given because the route depends on the crossing point and on who may use it. The Nicosia-Famagusta road is the busiest in Northern Cyprus, with average daily traffic reaching 40,000 vehicles according to the Turkish Highways Directorate; the sources reviewed do not say it is a motorway.

Famagusta Free Port recorded 107 ship calls in 2023. No passenger ferry from Famagusta is claimed, because the sources conflict.

The nearest official climate series is the Republic of Cyprus station at Paralimni, about 7.4 km south of the Walled City. Its 2002-2011 means run from a daily maximum of 15.9 °C and minimum of 8.1 °C in January to 33.3 °C and 23.8 °C in August, and the twelve monthly rainfall means sum to 331.1 mm (calculated), with June to August almost dry. An aggregator gives Famagusta sea temperatures of 17.2 °C in February and 29.0 °C in August, and the Isatis 3 page does not mention the sea; for beaches across the island, see the site’s guide to beaches in Cyprus.

Varosha, south of the Walled City, remains subject to the UN Security Council’s position: the Secretary-General’s report of 6 July 2026 records no reversal of the steps taken since October 2020.

Taxes, fees and the total cost of buying at Isatis 3 Famagusta

Every rate below is stated as of 17 October 2026 and names its instrument, because several of them depend on texts with an end date. The purchase limits come from Decree-Law 89/2026 (Resmi Gazete No. 147, 7 August 2026), a Council of Ministers decree that re-issued Decree-Law 63/2026 (Resmi Gazete No. 87, 11 May 2026).

A decree of this kind has 90 days of validity unless Parliament enacts it, so this one runs to about 5 November 2026 (90 days from 7 August, calculated), while the consolidated text of Law 52/2008 still shows the stricter earlier wording.

The Land Registry fees come from a separate regulation in Resmi Gazete No. 197 of 7 October 2026, valid only until 5 January 2027 inclusive. A buyer who signs now but completes later may meet different rules, so the figures should be rechecked before any payment.

On the purchase limit, the decree allows a foreign buyer up to 3 apartments (6 for nationals of states that recognise the TRNC), whereas the consolidated Law 52/2008 text shows 1 apartment (3 for those nationals). The Land Registry rate rises with the number of properties owned, as the table shows.

Law 52/2008 says the taxes, duties, fees, withholding and VAT on a transfer are paid by buyer and seller according to the legislation in force, while the Land Registry schedule says the registration fee is paid by the person registering the title in his or her own name.

The developer’s FAQ states different figures, for example that the Land Registry fee is shared 2% by the seller and 2% by the buyer and that the stamp is paid within 21 days of signing. Those statements could not be matched to the official schedule, and agency pages quote other percentages again, so quotations differ and the official schedule is used here.

The developer’s 2.8% figure for withholding on resale does match the calculation in the table.

A buyer planning an exit should read the resale line as well, although it is the seller’s tax. On the same placeholder price, the effective 2.8% would be GBP 2,800 (2.8% × 100,000, calculated). The Income Tax Law gives foreigners no access to its one-off exemption for a house and a plot, and no holding period that exempts a gain was found.

A person who sells more than 3 immovable properties in a calendar year, or more than 5 in three calendar years, is treated as a property trader and taxed on a different basis.

The next table is an illustration and not a quote. The GBP 100,000 price is a placeholder chosen for the arithmetic, because Isatis 3 has no published price. It uses only the rates above, the minimum wage of TL 70,893, and the TRNC Central Bank’s effective selling rate of TL 66.1047 per GBP for 17-19 October 2026, and it assumes the Land Registry fee is charged on the declared price, which the schedule summary does not state.

On this arithmetic the extra cost is GBP 5,036.22 (5.04% of the price) when the quoted price already includes VAT, and GBP 10,036.22 (10.04%) when 5% VAT is added on top. For a second property the 5.5% Land Registry rate would make that line GBP 5,500, and for a third at 6% GBP 6,000.

The illustration leaves out legal and notary fees and utility connection charges because no official tariff was found, and it leaves out any mortgage registration and furnishing. For the annual tax, the 2025 schedule applied to the listed 74-82 m² gives a base of TL 488.40 to TL 541.20 a year before surcharges (6.60 × 74 and 6.60 × 82, calculated), although the page does not say whether its sizes are the taxable areas.

Short lets of up to 60 days fall under the Holiday Houses Law, and a separate guide on this site discusses rental compliance for Airbnb-style lets; the site’s cost of buying, building and renting guide gives wider background.

Items to settle in writing before any payment:

1. Whether the quoted price includes VAT, and which party the contract names for the Land Registry fee, since the law and the developer’s FAQ describe the split differently.
2. The currency of the contract. Consumer prices rose 35.02% in the twelve months to September 2026 according to the Statistical Institute, and stamp duty on a foreign-currency contract is computed in lira on the stamping date.
3. Which Land Registry schedule will apply on the completion date, given that the 7 October 2026 schedule is valid only to 5 January 2027.
4. How many properties the buyer already owns, because that count sets the 4%, 5.5% or 6% rate.
5. Whether the decree has been enacted by Parliament or has lapsed (about 5 November 2026), and what transitional rules then apply to a contract signed meanwhile.
6. The permit deadlines: 75 working days for the transfer fees and 1 year for signing the transfer under the decree, against 60 working days and 6 months in the consolidated text.
7. Connection charges for water and electricity, which local authorities may not connect until the taxes and fees are paid.
8. A written cost sheet from an independent lawyer, since neither legal fees nor notary fees have an official tariff in the sources reviewed.

Buying property in Northern Cyprus in brief

This section follows the order in which paperwork and money move, from the first registry search to the utility connection, and gives the time limit each source states. Most limits come from Decree-Law 89/2026 and, as of 17 October 2026, apply only while that decree stays in force or until Parliament enacts it; the consolidated Law 52/2008 text has shorter deadlines, and both are shown.

Several rules decide who can use this route. The Interior Ministry’s document list asks for a petition (Annex 1 for an apartment), an information form, a copy of the passport or ID, a copy of the title, a location plan, an original police record from the applicant’s country and the sale contract, and applications can be made in person, by proxy or through a lawyer.

The developer’s FAQ says a purchase can be made before arriving on the island by power of attorney, which is the developer’s statement. A company with any foreign shareholding counts as a foreign legal person and needs a permit of its own. The Ministry also checks with other authorities whether a property is objectionable for military reasons, and the foreign applicant is vetted on the basis of a home-country police record.

Trustee arrangements cannot be used to hold more property than the legal acquisition right.

Missed deadlines have consequences: a lapsed permit ends automatically, a new application costs double fees, and a third application for the same property is not allowed. Under the decree, in housing projects in zoned areas at most 80% of the units may be sold to foreigners, and foreign first-degree relatives or buyers of the same nationality may not together buy more than half of the units on one parcel.

No agricultural or forest land and no land in military zones may be sold to foreigners, and foreigners may hold at most 7% of any district’s area and 3% of the country. A Famagusta property is registered at the district office; the Land Registry said on 15 July 2025 that, while its new system is rolled out, transfers, mortgages and research documents are handled only where the property is registered.

The Northern Cyprus country page on this site gives the wider market picture.

Risks, title and due diligence

A listing page cannot remove title and legal risk, and official sources describe the risk plainly. UK Government guidance, last dated 27 November 2019, says ownership of many properties in the north is disputed, with thousands of claims from people displaced in 1974, and that buying such property could have serious financial and legal implications. It also names general problems found across Cyprus: building without correct permits, payment plans left out of contracts, difficulty obtaining completion certificates and title deeds, and developer mortgages on the land.

Courts have approached the issue from both sides. In its decision of 1 March 2010 in Demopoulos and Others v. Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights treated the Immovable Property Commission, set up under Law 67/2005, as an effective remedy for Greek Cypriot property claims.

The Commission’s site shows 8,807 applications and 3,757 concluded cases on 2 October 2026, and the law allows applications until 21 December 2027. In Apostolides v Orams (28 April 2009) the Court of Justice of the EU held that a judgment of a court in the Government-controlled area ordering buyers to vacate land in the north must be recognised in other Member States.

The European Commission records that EU law is suspended in the north, and UK travel advice says the Republic of Cyprus does not recognise residence permits issued there; see also the site’s pages on citizenship and immigration.

None of these sources says anything about the land under Isatis 3. The developer’s page names no title-deed category and no plot number, so the first checks are the Land Registry search, the title category and any earlier owner, mortgages on the project land, the condominium title and the building permit.

The Republic of Cyprus has had a criminal offence since 20 October 2006 for buying or developing property without the registered owner’s permission, which UK guidance says may affect documents carried across the Green Line. The same guidance recommends independent legal advice, notes that each district has its own bar association under the Cyprus Turkish Bar Association, and mentions that lawyers sometimes act for both vendor and builder.

The site’s article on title deeds in Northern Cyprus covers the categories from its own viewpoint.

How Isatis 3 Famagusta compares with the other Isatis projects

Read side by side, the published figures show differences of kind and not of merit. Isatis 3 and Isatis 5 use almost the same location wording, the Karakol region, but their pages do not say how far apart the sites are. Isatis 3 lists a one-bedroom penthouse of 62-73 m², while Isatis 4 lists a two-bedroom penthouse of 83 m² and Isatis 5 one of 151 m², which are 10 m² and 78 m² above the top of the Isatis 3 penthouse range (calculated).

The Isatis 3 apartment range of 74-82 m² brackets the 75 m² and 80 m² apartments at Isatis 5 and the 75 m² flat at Isatis 4. Only Isatis 1 and Isatis 2 publish unit counts.

Sunrise, Fiora and Orchard differ in kind: Sunrise lists three-bedroom villas, Fiora two-storey apartment blocks with a pool, and Orchard villas and apartment blocks with listed community amenities. The Orchard range comes from the unit pages that were read, from a 44 m² studio to a 310 m² villa, and Sunrise and Orchard lie in Yeniboğaziçi, whose village point is 10.1 km in a straight line from the Walled City centre point.

None of the pages publishes a price, so no comparison of cost is possible. For other projects in the city, the Famagusta city page lists more listings.

The developer’s menu also lists Elysium 1, Elysium 2, Infinity and Hillside, and listing pages with those names exist on this site (Elysium, Elysium 2, Infinity and Hillside); they are not compared here because their sources were outside this review. Further listings with Famagusta in their page addresses are Sakarya Gardens, Urban Oasis and Aura Gardens, which this guide does not describe.

Isatis Construction Group

The About page of Isatis Construction Group states that Isatis Construction Limited has operated in the construction industry since its establishment in North Cyprus in 2015, and that it builds and sells apartments and villas in Famagusta and Yeniboğaziçi. It describes the company as staffed with experienced scientific and technical personnel and says it is working on further projects in those regions.

The page lists qualities in the company’s own words: environmentally friendly materials of high quality, constant communication with customers before and after sale, presentation of projects to investors from many countries, support for investors in procedures at the contract stage, and management of the projects it delivers, which it calls maintenance.

The site footer describes the group as an engineering and construction company run and led by a group of well-experienced engineers. The About page includes counters for projects, completed properties and clients, but no readable figures appear in the page text, and the page gives no list of delivered projects, so no track record can be quoted here. These are the developer’s statements and none of them was verified independently.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Isatis 3 Famagusta?

The developer places the project in the Karakol region, which it calls the centre of Famagusta city. Municipal and census sources show Karakol as a built-up northern ward next to the Walled City, with 7,046 residents in 2011, not as the historic core. The developer publishes no street address, plot number or map point, so the exact site is unknown to anyone relying on its page. A buyer would need the plot and Land Registry details in writing.

Which unit types and sizes does the Isatis 3 Famagusta project list?

Two: a 2+1 apartment of 74-82 m² with two bedrooms and one bathroom, and a penthouse of 62-73 m² with one bedroom, one bathroom and a terrace listed at 24-75 m². The page gives no unit count for either type, and it does not say whether the sizes are gross or net or whether the terrace is included. The penthouse’s largest terrace figure (75 m²) exceeds its largest listed size (73 m²), which a signed floor plan would need to explain.

Is a price published for Isatis 3 Famagusta?

No. The developer’s page for Isatis 3 gives no price, deposit, payment plan or instalment schedule, and this guide does not estimate one. The GBP 100,000 figure in the cost section is a placeholder used only to show how the sourced taxes and fees add up. A written price, with its currency and VAT treatment, has to come from the developer.

When will it be completed, and how many units are there?

Neither is published. The page states no completion status, handover date, year or number of units, so nothing here is an estimate. For context only, the Famagusta district recorded 1,492 dwelling units with final approval in 2025 (538 urban plus 954 rural, calculated), a district total that says nothing about this project. Asking for the building permit, the stage of construction and a dated handover clause in the contract is the way to fill the gap.

What taxes and fees does a foreign buyer pay?

As of 17 October 2026 the sourced items are Land Registry fees of 4% for a first property (5.5% for a second, 6% for a third) under the regulation in Resmi Gazete No. 197, which is valid to 5 January 2027; stamp duty of 0.5% of the contract sum; VAT of 5% on housing up to 300 m² closed area; and a permit application fee equal to half the monthly gross minimum wage, TL 35,446.50.

The worked example in the cost section shows these adding up to 5.04% or 10.04% of a placeholder price, depending on VAT.

How many apartments can a foreigner buy?

For a foreign buyer, Decree-Law 89/2026 (published in Resmi Gazete 147 on 7 August 2026) sets a ceiling as of 17 October 2026 of 3 apartments, or 6 for nationals of states that recognise the TRNC. The consolidated Law 52/2008 text still shows 1 apartment (3 for those nationals). The decree is a Council of Ministers decree whose 90-day validity ends about 5 November 2026 unless Parliament enacts it, so the limit that applies at signing should be confirmed.

How long does the purchase permit take?

No law or decree sets a time limit for the Council of Ministers’ decision, and no official processing time was found. The developer’s FAQ states 1-2 months for Turkish citizens and 6-8 months for other nationalities, which is the developer’s statement. The decree does fix the deadlines around the decision, as of 17 October 2026: the stamped contract must be registered and the application lodged within 1 month, the transfer fees paid within 75 working days of publication, and the title signed within 1 year.

The consolidated text shows 60 working days and 6 months instead.

Can a foreigner get a mortgage?

The law allows foreigners to mortgage property they have acquired once the Land Registry fees are paid (Law 52/2008, art. 10), and registering a mortgage costs 1% of the secured debt, paid by the mortgagor. There is no official statement of bank policy, and agency pages disagree: one says banks often lend up to 75% of the price, another that loan-to-value is typically capped at 50%, with rates of 6-10% a year. The Isatis 3 page publishes no payment plan or bank arrangement, so none is described here.

Does buying at Isatis 3 Famagusta give residence or citizenship?

Not automatically. The Residence and Visa Regulation (text of 5 October 2026) provides a property-based residence permit: with title in the buyer’s name and total property value of GBP 300,000 or more the permit runs 10 years, below that 5 years, and for a purchase made by contract at least one-third of the price must be paid.

Permanent residence needs housing worth at least EUR 125,000 and six continuous years of permits (three for applicants aged 60 or over). TRNC citizenship needs five years of residence or an exceptional Council of Ministers decision. The site’s pages on citizenship and the residency programme give more.

Why is the penthouse terrace listed as larger than the penthouse?

The developer lists the penthouse at 62-73 m² and its terrace at 24-75 m², and the English and Turkish pages show the same figures. Calculated from them, the terrace is between 32.9% and 121.0% of the unit size depending on how the ranges are paired. The page gives no explanation: either the listed size leaves out the terrace or one figure is mistyped. A signed floor plan with gross, net and terrace areas stated separately is the document that settles it, and the sale contract should repeat those areas.

Sources and last check

Last checked: 17 October 2026. Sources:

• Developer Isatis 3 page
• Developer Isatis 3 page (Turkish)
• Developer About page
• Municipality: city history
• Census 2011 wards
• OpenStreetMap
• EMU history
• State Hospital address
• City Mall
• Wikipedia: Salamis
• Ercan Airport
• Census 2011 municipality
• Municipality: municipality history
• Statistical yearbook 2024
• State Hospital page
• Ministry of Health
• Highways Directorate
• WMO Paralimni
• Sea temperatures
• UN report S/2026/550
• Resmi Gazete 147 of 7 August 2026
• Resmi Gazete 87 of 11 May 2026
• Law 52/2008 (consolidated)
• Resmi Gazete 197 of 7 October 2026
• Stamp Duty Law
• VAT rates regulation
• Developer FAQ
• Minimum wage, Tax Department
• Income Tax Law
• Holiday Houses Law
• Property tax schedule 2025
• Law 62/2026
• Central Bank rates
• Consumer prices, September 2026
• Land Registry notice
• Interior Ministry document list
• UK property guidance
• Demopoulos decision
• Immovable Property Commission
• Orams press release
• European Commission, Green Line

Rules dated as of 17 October 2026 can change when the decree or the fee schedule expires. This is not legal, tax or financial advice.