Tax When Buying a House in Turkey: 2026 Rates and Examples

Tax When Buying a House in Turkey: 2026 Rates and Examples

As of 28 October 2026, tax when buying a house in Turkey consists of a title deed fee paid at registration, value added tax (VAT) that is already inside the price of most new builds, and an annual property tax paid to the municipality. A later sale can trigger income tax on the gain if it happens within five years of acquisition. Renting the property out, passing it on by inheritance or giving it away each fall under separate rules. This guide sets out every one of these charges with its legal basis, the 2026 figure and the arithmetic behind it.

Amounts are in Turkish lira (TRY). US dollar figures in brackets use the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (TCMB) forex selling rate of 27 October 2026 (bulletin 2026/203), the latest published on 28 October: USD 1 = TRY 49.7892. The non-tax costs of a purchase, such as agent commission and translations, are covered in our guide to the associated costs of buying property in Turkey, and the Turkey property tax calculator applies the same rates to a specific price. Rules differ by person, by seller type and by the date of the building permit, so the examples below state their assumptions.

What Tax When Buying a House in Turkey Includes

Turkish law taxes property at four moments: when it is bought, while it is owned, when it is sold or rented out, and when it changes hands without payment. The table lists the main charges, the statute each one rests on and the 2026 figures. Each row is explained in the sections that follow.

Several of these figures changed for 2026. Fixed amounts and brackets in the income tax system moved with the revaluation rate of 25.49% announced for 2026, according to EY Türkiye. Law 7566, published in the Official Gazette on 19 December 2025, changed the wording of the title deed fee base, raised the penalty for an under-declared price and limited the 2026 property tax values, according to the explanatory note of the Istanbul Chamber of Certified Public Accountants. The proportional title deed rate itself did not change.

Title Deed Fee (Tapu Harcı) and the Taxable Value

The title deed fee is the largest single tax when buying a house in Turkey on a resale, and it is paid at the land registry before the transfer is registered. The Fees Law (Law 492) sets it out in Tariff (4), section I, item 20(a): a charge on sales, swaps and similar transfers, calculated separately for the person transferring and the person acquiring. The applied rate is 2 per cent (binde 20) for each side, while the statutory base figure in the same tariff is 1 per cent (binde 10); the law authorises the President to raise the rate up to one-fold, and the tariff text on mevzuat.gov.tr shows 2 per cent as the applied figure. The Land Registry and Cadastre Directorate (TKGM) guide to property acquisition by foreigners also states that both buyer and seller pay the title deed fee at 2 per cent. The parties may agree in the contract that one side bears both shares, but that agreement does not change who is liable towards the state.

How the taxable value is set

The fee is calculated on the declared sale price, but never on less than the municipal property tax value. Law 7566 re-ordered the wording of item 20(a) to say exactly that: the fee is computed on the declared transfer price, which may not be lower than the property tax value. Article 63 of Law 492 adds two rules. For a unit in a building with a floor easement (kat irtifakı), the fee is computed on the whole of the transfer price. If the tax office later finds that the fee was paid on a figure below the property tax value, or that the declared price does not reflect reality, the fee on the difference is assessed afterwards and the tax-loss penalty is now one-fold, meaning 100 per cent of the missing fee, where it used to be 25 per cent.

The property tax value also moved in 2026. Under temporary article 23 of the Property Tax Law, as rewritten by Law 7566, the 2026 values may not exceed the “two-fold excess” of the 2025 values, and the same article states that the values determined under it are also used for the taxes and fees that are based on the property tax value. The title deed fee base is one of those fees. The municipality issues a certificate of the current value (emlak rayiç değeri belgesi), and the TKGM guide lists that certificate among the documents requested at the land registry.

Title-office service fee and other items at the registry

Separate from the title deed fee, the land registry charges a revolving-fund service fee. The 2026 TKGM tariff lists indicator amounts of TRY 2,227.00 and TRY 307.00, and a law-firm summary of the tariff reports that the TRY 2,227 base is multiplied by a local coefficient between 0.30 and 3.00 depending on the district, with the TRY 307 amount added for each further plot after the first. For one flat that gives TRY 668.10 at the lowest coefficient and TRY 6,681.00 at the highest (USD 13 to USD 134). Foreign buyers also hand over a passport, the municipal value certificate, a compulsory earthquake insurance policy (DASK) for buildings, photographs, a sworn interpreter where a party does not speak Turkish, and an apostilled and translated power of attorney if someone represents them, per the TKGM guide. The guide adds that a foreigner does not need a residence permit to buy.

VAT on New Builds and the Foreign-Buyer Exemption

Value added tax applies to deliveries made as part of a commercial or professional activity, so it arises mainly on a new home bought from a developer. In that sense VAT is the part of the tax when buying a house in Turkey that depends most on who the seller is. Article 1 of the VAT Law (Law 3065) limits the tax to deliveries and services made within commercial, industrial, agricultural or professional activity, which is why an occasional sale of a flat by a private owner who does not trade property is outside VAT and the title deed fee is the main transfer cost on a resale. Article 28 sets the basic rate at 10 per cent and authorises the President to set other rates, including different rates for housing deliveries depending on the plot or home value and the location.

Rates for housing with a permit after 1 April 2022

Presidential Decision 5359 of March 2022 introduced a reduced rate for the first 150 m² of net area of homes whose building permit is dated on or after 1 April 2022, and Presidential Decision 7346, published in the Official Gazette of 7 July 2023 and in force from 10 July 2023, raised the reduced list rate from 8 per cent to 10 per cent and the general rate from 18 per cent to 20 per cent, according to a tax-press summary of the decision. For housing the result is 10 per cent on the part of the price that corresponds to the first 150 m² of net area and 20 per cent on the part above that. The decision itself is in the Official Gazette of 7 July 2023. Net area is the usable area as defined in the VAT circulars and is smaller than the gross area in a sales brochure. Permits dated before 1 April 2022 follow the older housing rules, and a 1 per cent rate applies to some urban-transformation projects under Law 6306.

The blend works on the price of the units. For a 180 m² net home priced at TRY 12,000,000 before VAT, 150/180 of the price (TRY 10,000,000) is taxed at 10 per cent, which is TRY 1,000,000, and 30/180 (TRY 2,000,000) at 20 per cent, which is TRY 400,000. Total VAT is TRY 1,400,000, or 11.67% of the pre-tax price (USD 28,119), and the invoice totals TRY 13,400,000. For a unit of 150 m² net or less the whole price is taxed at 10 per cent.

The exemption for non-resident foreign buyers

Article 13(1)(i) of the VAT Law, added by Law 6824 in 2017, exempts the first delivery of a building built as a home or workplace when the price is brought into Turkey in foreign currency. The text names three groups of buyers: Turkish citizens who live abroad for more than six months with a work or residence permit, foreign individuals who are not resident in Turkey, and institutions with no seat in Turkey and no workplace or permanent representative earning income there. Two consequences are written into the article itself. If the exemption was applied although the conditions were not met, the buyer is jointly liable with the seller for the tax, penalty and late interest. If the home is disposed of within three years, the unpaid tax and deferment interest must be paid by the person disposing of it before the title deed transaction. The three-year period replaced a one-year period through Law 7394 in 2022. The statute is available on mevzuat.gov.tr.

The detailed foreign-currency conditions sit in the VAT General Application Communiqué rather than in the statute. A law-firm summary dated February 2024 reports that at least 50 per cent of the price must be brought in before the invoice date and the rest within a year, that the bank transfer record must identify the buyer and the home, and that the exemption does not apply to resales or to units not delivered by the builder. Whether a buyer counts as non-resident follows the income tax residence test described later in this guide.

Stamp Duty, Notary Fees, DASK and Other Mandatory Costs

Some compulsory payments in a purchase are costs rather than taxes, and they are listed here only so that the arithmetic of a purchase is complete. Stamp duty under the Stamp Duty Law (Law 488) is a tax: a contract that states an amount carries 9.48 per mille, all signatories are jointly liable, and a notarised real estate sale promise is taxed at zero per mille, according to an Alomaliye article of 1 September 2026. The per-document cap for 2026 is TRY 29,115,961.10 according to the same article. The 2026 notary fee tariff (Official Gazette no. 33123, 30 December 2025) sets a fee of 0.1 per cent of the sale value with a minimum of TRY 500 and a maximum of TRY 4,000 for a notarised sale contract; the title deed sale itself is signed at the land registry, not before a notary.

The compulsory earthquake insurance (DASK) is a premium, not a tax. The DASK tariff page lists the sum insured as the unit cost per square metre multiplied by the gross area, capped at a maximum, with a tariff rate per mille that depends on the building type and the earthquake risk group from I to VII. For policies starting on 1 October 2026 the unit cost is TRY 12,039 per m² for reinforced-concrete buildings and TRY 8,026 per m² for other buildings, with a maximum sum insured of TRY 2,552,268. From 1 November 2026 the table shows TRY 12,288 and TRY 8,192 per m² and a maximum of TRY 2,605,100. DASK publishes an example for 100 m²: from TRY 879 in risk group VII to TRY 3,395 in group I for a reinforced-concrete building. Our article on real estate insurance and its control in Turkey describes the policy itself.

Foreign buyers also meet a valuation report. TKGM circular 2024/2 sets the procedure for valuation reports used in acquisitions by foreigners, and the reports come from valuation firms authorised by the Capital Markets Board (SPK). The SPK minimum fee tariff for 2026, published in the Official Gazette of 31 December 2025, sets TRY 17,622 for a unit of up to 250 m² gross and TRY 20,217 for 251 to 500 m², as reported by Ekonomi Gazetesi. These are minimum fees, VAT at 20 per cent is added, and the parties may agree on a higher price.

Worked Example: Tax When Buying a House in Turkey for TRY 10,000,000

The following hypothetical purchase shows how the charges combine. A buyer purchases a new 120 m² (net) apartment from a developer for TRY 10,000,000 (USD 200,847), the price including VAT. The building permit is dated after 1 April 2022. The apartment has a gross area of 140 m² for insurance purposes, stands in a reinforced-concrete building, and the municipal tax value is assumed to be TRY 4,000,000, which is below the price, so the price is the taxable value.

The buyer’s statutory charges at the registry and for insurance and valuation therefore add up to between TRY 223,045 and TRY 232,580, which is about 2.2% to 2.3% of the price (USD 4,480 to USD 4,671), before stamp duty on a private contract, notary fees or any agent commission. The 10% VAT of TRY 909,091 is already in the TRY 10,000,000 invoice and is not an additional payment. If the buyer is a non-resident foreign individual who meets the conditions of article 13(1)(i), the invoice would be issued without VAT, and the same apartment would be priced at TRY 9,090,909 before VAT on the same terms, with the three-year no-sale annotation on the deed.

The TRY 10,000,000 price is above the USD 200,000 level that the Directorate General of Migration Management uses for the residence permit based on property, which is covered in a later section. It is chosen only because the arithmetic is easy to follow.

Annual Property Tax and Other Yearly Charges

After registration, the one-off tax when buying a house in Turkey gives way to yearly charges. Ownership brings a yearly property tax, set in the Property Tax Law (Law 1319). Under article 8 the building tax rate is 1 per mille (0.1%) for residences and 2 per mille (0.2%) for other buildings, and the rates apply with a 100 per cent increase inside metropolitan municipality boundaries and adjacent areas covered by Law 5216. For land, article 18 sets 1 per mille for agricultural land (arazi) and 3 per mille for building plots (arsa), with the same metropolitan increase. The President may lower the rates to half or raise them to three times. The full text is on mevzuat.gov.tr.

Tax value, indexation and the 2027 change

The tax is charged on the tax value (vergi değeri), which the municipality derives from the building cost tables and the land unit values, not on the market price. Article 29 states that after the first year the value rises each year by the revaluation rate. Law 7566 changed the earlier half-rate rule: where the law used to apply half of the revaluation rate, it now applies the whole rate, and temporary article 23 keeps the 2027, 2028 and 2029 values on the base set for 2026. The same temporary article limits the 2026 value to the “two-fold excess” of the 2025 value, and the Istanbul Chamber of Certified Public Accountants summarises the effect as limiting the 2026 tax to twice the tax paid for 2025.

Declaration and payment months

A new owner is a change of taxpayer, which article 33(6) lists among the events that change the tax value record. Article 23 requires a notification to the municipality where the property stands in the budget year of the event, or within three months if the event falls in the last three months of the year, and article 9 starts the liability from the following budget year. The tax is paid in two equal instalments: the first in March, April or May and the second in November, per article 30, which also allows the Ministry to change the months for particular regions.

High-value residence tax

Articles 42 to 44 of the same law add a tax on residences whose tax value is above a threshold. Communiqué 88 fixed that threshold at TRY 17,711,000 from 1 January 2026 (USD 355,720). The tax applies only to the excess: 0.3 per cent on the part between TRY 17,711,000 and TRY 26,567,000; TRY 26,568 plus 0.6 per cent between TRY 26,567,000 and TRY 35,425,000; and TRY 79,716 plus 1.0 per cent above TRY 35,425,000. For a residence with a tax value of TRY 20,000,000 the arithmetic is (20,000,000 – 17,711,000) x 0.003 = TRY 6,867. Because the test uses the municipal tax value and not the sale price, many homes priced above the threshold have a tax value below it.

Cleaning tax and the annual-cost table

Homes with a water meter also pay the environmental cleaning tax on the water bill. For 2026 the rate is TRY 4 per m³ of water in metropolitan municipalities and TRY 3 per m³ elsewhere, according to KPMG’s summary of Communiqué 59. The table applies all of this to the apartment from the earlier example, with an assumed tax value of TRY 4,000,000 and water use of 15 m³ a month.

Capital Gains: Value-Increase Tax and the Five-Year Rule

Turkey has no separate capital gains tax. A private individual who sells property pays income tax on the gain under the heading of value-increase gains (değer artışı kazancı), but only if the sale falls within five years of acquisition. The rule is in repeated article 80 of the Income Tax Law, and the Revenue Administration (GİB) explains it in its brochure on income tax declaration for property sold within five years. According to that brochure, a gain from a property acquired for consideration and disposed of within five years from the acquisition date is taxable, the five years are counted by calendar days, and a property acquired without consideration, for example by inheritance, produces no taxable gain when sold. GİB’s own example shows a purchase on 21 October 2022 and a sale on 13 July 2023 as taxable because five full years had not passed.

Acquisition date and who counts as a trader

The acquisition date is normally the date of registration at the land registry, in line with article 705 of the Civil Code. The brochure makes an exception for homes taken over ready for use from housing cooperatives, the housing authority TOKİ or other persons before registration: if the owner proves actual use with delivery records and utility bills, the date of actual use counts. Someone who buys and sells property continuously, in several transactions within a year or in successive years, is taxed on commercial income instead, and land bought and subdivided into plots within five years also produces commercial income, per the same brochure.

Computing the gain and the exemption

The net gain is the sale price minus the acquisition cost and minus the costs and taxes borne by the seller on the disposal. The cost is indexed: it is multiplied by the producer price index (Yi-UFE) of the month before the sale divided by the index of the month before the acquisition, but only if the index rose by 10 per cent or more. GİB’s example multiplies TRY 1,000,000 by 2,105.17 / 533.44 to get TRY 3,946,404. A yearly exemption of TRY 150,000 applies to value-increase gains realised in 2026 (TRY 120,000 for 2025), under Communiqué 332 published in the Official Gazette on 31 December 2025. The remainder is taxed on the general income tax scale.

The scale is the one set for 2026 incomes by Communiqué 332, as listed in KPMG’s summary. Residents declare the gain on the annual return filed in March of the following year, and the tax is paid in two equal instalments in March and July. A non-resident taxpayer who is not required to file an annual return must report a property gain on a separate declaration to the tax office where the property stands within 15 days of the date the gain arises. The GİB brochure is at intvrg.gib.gov.tr.

Worked Examples: Selling After 3 Years and After 6 Years

Both examples use a hypothetical flat and the 2026 rules. The indexation formula needs the producer price index of two months. Only the September 2023 level is taken from a published index table in the sources used here, so the factor for the period is derived from the annual changes published by the TCMB. The TCMB table of producer prices shows annual changes of 33.09% for September 2024, 26.59% for September 2025 and 27.38% for September 2026, and the GİB table puts the September 2023 index at 2,749.98. The factor between September 2023 and September 2026 is 1.3309 x 1.2659 x 1.2738 = 2.146, which corresponds to an index of about 5,902 for September 2026; chaining the monthly changes gives 2.1465, so 2.146 is used. The factor is derived from published percentages and is not an official index level; an actual return uses the TÜİK index levels.

Sold after 3 years

An individual buys a flat in October 2023 for TRY 3,000,000 and sells it in October 2026 for TRY 9,000,000 (USD 180,762). The sale is within five years, so the gain is taxable. The month before the acquisition is September 2023 and the month before the sale is September 2026.

The tax of TRY 663,700 equals 11.1% of the TRY 6,000,000 difference between sale price and purchase price. The example ignores other deductible expenses and assumes the taxpayer has no other income in 2026 that would push the gain into higher bands. If the index had risen by less than 10 per cent, the nominal cost of TRY 3,000,000 would be used instead.

Sold after 6 years

The same sale price and a flat bought in October 2020 for TRY 1,500,000 and sold in October 2026 for TRY 9,000,000 give a different result. Six years exceed the five-year period, so the gain is not a value-increase gain and no income tax is due on it. The seller still pays the title deed fee of 2 per cent: 9,000,000 x 0.02 = TRY 180,000 (USD 3,615), and receives TRY 8,820,000 (USD 177,147) before any other sale costs. Comparing the two examples shows why the length of ownership is the central variable in Turkish property taxation.

Rental Income Tax

Rent from a Turkish property is income from immovable property (gayrimenkul sermaye iradı). GİB publishes a guide for people not resident in Turkey (publication no. 594, February 2026) that sets out the rules; the copy hosted by Alomaliye is the one used here. It defines a limited taxpayer as a person who is not domiciled in Turkey and does not stay there continuously for more than six months in a calendar year, taxed only on Turkish-source income.

Exemption, expenses and the scale

Revenue from letting a building as a home is exempt up to TRY 47,000 for 2025 and TRY 58,000 for 2026. A taxpayer whose rent is below the exemption does not file a return. The exemption covers residential rent only, applies once to the total of all a person’s homes, and is lost if the rent is not declared on time or if other gross income exceeds the upper limit of the third bracket of the wage tariff, which was TRY 1,200,000 for 2025. Two methods are available for expenses. Under the actual-expense method the person deducts documented costs listed in article 74, including a deduction of 5 per cent of the acquisition price for one home for five years from the year of acquisition, and when the exemption applies only the share of expenses matching the taxed part of the rent is deductible. Under the flat method, 15 per cent of the revenue is deducted; the flat deduction is computed after subtracting the exemption, it cannot be used for the letting of rights, and the choice binds for two years.

Withholding, declaration and payment

When the tenant is a company or another withholding agent listed in article 94, 20 per cent of the gross rent is withheld. A limited taxpayer whose rent is fully withheld files no return for it. Rent that is not withheld, and residential rent above the exemption, goes on an annual return filed from 1 to 31 March of the following year; for 2025 income the tax was payable in two equal instalments on 31 March and 31 July 2026, and the first instalment comes with stamp duty. Payment can be made through the Revenue Administration’s digital tax office, including with cards issued abroad, and the Ready Declaration system accepts a login with a foreign identification number. Our article on the Airbnb law in Turkey covers permits for short-term lets, which are a separate matter from the tax.

Worked example: one year of rent

A flat is let to an individual tenant for TRY 40,000 a month during 2026, and the landlord has no other Turkish income and uses the flat method.

If the tenant were a company that withholds 20 per cent of the gross rent, the withholding would be 480,000 x 0.20 = TRY 96,000 (USD 1,928) and no return would be filed for a limited taxpayer. The same rent therefore produces TRY 62,240 under the return route and TRY 96,000 under withholding, because the withholding rate applies to the gross amount without the exemption or the deduction.

Inheritance and Gift Tax

The Inheritance and Gift Tax Law (Law 7338) taxes property in Turkey that passes by inheritance or without payment. Article 1 covers property belonging to Turkish citizens and property located in Turkey, so a foreign owner’s Turkish flat is within the tax when it passes on death or by gift. A foreigner who is not domiciled in Turkey is not taxed on property abroad that he or she receives from a Turkish citizen. Returns are due within four months of a death in Turkey when the heirs are in Turkey and within six months when they are abroad, within six months for a death abroad when the heirs are in Turkey, and within one month of a gift. Foreign residents file with Turkish consulates, per articles 8 and 9. The statute is at mevzuat.gov.tr.

The 2026 amounts come from Communiqué 57, published on 31 December 2025, as summarised by KPMG. Each descendant or the spouse has an exemption of TRY 2,907,136 on the inherited share, and a spouse’s share is exempt up to TRY 5,817,845 when there are no descendants. A gift or other transfer without consideration has an exemption of TRY 66,935.

For a worked case, suppose a child inherits a flat assessed at TRY 8,000,000 (USD 160,677) as the only asset. The base is 8,000,000 – 2,907,136 = TRY 5,092,864. The tax is 3,000,000 x 1% = TRY 30,000 plus 2,092,864 x 3% = TRY 62,786, which totals TRY 92,786 (USD 1,864). For a gift of TRY 1,000,000 to a person outside the family, the base is 1,000,000 – 66,935 = TRY 933,065, and at the gift rate of 10 per cent the tax is TRY 93,307. An inherited property that is later sold produces no value-increase gain, as the GİB brochure states.

Tax Residency, the Tax Number and Double-Tax Treaties

Owning a home in Turkey does not make the owner a Turkish tax resident. The Income Tax Law taxes residents on worldwide income and limited taxpayers on Turkish-source income only. GİB’s guide describes a limited taxpayer as someone without a domicile in Turkey who does not stay there continuously for more than six months in a calendar year. The statute speaks of six months, not of 183 days. A limited taxpayer owing tax on Turkish property declares only Turkish-source items such as rent and the gain on a sale.

Filing requires a taxpayer record. The Ready Declaration system accepts a login with a foreign identification number, and a limited taxpayer who has no Turkish identity number and no tax record opens a taxpayer record at the tax office of the property’s location, or of the tax representative’s residence, before using the system, per the GİB guide. A return approved electronically in the system creates the record automatically when none exists.

Treaties listed by the Revenue Administration

Turkey’s treaties to avoid double taxation allocate taxing rights between Turkey and the owner’s home country. The GİB list of treaties in force, dated 23 April 2025, includes the following. The treaty texts for the United Kingdom and Germany both say that income from immovable property, and gains from selling it, may be taxed in the state where the property is situated, which in these cases is Turkey. The GİB rental guide gives the same reading for all treaties, with an example of a German resident letting a flat in Bodrum, who is taxed in Turkey under domestic rules.

The relief for the home country differs by treaty. Under article 23 of the United Kingdom treaty, Turkish tax on income or gains from Turkish sources is credited against UK tax on the same income or gains, subject to UK law on foreign tax credits, according to the treaty text on GOV.UK. The UK government page lists the agreement as in force from 26 October 1988. The Polish treaty dates are confirmed by the Ministry of Trade page, and the German articles 6 and 13 are in the Turkish text of the treaty. The dates in the table come from the GİB list.

Residence Permit and Citizenship Thresholds Linked to Property

Two immigration routes refer to property values, and they are not taxes. The short-term residence permit for property owners is handled by the Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM). Its application form for owners of immovable property in Turkey asks for the title deed and states that the value of the home at the date of acquisition must be at least USD 200,000 in Turkish lira, that it must be a residence used by the foreigner for that purpose, and that it cannot be used for rent or similar income-generating purposes. Where the home was acquired by inheritance or donation, a current valuation report is requested. The form is available on the e-ikamet system. Our page on the Turkey residence permit covers the process.

Citizenship by investment is set out in article 20(2)(b) of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law. It refers to a unit with a condominium or floor-easement title, or a plot with a building on it, bought for at least USD 400,000 or the equivalent in foreign currency with a three-year no-sale annotation on the title deed. A notarised sale promise is also covered when the full amount is paid in advance and the annotation is entered. The footnotes of the regulation on mevzuat.gov.tr show the amount was raised from USD 250,000 to USD 400,000 by the Presidential Decision published on 13 May 2022 and the wording on the type of property changed by Decision 7938 of 12 December 2023. Valuation and annotation procedures are set by TKGM circulars, including 2024/2 and 2024/4. Our guide to Turkish citizenship by investment covers the application steps. Neither route changes the tax rules above, because tax residence and residence permit status are assessed under separate tests.

Tax When Buying a House in Turkey by Stage

The table follows a purchase from the first document to a possible later sale. It shows when each part of the tax when buying a house in Turkey, and of the taxes that follow it, arises, using the rules above.

Fixed amounts, brackets and exemptions are announced again each year at the end of December, and under article 29 of the Property Tax Law, as amended by Law 7566, the tax values rise by the full revaluation rate from 2027. An amendment to the property trade regulation published on 1 October 2026 (Official Gazette 33387) moved a transition date in its temporary article 1 to 1 December 2026 and left the usage fee of the new payment system for property sales to a protocol, according to an Alomaliye summary.

Figures in older material often differ from the ones above. The USD 400,000 citizenship threshold has applied since 2022, not the earlier USD 250,000. The VAT rates on housing were 8 per cent and 18 per cent from April 2022 until the Decision 7346 change on 10 July 2023, when they became 10 per cent and 20 per cent. Inheritance and gift exemptions and the income tax brackets are revised each January in line with the revaluation rate: the scale used for 2025 income had a first bracket limit of TRY 158,000, and the 2026 scale starts at TRY 190,000. Earlier articles on this site on the tax on the increase in value from the sale of real estate and on changes in real estate taxation in Turkey were written under earlier figures. Related pages cover property in Türkiye, apartments for sale in Istanbul, buying an apartment in Turkey in installments and the cheapest and most expensive cities in Turkey.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main tax when buying a house in Turkey?

On a resale from a private owner the main tax when buying a house in Turkey is the title deed fee: 2 per cent of the taxable value for the buyer and 2 per cent for the seller. The taxable value is the declared price, but not less than the municipal property tax value. On a new build from a developer, VAT of 10 per cent on the first 150 m² of net area and 20 per cent above that is also included in the price.

Is VAT charged on a resale flat?

Not normally. Article 1 of the VAT Law taxes deliveries made within commercial, industrial, agricultural or professional activity, so an occasional sale by a private individual who does not trade property is outside VAT. A seller who deals in property professionally can be a VAT taxpayer, and the title deed fee applies in every case.

Can a foreign buyer avoid VAT?

Article 13(1)(i) of the VAT Law exempts the first delivery of a home or workplace from the builder to a non-resident foreign individual, among other buyers, if the price is brought into Turkey in foreign currency. The deed then carries a three-year no-sale annotation, and the tax with deferment interest is due if the home is sold within three years. The detailed currency conditions are in the VAT General Application Communiqué.

How much property tax does a flat pay each year?

The rate is 0.1 per cent of the tax value for a residence, or 0.2 per cent inside metropolitan municipality boundaries. For a tax value of TRY 4,000,000 that is TRY 4,000 or TRY 8,000 a year, paid in two instalments, one between March and May and one in November. The tax value is set by the municipality and is usually well below the market price.

When is a sale of Turkish property taxed?

A sale is taxable when it occurs within five years of the acquisition date, counted by calendar days. After five years the gain is not a value-increase gain. Inherited or gifted property that is sold falls outside the tax. In 2026 the first TRY 150,000 of a year’s gains is exempt and the cost is indexed by the producer price index when the index has risen by 10 per cent or more.

How is rental income taxed for a non-resident owner?

Residential rent up to TRY 58,000 a year is exempt for 2026. Above that the owner files a return in March of the following year, deducting either documented expenses or a flat 15 per cent, and pays on the 15 per cent to 40 per cent scale in two instalments. If the tenant is a company or another withholding agent, 20 per cent of the gross rent is withheld and a limited taxpayer files no return for that rent.

Does buying a house make me a Turkish tax resident?

No. Tax residence arises from a domicile in Turkey or from staying there continuously for more than six months in a calendar year, according to the Revenue Administration’s guide. An owner who stays less than that is a limited taxpayer, taxed only on Turkish-source income such as rent and gains on the property. A residence permit does not change the test.

Do double-tax treaties remove Turkish tax on property?

No. In the treaties with the United Kingdom and Germany, income from immovable property and gains from selling it may be taxed where the property is situated, which is Turkey. The treaty then deals with relief in the owner’s home country, for example by credit for the Turkish tax under article 23 of the UK treaty.

Is there inheritance tax on a Turkish flat owned by a foreigner?

Yes. The Inheritance and Gift Tax Law covers property located in Turkey. For 2026 each descendant or spouse has an exemption of TRY 2,907,136 on the inherited share, and the inheritance rates run from 1 per cent on the first TRY 3,000,000 to 10 per cent above TRY 55,000,000. Returns are due within four to eight months of a death, depending on where the death and the heirs are.

How are the figures here applied to a specific price?

The Turkey property tax calculator uses the same 2026 rates for buying costs, annual taxes, rent and sale tax. The calculation in this guide shows the steps by hand for a TRY 10,000,000 purchase, a sale after three and six years and a year of rent.

Last checked: 28 October 2026. Sources: Fees Law 492; Property Tax Law 1319; VAT Law 3065; Inheritance and Gift Tax Law 7338; Citizenship Law regulation; Official Gazette, Decision 7346; GİB property gains brochure; GİB rental income guide; GİB treaty list; UK-Turkey treaty; DASK tariff; TCMB exchange rates; TCMB producer prices; DGMM application form; TKGM guide for foreign buyers; TKGM 2026 tariff.