The General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadaster has issued a Guideline (“Guideline”) through it’s Circular dated 30.05.2019 and numbered 2019/5 (“Circular”), which clarified certain matters regarding Turkish citizenship obtainment based on property investment. In summary, explanations stated under the Guideline that shed light on practice are as follows:
- It is possible to use more than 1 (one) sales or promise to sell transactions for applying to exceptional citizenship.
- For determination of appraisal company, the lists announced in the web sites of Capital Market Board or Appraisers Association of Turkey will be relied on rather the list of Banking Regulation and Supervision agency. Besides, provided that it is above 250k USD, sales or promise to sell amount may be below the price mentioned in the appraisal report.
- The amount ascertained trough the actual payment currency will prevail over the prices ascertained through the sales or promise to sell currency, in the event of a discrepancy.
- In terms of mortgaged acquisitions, the loan amount will be deducted from the purchase price (previously, mortgage amount was deducted).
We anticipate that the clarifications introduced by the Guideline will be to the benefit of all parties concerned in the sector.
In order not to encounter any obstacles in the practice, we recommend to consummate the transaction at land registry in any expedited way after preparation of appraisal report for avoiding from currency changes, to make the payment in USD (if possible) and to check ownership and encumbrance status of target property prior to sales or promise to sell annotation.
Please let us know if you have any queries.
Contributing Advisors
