Turkish Citizenship by Real Estate: The $400,000 Route Explained

Roughly 95% of citizenship applicants pick this route, and the logic isn’t complicated: instead of parking $500,000 in a deposit account, you put $400,000 into an asset you can rent out today and sell in three years. When it goes wrong, and it does go wrong for people — it’s almost never the concept. It’s one of four or five specific rules that nobody mentioned before the money moved.

This page covers all of them.

The rule that rejects more applications than any other

The $400,000 threshold is not measured by what you pay. It’s measured by an official appraisal report, prepared by a valuation firm licensed by the Capital Markets Board (SPK), and cross-checked by the Land Registry (TKGM).

Why does this trip people up? Because asking prices in citizenship-marketed projects routinely run above appraisal values. A buyer pays $430,000 for a flat, feels safe with the margin, and then the appraisal lands at $385,000. The application is dead before it starts. The fix costs nothing: get the appraisal before you sign anything. Any seller who resists that sequencing is telling you something.

Who you buy from matters as much as what you buy

The program exists to bring foreign money into Turkish hands, and the rules enforce that bluntly. Purchases don’t qualify when the seller is:

• a foreign national (any, not just your own),
• a Turkish company controlled by foreigners,
• your own spouse or children, or
• anyone who acquired that same property from a foreigner within the previous three years.

That last one catches careful buyers. The flat is owned by a Turkish citizen, everything looks clean, but he bought it from an Iranian seller two years ago, and the chain disqualifies it. Your lawyer should pull the title history at TKGM before you commit, not after.

How the money has to move

Cash in a suitcase doesn’t work and neither does paying the seller’s account in Dubai. The purchase funds must come through the Turkish banking system, where the foreign currency is sold to the Central Bank and you receive a Döviz Alım Belgesi (currency purchase certificate). That certificate is what proves, on paper, that $400,000 of foreign currency entered the country for this purchase. No DAB, no citizenship, even if the deed is in your hand.

Since 2025, banks also ask harder questions about where the money came from. A clean, documented trail (salary, business income, sale of an asset) sails through. Funds that hop through three personal accounts in two countries first will get your file stuck in compliance for weeks.

The annotation, and what “3 years” really means

At the deed transfer, the Land Registry adds a şerh, an annotation committing you not to sell for three years. Break it and the citizenship granted on the back of that purchase can be revoked. The clock runs from the deed date, not the application date. Renting the place out, living in it, renovating it: all fine. Only selling is off the table.

Where to buy, and where not to

Istanbul took 37% of all foreign purchases in 2025 (7,989 homes, per TurkStat), with Antalya close behind at 7,118. But the district matters more than the city, for two reasons.

First, foreign ownership is capped per district, and neighborhoods where foreign residents exceed the concentration threshold are closed to new residence permits. You can still legally buy there and still get citizenship, but the short-term permit that’s part of the application process has to be issued somewhere, and a closed mahalle complicates your file. The closed list has been stable since April 2025; check the current status of the specific neighborhood, not the district, before signing.

Second, resale. In three years you’ll be selling into a lira-denominated market, most likely to a local buyer. A generic flat in an oversupplied citizenship-tower has a very different exit than a well-located property a Turkish family wants. Buy the second kind.

Off-plan and developer risk

New builds dominate this market, and developers know exactly what the citizenship buyer needs. Two cautions from files we’ve watched go sideways: the citizenship application needs a real title deed (or a notarized preliminary sale contract meeting strict conditions: paid in full, properly annotated), and a reservation agreement or unnotarized contract is worth nothing to the Migration Directorate. And delivery delays are your problem, not the developer’s, unless your contract says otherwise. Lawyer first, showroom second.

What it costs beyond the $400,000

Item	Typical figure
Title deed transfer tax	4% of declared value (who pays is negotiable; assume you)
Appraisal report	$300–600
Notary, translations, apostilles	$1,000–3,000
Legal fees, full service	$5,000–15,000
VAT	often included in price; first-time foreign buyers may qualify for an exemption on new builds; verify, don’t assume

Full numbers, including the application fees for a family, are on the costs page.

What a sales deck will not tell you

The lira is volatile and your exit, three years out, is priced in it. Prime-location property has historically held dollar value far better than the periphery, and rental yield softens the ride, Antalya short-lets in particular. But anyone telling you Turkish property is a guaranteed dollar gain is selling you something. The citizenship is the certain part of this transaction; treat the investment return as the variable.

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Next: check what paperwork the application itself needs on the requirements page, or see the full process timeline. Wondering whether the deposit route suits you better? Compare it here. If you want our take on your specific situation, ask for a free eligibility check.