Kat irtifakı vs kat mülkiyeti: what foreign buyers need to know

Two phrases run through Turkish property contracts and confuse foreign buyers more than any other pair: kat irtifakı and kat mülkiyeti. Both are real titles registered at the Land Registry. Both produce a stamped tapu document. Both can be sold. Neither is “lesser” in the way that “leasehold” is lesser than “freehold” in the UK system. The difference is structural and operational, and for a citizenship file the choice is not always either-or.

This guide explains what each title actually is, when each one is issued, what the programme accepts, and the four diligence checks an off-plan buyer should run before signing.

Kat irtifakı, in plain English

Kat irtifakı means “easement of floor”. The legal construct dates from the 1965 Condominium Law (Kat Mülkiyeti Kanunu, Law No. 634). It is the right to a specific apartment in a building that has not yet been completed, registered against the land parcel.

When a developer breaks ground on a residential building, the land already has a tapu. The architectural project is filed with the municipality. The developer files at the Tapu Müdürlüğü to subdivide the land’s share (arsa payı) into the planned units. Each future apartment gets a kat irtifakı tapu, identified by:

• block number (blok),
• floor number (kat),
• apartment number (daire / bağımsız bölüm),
• arsa payı (share of the underlying land, expressed as a fraction),
• a reference to the approved architectural project.

The kat irtifakı tapu is sold to buyers. Buyers can register it, mortgage it (though banks discount kat irtifakı lending), trade it. When the building is finished and the municipality issues the iskan (occupancy permit), the kat irtifakı is converted to kat mülkiyeti.

Kat mülkiyeti, in plain English

Kat mülkiyeti means “floor ownership”. It is the finished version. It is registered against the specific apartment rather than against the land share, and it is the title type the Civil Code treats as the conventional condominium ownership.

A kat mülkiyeti tapu identifies the apartment as an independent unit with its own boundaries, its own share of common parts, and (because the iskan has been issued) a confirmation that the as-built building matches the approved project.

For most practical purposes, owners cannot tell the difference between kat irtifakı and kat mülkiyeti once they are living in the building. The differences show up at three moments: at sale (kat mülkiyeti closes cleaner), at financing (banks lend more readily against kat mülkiyeti), and at the citizenship file (read on).

What the citizenship programme accepts

The citizenship-by-investment programme accepts both, with conditions.

Kat mülkiyeti tapu, finished building. Straightforward. The SPK appraisal is done on the finished apartment. The DAB is issued, the deed is transferred with the 3-year annotation, the conformity certificate follows. This is the simplest case.

Kat irtifakı tapu, building under construction or recently completed but pre-iskan. Acceptable. The SPK appraisal is done on the kat irtifakı value (which reflects the apartment as defined by the project plus the share of land). The DAB is issued, the deed is transferred with the 3-year annotation against the kat irtifakı. The conformity certificate follows.

Off-plan with no kat irtifakı yet registered. Not directly acceptable. What works in this situation: a notarised preliminary sale contract (gayrimenkul satış vaadi sözleşmesi) registered against the developer’s land parcel, with the DAB issued and the payment made. The conformity certificate office has accepted this pattern on case-by-case basis since 2020, but the file takes longer and the lawyer of record has to be confident the developer’s title chain is clean.

A reservation form or down-payment receipt. Not acceptable. The programme requires a real-property right registered at the Tapu Müdürlüğü; a developer’s reservation form gets you nowhere.

The four diligence checks before signing a kat irtifakı deed

Off-plan citizenship purchases live or die on these.

1. The arsa payı. Confirm the share of the underlying land that comes with your apartment matches the apartment’s square metres on a per-unit basis. Developers occasionally allocate disproportionate arsa payı to penthouses; that is fine if you are buying the penthouse and bad if you are not. The arsa payı determines your voting weight in the future condominium association and your share of common-parts expenses.

2. The architectural project. Ask for the approved project (onaylı proje) and check that your apartment’s location, square metres, layout and orientation match what the sales office showed you. Discrepancies caught now are easy to correct; discrepancies caught after iskan are a renovation problem you pay for.

3. The municipal permits. Building permit (yapı ruhsatı) issued. Iskan applied for (or known timing). Foundation poured. Construction status documented. Buying a kat irtifakı in a building where construction is stalled is the worst-case scenario; the programme does not save your file from a developer that runs out of money.

4. The conversion timing. Ask, in writing, when the developer expects to file for kat mülkiyeti after iskan. Conversion is an administrative step taken by the building’s manager or developer; if nobody files for it, kat irtifakı persists indefinitely. The clearer the developer’s plan, the better the file.

Conversion: what actually happens

After the iskan is issued by the municipality, the building’s manager (or, in newer buildings, the developer) files at the Tapu Müdürlüğü to convert all kat irtifakı titles in the building to kat mülkiyeti.

The conversion is administrative. Old deeds are not physically replaced; the registry record is updated and a new deed can be printed on request. Owners are not always notified; the change just happens in the system.

For citizenship files, the conversion does not reset the 3-year hold. The annotation moves with the title type. An applicant who bought on kat irtifakı with the 3-year annotation in May 2026 will see the annotation expire in May 2029, regardless of whether the conversion to kat mülkiyeti happens in November 2026 or March 2028.

Practical rules of thumb

• Buying a finished building, kat mülkiyeti, no complications. Default case. Use it.
• Buying off-plan from a developer with a clean track record, kat irtifakı, expected iskan within 12 months. Reasonable. Use a strong lawyer.
• Buying off-plan with no kat irtifakı yet, only a preliminary sale contract. Reasonable if the developer is solid and the lawyer has done this pattern before. Longer file.
• Buying off-plan from a developer with no track record, construction stalled, kat irtifakı uncertain. Walk away. The discount is not worth the risk to your citizenship file.

See also

• The tapu types primer for the full deed-type vocabulary.
• The DAB guide for the FX side of off-plan purchases.
• The real-estate route page for the programme-specific rules on appraisals and seller eligibility.
• The closed districts page for the residence-permit angle that interacts with off-plan timing.