Türkiye’s USD 400,000 property route requires currency conversion

A foreigner who buys Turkish property for citizenship must invest at least USD 400,000 or equivalent, sell that currency through a Turkish bank to the Central Bank before the transaction, and accept a three-year bar on selling. What the buyer later recovers in dollars depends on the property’s price in lira and on the exchange rate at exit. At Central Bank rates, the lira lost more than 60% of its dollar value between January 2023 and September 2026.

What must be bought

Article 20 of the regulation implementing the Turkish Citizenship Law requires at least USD 400,000, or its equivalent in foreign currency, in property registered as a condominium or floor easement, or a plot with a building on it, with an annotation on the title that it will not be sold for three years. A notarised promise-to-sell for condominium or floor-easement property can also qualify, with at least USD 400,000 or equivalent paid upfront and a three-year annotation against transfer or cancellation. The increase from USD 250,000 was published on 13 May 2022 and took effect on 13 June 2022. Since December 2023, bare land and agricultural land no longer qualify.

The currency must be sold to a bank operating in Türkiye, and by that bank to the Central Bank, before the transaction. Under the Central Bank’s instruction on these sales, the conversion uses its latest announced hourly buying rate and cannot be reversed or cancelled once completed. Where required, the Land Registry confirms the value with an amount certificate, based on a valuation prepared by GEDAŞ, that must be no more than six months old when the citizenship-related property transaction is applied for. The declared price and the transfers must each reach USD 400,000.

What is paid at purchase

On a transfer of title, the buyer and the seller each owe a title-deed fee of 2%, charged on the declared price, which may not be lower than the property’s tax value. As an illustration, if the declared price were TL 19,516,040, the lira equivalent of USD 400,000 at the Central Bank’s buying rate of 25 September 2026, and the tax value were no higher, the buyer’s fee would be TL 390,320.80. A declared price found not to reflect the real price is reassessed. The Land Registry also charges a revolving-fund fee, notified by text message; its amount has not been established for this article.

The first delivery of a newly built home or workplace can be exempt from VAT when the buyer is a foreign individual not settled in Türkiye and the price is brought in as foreign currency. If that property is sold within three years, the VAT not collected, plus deferral interest, must be paid before the transfer. The VAT provision does not mention citizenship applicants, and whether an applicant counts as not settled in Türkiye has not been established.

What is paid while holding

The annual building tax on homes is 0.1% of the property’s tax value, or 0.2% inside metropolitan municipalities; the base is the tax value, not the purchase price. A separate tax on valuable homes applies to the portion of tax value above TL 17,711,000 in 2026, at marginal rates of 0.3%, 0.6% and 1%; an owner’s sole residential property in Türkiye is exempt, and for owners of several homes, the lowest-valued residential property falling within this tax is exempt. Tax values for 2026 may not exceed three times those of 2025.

The currency arithmetic

The Central Bank’s indicative dollar buying rate was 18.7029 lira on 2 January 2023, 29.6675 on 2 January 2024, 35.2525 on 2 January 2025, 42.8810 on 2 January 2026 and 48.7901 on 25 September 2026.

As a hypothetical calculation on indicative buying rates, USD 400,000 converted on 25 September 2023, exactly three years before the latest rate, at 27.1751, gives TL 10,870,040. The same lira amount converts to USD 222,792 at the rate of 25 September 2026. To restore the gross dollar equivalent, before taxes, fees, spreads and any rental income, the property’s value in lira would have had to rise by about 79.5%. That is arithmetic on Central Bank rates; it says nothing about what Turkish property prices did.

The regulation values the USD 400,000 threshold at the Central Bank’s banknote selling rate, while the mandatory conversion uses its buying rate.

What is paid on the way out

The three-year annotation bars a sale during the hold. For an individual disposing of property outside a business activity, the income-tax provision on capital gains covers sales within five years of acquisition. The acquisition cost is adjusted by a statutory price index when the rise is 10% or more, and disposal expenses and taxes and charges paid are deductible; the gain is taxed at progressive rates from 15% to 40%, with TL 150,000 of annual gains exempt in 2026. The consolidated legislation reviewed on 27 September 2026 retains the five-year rule. The seller also pays its 2% title-deed fee.

The provisions reviewed do not expressly state what an early sale would mean for citizenship, and the Land Registry’s implementing circular was not reviewed. The general grounds for annulling or withdrawing citizenship, and the conditional one-year liquidation requirement, were set out in The Legation Times’ report of 28 August.

For a Vietnamese buyer

Holders of ordinary Vietnamese passports can obtain a single-entry e-visa for stays of up to 30 days. Türkiye and Vietnam signed a double taxation agreement on 8 July 2014; it entered into force on 9 June 2017 and has applied since 1 January 2018. Its Article 13(1) allows the state where property lies to tax gains that a resident of the other state makes from selling it. How Vietnam relieves that tax has not been established for this article.

Turkish statistics count sales to all foreigners, not citizenship purchases: 21,534 homes in 2025, down 9.4%, and 13,141 from January to August 2026, down 6.3%.