Buying property in Turkey while living in the UK

Two kinds of buyer, two sets of paperwork

If you are a Turkish citizen living in the UK, the tapu office treats you like any other Turkish buyer; your obstacle is distance, and the answer is a power of attorney (vekaletname). If you are a British citizen with no Turkish nationality, the office treats you as a foreign buyer: your passport must be translated, your Turkish (a sworn interpreter and two witnesses are required if you do not speak it), and a valuation report and certain checks apply. Couples where one spouse is Turkish and the other British meet both sets of rules at once. Our tapu page covers the Turkish process; this guide is the sequence as seen from the UK.

Decision one: attend or appoint

Attending in person means being in Türkiye for the tapu appointment, the bank transfer and usually a signing session at the estate agent or developer. It avoids any power of attorney but requires you and, for a foreign buyer, an interpreter to be there on the day. Appointing someone means giving a lawyer or trusted relative a power of attorney limited to the purchase. There are two ways to create it from the UK:

• At the Turkish consulate’s notary section in London, Manchester or Edinburgh. One act per appointment, a fee of roughly £30–40 per A4 page, and, for tapu powers, the consulate requires a Turkish citizen to present the new-type kimlik kartı; bring two photographs and the details of the property (parcel and plot numbers) so the power can be drafted precisely. A non-Turkish speaker granting a power must bring a sworn Turkish interpreter. The document is Turkish from the outset and needs no translation.
• Before a UK notary public, followed by an FCDO apostille (£45 paper, £35 e-apostille where the notary’s certification qualifies) and a Turkish translation notarised in Türkiye. Tapu offices accept a foreign power of attorney presented as the original plus a Turkish translation by a sworn translator notarised in Türkiye. We prepare that translation in Ankara from £6.50 per page plus the notary tariff, and can deliver it directly to your lawyer in Türkiye. The UK power of attorney page and the tapu power of attorney checklist give the wording points that matter.

Whichever route, the power should name the attorney, describe the property, and state the acts allowed (purchase, payment, signing the tapu, applying for utilities). Powers drafted too broadly are refused at some tapu offices; too narrowly and the attorney cannot complete. A Turkish lawyer normally supplies the wording.

Documents a British buyer will be asked for

Money, fees and timing

Budget beyond the price for the title-deed transfer fee, calculated as a percentage of the declared value and shared between buyer and seller in practice, the valuation report, DASK, notary and translation costs, and your lawyer. Foreign buyers pay the purchase price through a Turkish bank and obtain the currency-purchase document the tapu office expects; your lawyer or bank will explain the current form of that rule. The FCDO apostille takes days on the e-apostille route and weeks on paper. A notarised translation in Ankara takes two to four working days; courier to the UK £30, or we hand it to your lawyer in Türkiye. Turkish consulate appointments can be several weeks out, so decide early which power-of-attorney route you will use. No UK VAT is charged on our invoices.

Things that go wrong in practice

• A power of attorney granted at the consulate with an old-type nüfus cüzdanı and refused for tapu use.
• A UK power translated before the apostille was attached, then rejected because the apostille is not in the translation.
• A foreign buyer arriving at the tapu office without a sworn interpreter and two witnesses.
• A property in a zone where foreign ownership is restricted, discovered only after a deposit was paid.
• Relying on a UK certified translation of the passport, which the tax office and tapu office do not accept.
• A property in Northern Cyprus assumed to work the same way; the TRNC is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention and its title system is different, so take specific advice.

What we handle

We translate and notarise in Ankara the passport, the UK power of attorney and any bank or company document the seller’s side asks for, apostille the translation for £15 where required, and can arrange a sworn interpreter for the tapu appointment through our interpreting service. We do not check title, draft contracts or advise on whether to buy; a Turkish property lawyer does that, and the fee is worth paying.