Many developments have been recorded since January 2017 regarding the acquiring of foreigners to Turkish citizenship. The works have completed for foreigners who purchase houses, have an account in a bank and establish a business in Turkey about being a “Turkish citizen” if they demand. The government is working on expanding the application of citizenship in order to led up for foreigners to bring foreign currency investments to the country. Selling 16500 houses to foreigner in the first months of 2016 took up time of the real estate market especially. In the first months of 2017, the Committee of Ministers took action when the prospect of an explosion in housing sales in the case of “recognition of citizenship for who purchase house”
The giant companies of real estate sector gave explanations about this subject. With the law published in the Official Gazette on 12 January, the scope of exceptional cases in the acquisition of Turkish citizenship in Article 12 of the Turkish Citizenship Law was expanded. With the regulation on the implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law published on 25 May, some changes were made in practice. It was known that the immovable property with a minimum of 1 million US Dollars could not be sold for three years in the title deed restriction, provided that the Ministry of Environment and Urbanism who determines purchasing, they can acquire Turkish citizenship with the proposal of the Ministry and the decision of the Council of Ministers.
Within the scope of the Regulation, how were the boundaries of being a Turkish citizen for foreigner who purchase houses?
The application for the acquisition of the real estate by sale will not be sufficient to determine the amount stated in the article, a valuation report will be demanded which accepted by SPK and prepared by an evaluation expert who have a valid licence and prepared properly for the evaluation standards. It will be observed that the valuation report refers to the year of transaction made. The value in US dollars will be calculated on the effective selling rate of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey on the date of the transaction, and for each foreigner acquiring more than one house, each house will be evaluated separately.
The most important subject of regulation will be the scope of time. The foreigners will make a commitment about not selling this immovable or immovables for three years and registration request document for foreigners who request for citizenship and declaration of immovables by taking a commitment “within the scope of the 20th Article of the Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law, there is a commitment not to be sold within three years from the date of acquisition.” condition will be stipulated. Within 2 years from the date of indication, in case of cancelling by tenant, if the person acquires Turkish citizenship or not, can be controlled by MERNİS records. In case of immovable’s handover without tenant’s consent for various reasons, this issue should be reported to General Directorate of Civil Registration and Nationality urgently.
