Real Estate Lawyer in Istanbul
Buying, selling, letting and inheriting property in Turkey — due diligence and deed, argued and translated by the same attorney.
Property is where foreign clients meet Turkish law at its most formal: title searches at the Land Registry, valuation reports, transfer taxes, notarised powers of attorney — and, for a buyer who does not speak Turkish, a legal requirement that a sworn interpreter be present when the deed is signed. SP Law & Consultancy acts for foreign buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants and heirs across Istanbul and Turkey, with one structural difference: the attorney who runs your transaction is also a certified English–Turkish sworn translator — the same person who argues the file can lawfully stand beside you at the deed signing.
What a property matter looks like from our desk
Real estate work is due diligence first and paperwork always. Whether the matter is a purchase, a sale, a lease or an estate, the questions are the same: what does the registry actually say, what do the documents actually prove, and what will survive scrutiny years later. Our work covers the full arc.
Buying property
Title and encumbrance checks at the Land Registry, valuation and zoning review, the closed-neighbourhood and restricted-zone checks that decide residence outcomes, contract review, safe payment structuring, and the transfer itself. The full process is set out in our complete guide to buying property in Turkey, with an Istanbul-specific companion and a guide to buying remotely by power of attorney.
Purchases linked to residence and citizenship
Where a purchase must also carry a residence permit (the USD 200,000 threshold) or a citizenship application (the USD 400,000 route), the property, the valuation and the paperwork must satisfy two authorities at once — the Land Registry and the migration or citizenship file. We run both tracks together, alongside our immigration practice. Background: our guides to citizenship by investment and closed neighbourhoods.
Selling and exit
Sale-side due diligence, capital gains exposure and the five-year rule, non-resident tax positions, and clean transfer mechanics — including sales conducted from abroad under power of attorney. See our guide to selling property and capital gains tax and the annual taxes and compliance picture for foreign owners.
Leases: landlords and tenants
Lease drafting and review, rent increases within the statutory limits, deposit and termination questions, and eviction — where we act for both landlords and tenants, which gives us a practical view of how these disputes are actually won. Our guides cover both sides: renting as a foreign tenant and the landlord's guide to eviction and rent increases. For owners letting short-term, the licensing regime has its own rules.
Inheritance, wills and estates
What happens to Turkish property on death, the certificate of inheritance, forced-share rules, inheritance tax filings, and wills drafted to work across two legal systems. Start with our guides to Turkish inheritance law, making a will in Turkey and obtaining a certificate of inheritance.
Disputes and special risks
Title and registration disputes, purchase deposits that vanish with a seller, defects discovered after closing, and the urban-transformation regime for at-risk buildings — the situations where a property file becomes a litigation file. We assess the merits honestly before recommending court.
Why the sworn-translator side of the practice matters here
Turkish property law makes language a formal requirement, not a courtesy. At the Land Registry, a party who does not speak Turkish signs the deed only with a sworn interpreter present — the transfer cannot lawfully proceed without one. Contracts, powers of attorney issued abroad, foreign civil-status documents in inheritance files: every one enters the process through certified translation, and a discrepancy between an original and its translation surfaces at the worst possible moments — at the deed desk, or in court years later.
In this practice, the attorney and the certified sworn translator are the same person. The contract you sign, the power of attorney drafted for your consulate, the documents in your inheritance file and the words spoken at the deed signing are produced and verified by the lawyer who is accountable for the whole transaction — not by a third party the lawyer has never met. The wider case for working with an English-speaking attorney who is also your translator is set out separately.
How an engagement runs
1. Assessment — You describe the property or the dispute; we review what exists on paper and tell you plainly what the registry shows, what the risks are, and whether the transaction or claim is sound. If a deal should not proceed, we say so before you are committed.
2. Due diligence and documents — We run the searches, verify the title, review or draft the contracts, and prepare the sworn translations and powers of attorney in-house.
3. Completion — We attend the transfer, manage the payment mechanics and tax filings, and — where you are abroad — complete the transaction under power of attorney.
4. If it goes wrong — Where a dispute exists or emerges, we advise honestly on the merits and, where it is worth fighting, run the case before the Turkish courts.
Start with the guides
Most of what a property lawyer is asked in a first consultation is already answered, carefully and for free, in our guides. Reading the one closest to your situation is the fastest way to arrive prepared.
Buying: buying property in Turkey (the complete guide) · buying in Istanbul · buying by power of attorney · closed neighbourhoods · citizenship by investment.
Owning, selling & letting: property taxes for foreign owners · selling and capital gains · renting as a tenant · eviction and rent increases for landlords · short-term rental licensing.
Inheritance: inheritance law · making a will · certificate of inheritance.
Also useful: forest annotations and title cancellation (Law No. 7584) · urban transformation · opening a bank account · Land Registry Law No. 2644 (reference).
About the Attorney
Selim Polat is the founder of SP Law & Consultancy, an attorney registered with the Istanbul Bar Association (Reg. No. 68892) and a certified English–Turkish sworn translator. His practice concentrates on the law foreign clients meet in Turkey — property, immigration, business and disputes — combining representation and certified translation in a single office in Istanbul. The firm's legal guides are researched, written and signed by the attorney and published in the Law Blog.
This page is general information about the practice and does not constitute legal advice, and contacting SP Law & Consultancy does not create an attorney–client relationship. Property law, taxes, thresholds and deadlines change; seek specific advice on your own situation before acting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can foreigners buy property anywhere in Turkey? Most nationalities can buy, subject to statutory limits — military and special security zones are closed, acreage caps apply, and a handful of nationality-specific restrictions exist. The checks take days and belong before any deposit is paid, not after.
Do I have to be in Turkey to buy or sell? No. Purchases and sales are routinely completed under a properly issued power of attorney, arranged through a Turkish consulate or with apostille. We draft the power narrowly, for the specific transaction, and handle the rest in Turkey.
Is a lawyer legally required for a property purchase? No — and that is precisely why problems are common. The Land Registry checks formality, not your interests: no one at the transfer verifies that the price is safe, the contract is fair, or the property is free of the problems that surface later. That is the lawyer's work.
What does the sworn-interpreter rule at the deed signing mean for me? If you do not speak Turkish, the Land Registry requires a sworn interpreter at signing. In this practice the attorney is a certified sworn translator, so the person interpreting the deed is the same person legally accountable for your transaction.
What taxes come with buying and owning? A title-deed transfer fee on purchase, annual property tax while you own, and capital gains exposure on sale depending on the holding period, alongside VAT in some new-build purchases. The current figures and the five-year rule are covered in our tax guides.
I inherited property in Turkey — what do I actually need to do? Establish your status with a certificate of inheritance, complete the inheritance-tax filing, and register the transfer at the Land Registry — with foreign documents apostilled and sworn-translated. Deadlines apply, and our inheritance guides map the sequence.
My tenant is not paying — can I evict? Turkish law protects residential tenants, and eviction runs on specific statutory grounds and strict procedure. It is regularly won by landlords who follow the procedure exactly and lost by those who improvise. We act for both sides and advise honestly on the merits.
Do you also handle the residence permit that comes with a property purchase? Yes. Where the purchase supports a residence permit or a citizenship application, we run the property transaction and the immigration file together, so the valuation, the deed and the application are consistent from the start.
Discuss your property matter
Whether you are buying, selling, letting, inheriting or in a dispute, describe the situation and we will tell you plainly what the registry, the contract and Turkish law actually allow.