Turkey Property Taxes and Buying Costs for Foreign Buyers (2026)
Turkey in Glopra's July 2026 data: 8.7% buying costs, 7.32% gross yield, an 18.39% effective tax on rent, and one lira threshold that rewrites the arithmetic.
Two numbers describe the Turkish market better than any brochure. The first is a price-to-income ratio of 6.58, the most affordable reading in Glopra's entire comparison group. The second is TRY 1 500 000, the level at which a foreign landlord's rental exemption stops existing. Both come from Glopra's snapshot of 23 July 2026, compiled under methodology v3.
Completion day costs 8.7% on top of the price
Glopra measures the full round-trip transaction cost at 8.7% of the purchase price. The tapu transfer tax on the title deed carries most of that weight, with agency fee, sworn translation, notary work and the compulsory earthquake policy behind it. A first-sale unit bought directly from a developer and paid for in currency brought into Turkey often lands under the average, because the VAT exemption applies and the commission usually disappears. That exemption is tied to a three-year holding condition, which matters if the plan was a quick resale.
At an Istanbul city average of 1 755 USD per square metre, 8.7% is a far smaller absolute sum than the same percentage would be across most of Western Europe. Affordability works in your favour twice on entry.
Two reliefs that foreign-language advice keeps getting wrong
Search in English, German or Russian and you will repeatedly read that non-residents forfeit the Turkish rental reliefs. The Revenue Administration's own guide for non-residents says otherwise. A dar mükellef, meaning a taxpayer with limited liability, may claim the article 21 residential rent exemption known as the istisna, set at TRY 58 000 for 2026, and separately the article 74/3 götürü gider, a flat 15% deduction taken instead of documented costs and requiring no receipts at all. Both, not one or the other.
Run through Glopra's model case, the two together produce an effective tax on rental income of 18.39%, with a realistic band from 13.96% to 22.82%.
The threshold that decides your net yield
That band is not bracket creep. Article 21(2) removes the exemption altogether once gross annual residential rent passes TRY 1 500 000. Not tapered, not reduced in proportion. Gone. In dollar terms the line sits near 2 650 USD of rent a month.
For one apartment in Istanbul it is comfortably distant. For an owner adding a second or third unit it becomes the most consequential figure in the file, because the test applies to total residential rent rather than to each property separately. A single new lease can cost you the exemption on everything else you already let. The yıllık beyanname, the annual return, is filed long after the decisions that shaped it, so anyone within sight of the threshold should run the numbers before the tax year begins rather than after it closes.
With a private tenant nothing is deducted in advance
Where the tenant is an individual there is no withholding at source. The money arrives whole, and the annual return settles the liability in full, with nothing following it. Withholding enters the picture only when the tenant is a business, which is a different mechanism on a different timetable. The current rules are published at gib.gov.tr and are revised often enough that last year's figures deserve rechecking.
Five years against ten
Glopra records +114.6% in USD over five years, +56.1% over ten, and +6.6% across the last twelve months. A ten-year gain weaker than the five-year gain is not an error in the data. It dates the move: the surge is recent and concentrated, while the earlier part of the decade was close to flat in dollars. Bubble risk is scored elevated at 60, on a dataset Glopra rates High confidence. The lira sits behind both readings, and no contract clause or choice of district removes that exposure.
Tax rules change and this article is general information rather than tax advice — confirm your own position with a Turkish adviser before committing.
Sources
gib.gov.tr
Gelir İdaresi Başkanlığı
Glopra