Guide to purchasing property in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

Legal advice

Under the laws of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) non-TRNC citizens are entitled to take title to only one property up to a maximum area of 1 donum per household. For the purposes of this law, husband and wife count as one household. Before the title deeds to the property can be registered in your name, you will need to have permission from the TRNC Council of Ministers. This is explained in more detail below. If you wish to take title to more than 1 property, or a property over 1 donum in area, we can give you advice on using trustees or setting up a TRNC company to hold the title to the property for you.

The conveyancing procedure followed by Naomi Mehmet & Partners is designed to ensure that your interests are protected as far as possible throughout the whole transaction. The first step will be an initial meeting with you to obtain information about the property you have chosen and any informal agreements you have made with the vendor regarding price, payment schedule and included items. This stage may also involve taking a power of attorney from you to ensure that we can act on your behalf to sign documents if you are away from Northern Cyprus for long periods of time.

We will then prepare a Contract of Sale to safeguard your interests. The Contract of Sale will include all important terms such as plot number, plot size, price, payment schedule, completion date with penalty clauses for late completion and all floor plans and specifications will be attached to the contract to ensure that the vendor is bound to carry out the construction work in accordance with these. The contract will be sent to both the vendor and the purchaser for review. When both parties are happy the contract will be signed. You will be given the option to pay the stamp duty at this point. Under new regulations, the Tax Office are requesting to see a copy of the contract of sale prior to transfer of title with all stamp duty paid up. Stamp duty is payable at 0.5% of the contract price if paid within 1 month of the contract date. If it is not paid within this time, it increases until it becomes 1.5% if paid after 6 months. You will have the option to pay upfront or pay on transfer of title and pay a higher rate.

We will next conduct the necessary land registry searches on your behalf to ensure that the vendor is the registered freehold owner of the land and that there are no mortgages/charges, injunctions or other encumbrances on the property. We will also check that the building permission for the construction has been obtained. We will then make the application to the Council of Ministers for your permission to purchase. The permission process can take a long time to complete, the current estimation is around two years. However, this will not prevent you from moving into the property or leasing the property or possibly even selling the property – as standard practice, we always try to negotiate with the vendor the insertion of a clause into the contract allowing you to sell the property before taking title to the property. We can also provide advice on other ways to secure your interest until you receive the title deeds, for example by registering a charge over the property.

Whilst processing your purchase permit application, the Council of Ministers will take searches from the land registry, the military and the immigration authorities and provided that these are positive, the permission will be granted. In the unlikely event that your application for permission is refused, you will be able to nominate any other person to take title to the property on your behalf and hold the property on trust for you. We can assist you with the drafting of the necessary trust deeds.

Once your purchase permission has been granted, we will notify you and then fill out all of the necessary land registry valuation forms for the valuation of the property. It is usually at this point that taxes will be payable. The taxes are calculated based on the land registry valuation and are currently at the following rates:

Land Registry Transfer Fee – 6% (however, every purchaser has a once in a lifetime option to reduce this fee from 6% to 3%. At the time of transfer, we will ask you whether you wish to use your option and if you do, you will only pay 6%).
VAT – 5%
Stamp Duty – 1.5% (if this has not already been paid – see above)

The taxes will be paid and the title deeds will be registered in your name. If you have left us with power of attorney, all of this can be dealt with without you being required to travel to the TRNC. We will then collect and keep the title deeds for you until you are ready to collect them.

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