Regardless of whether you are looking to acquire a private or a commercial immovable property in Northern Cyprus, it is our firm’s priority to provide you with the best possible service and to see you through every step of the process. We ensure that you are well cared by us, whatever may come up. Additionally, when buying immovable property in Northern Cyprus we want to ensure that our Client’s purchase proceeds without any unexpected surprises by knowing a few basic facts:

Under the new laws of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, non- TRNC citizens are entitled to take title to only one property. If the property purchased is a plot of land, this plot of land must not exceed the size of 1 donum, however, if the Property is a dwelling, the plot of land it is based on must not exceed the size of 5 donums, providing that the property only consists of one dwelling. Under the government previous policy, spouses were considered as a single household and were only entitled to purchase one property between them. However, officials at the TRNC Ministry of Internal Affairs have confirmed that this policy has been changed and that spouses can now individually purchase one property each. The conveyancing procedure starts with an initial meeting with the lawyer to give information about the Property you have chosen; details of the Property, price of the property, payment schedule, any informal or verbal agreements you have reached with the Vendor such as extra items provided within the sale. At this stage, we also arrange for you to sign a special Power of Attorney; which only authorises us with the power of purchasing immovable property on your behalf in north Cyprus, to ensure that we can finalise the purchase and act on your behalf, while you have returned back to your home country.

Then a Contract of Sale will be prepared that will be designed to ensure that your interests are protected as far as possible. Once all parties (the Seller and the Buyer) have approved the draft contract it will be signed and exchanged. Every page including the appendixes should be initialed and the Contract of Sale should be signed in the presence of at least 2 witnesses. You should retain one copy of the original Contract of Sale and keep it safe. Please pay attention to inspect the specifications attached to the Contract, as any verbal agreement prior to or subsequent to the Contract of Sale shall be deemed to be not included in the agreement.

Under law 38/07, contracts must be deposited with the Land Registry Office within 21 days of the contract date and it is now compulsory for the stamp duty to be paid at the rate of %0.5 before registration can take place. Once the contract of sale is registered, the property is protected from being sold to any other third party and the Contract will take priority over any subsequent encumbrance.

The next stage will then be arranging your application to the TRNC Council of Ministers, for the necessary permission to be granted to you in order for the title deed of the Property to be transferred and registered in your name, since any purchase of any immovable property by non – TRNC citizens must be sanctioned by the Council of Ministers under the Law 52/2008. A copy of your Contract, the Title deed, site plan, purchase permit application form filled by you and an original police clearance certificate obtained from the local police station at your residency should be provided to the Ministry of Internal Affairs along with your application. The permission granted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs is not required for entering into a contract but rather for transfer of title deed. Whilst processing your purchase permit application, the Council of Ministers will take searches from the land registry, the military and the immigration authorities. Provided that these are positive the permission will be granted. The permissions are granted in the majority of the applications with the main reasons for refusal in rare cases being due to the location and proximity to a strategic military installation or criminal history of the purchaser at the Interpol level. The permission process can take a long time to complete; the current estimation is around 4-6 months. 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 usually make sure that the contract is assignable.

Once your purchase permission has been granted, all the necessary valuation forms will be filled out and provided to the Land Registry Office in order for your property to be evaluated. Depending on the valuation amount provided by the Land Registry Office, all taxes and costs payable for the transfer of title deed shall then be paid according to this amount and the title deed will be transferred and registered in your name(for the taxes due on transfer of title please refer to our guidance for Taxes for Property Transactions). If you designated us as your Legal Attorney for purchasing Property in North Cyprus, you do not need to be present at the Land Registry Office and we will attend and complete the transfer of title deed on your behalf. Once the construction of your Property is finalized and you are able to take delivery of your house, if it is not finished within the scope of your contract, you may refuse to take delivery. Should you wish to take delivery of the house subject to completion of missing/defective work thereafter, you must obtain a signed undertaking from the Vendor to make sure that taking delivery does not amount to forbearance. You can move into the Property under your Contract of Sale and no additional documentation is necessary. Please make sure that you keep all your receipts/bank receipts for the payments made under the Contract.