Getting a residence permit in Turkey in 2023 can be quite challenging for those who are new to Turkey. I will cover the main way of getting a residence permit in this post which is through purchasing real estate.
There are various other types of residence permits as well, such as for studying, for working, and for those with Turkish spouse.
In order to get residency status in Turkey, one now has to purchase property worth $75,000 USD in large cities or $50,000 in small towns or cities.
Earlier you were able to get a residence permit simply by renting a property and getting a short term touristic residence permit for 1 year. However now this is not possible as rules have gotten tighter, and now you can only get a residence permit through purchase of property.
Can any type of property qualify for residency?
Firstly, it has to be a habitable property, such as an apartment or house/villa. It cannot be land or factory or shop. In order to get residence permit, the law states that it must be a habitable property. This can be confirmed by looking at the title deed of the property.
It cannot be a empty land or farm land, as this is not considered as habitable property and neither does it have the necessary title deed status.
Does the purchase value of the property matter?
Yes it does, since May 5, 2020 according to new regulations the property has to exceed $75,000 USD in larger cities and $50,000 in smaller cities.
What do I mean by “larger cities”? Well there are 30 cities which are classified as larger cities by the Turkish government, as can be seen in the map below.
For your reference here is the list of the larger cities:
- Adana (Adana Metropolitan Municipality)
- Ankara (Ankara Metropolitan Municipality)
- Antalya (Antalya Metropolitan Municipality)
- Aydın (Aydın Metropolitan Municipality)
- Balıkesir (Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality)
- Bursa (Bursa Metropolitan Municipality)
- Denizli (Denizli Metropolitan Municipality)
- Diyarbakır (Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality)
- Erzurum (Erzurum Metropolitan Municipality)
- Eskişehir (Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality)
- Gaziantep (Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality)
- Hatay (Hatay Metropolitan Municipality)
- Istanbul (Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality)
- Izmir (Izmir Metropolitan Municipality)
- Kahramanmaraş (Kahramanmaraş Metropolitan Municipality)
- Kayseri (Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality)
- Kocaeli (Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality)
- Konya (Konya Metropolitan Municipality)
- Malatya (Malatya Metropolitan Municipality)
- Manisa (Manisa Metropolitan Municipality)
- Mardin (Mardin Metropolitan Municipality)
- Mersin (Mersin Metropolitan Municipality)
- Muğla (Muğla Metropolitan Municipality)
- Ordu (Ordu Metropolitan Municipality)
- Sakarya (Sakarya Metropolitan Municipality)
- Samsun (Samsun Metropolitan Municipality)
- Şanlıurfa (Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality)
- Tekirdağ (Tekirdağ Metropolitan Municipality)
- Trabzon (Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality)
- Van (Van Metropolitan Municipality)
For the remaining 51 smaller cities, you only need to purchase a property of $50,000 USD. However be mindful that finding a good property even in smaller cities at this price is quite challenging. You need to at least consider having $70,000 to $80,000 USD before setting out on this path of purchasing a property for residence permit in Turkey.
Some notable smaller cities that are popular amongst expats are Yalova and Cannakale, if you are considering going under the $75,000 mark.
Update – New Areas Not Eligible for Residency
These are new areas that were announced in May 2022 which are also not eligible for residency. If you purchase property within these areas, you will not be able to apply for residency.
The official list and announcement can be found here from the Ministry of Immigration.
In addition, in October 2022, a new announcement disqualified further 8 regions within Istanbul from residency applications.
These areas are Küçükçekmece, Başakşehir, Bağcılar, Avcılar, Bahçelievler, Sultangazi, Esenler and Zeytinburnu.
Fatih and Esenyurt regions of Istanbul were already closed from before, thus bringing the total number of regions closed in Istanbul to 10.
For more info on how to get a residence permit in Turkey in 2023 via purchase of property, get in touch with me for quick consultation on Whatsapp here.
