Before purchasing property in Turkey, foreign buyers need to conduct an examination and receive a report on its assessed value. The Mandatory Valuation Ordinance was published on February 15, 2019 by the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (TKGM) and entered into force on March 4, 2019.

Mandatory real estate appraisal in Turkey is a procedure necessary to determine the real market value of an object and to further carry out financial and property transactions on the territory of the state.

Compulsory real estate appraisal includes such objects as:

- apartments, duplexes, penthouses;

- villas, cottages, townhouses;

- commercial real estate (offices, warehouses, retail and industrial premises, shops, etc.);

- land plots, regardless of their purpose.

The examination is carried out exclusively by certified companies authorized by the Banking Regulatory Authority (BDDK) and authorized to carry out the assessment. Their work is regulated by the Financial Markets Supervision Authority of Turkey (SPK).

The independent appraisal of Turkish real estate has a number of positive aspects:

1. Protection of foreign investments from fraudulent schemes related to shadow pricing in the market.

2. The official document will indicate the dates of the start of construction work and the commissioning of the apartment. This will help you make sure that the information on the home sale ad is correct.

3. The presence of an expert opinion is a guarantee that you are purchasing real estate from their real owner, and not from fraudsters with loan arrears or seizures of property.

4. Experts will check the quality of the utilities installed in the house, the deterioration of the water supply, gas systems, electrical wiring, and so on.

5. The assessed value of a property in Turkey allows you to establish the exact amount of tax on the registration of property rights. This, in turn, excludes a special understatement of the cost of housing by sellers and increases transfers from the payment of duties when registering a purchase and sale transaction to the state treasury.

In the Republic of Turkey, the state duty is 4% of the appraised value of real estate.

Real estate appraisal in Turkey is needed not only for the sale and transfer of ownership, but also for:

- registration of mortgage lending, where the purchased object acts as a collateral;

- real estate insurance;

- introduction of ownership into the authorized capital of companies;

- execution of contracts of inheritance and donation;

- the occurrence of disputes regarding the division of property in case of divorce;

- applying for Turkish citizenship for investments in the purchase of real estate in the amount of USD 250,000 or more.