Turkish Citizenship Law and Property Investment in Türkiye: A Practical Legal Guide

Turkish citizenship is governed by the Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901 and its implementing regulation. Citizenship through real-estate investment is not a general rule of that law — it is an exceptional acquisition route under Article 12, created by an amendment of July 28, 2016 and given its current financial framework by the regulation published in the Official Gazette on September 18, 2018. Buying property in Türkiye does not, by itself, create any citizenship entitlement. An applicant must satisfy a chain of legal conditions: an eligible property, an official valuation meeting the current threshold, correctly documented payment, a title-deed annotation blocking resale for three years, a Certificate of Eligibility, and a citizenship file that survives administrative and security review before a decision of the President of the Republic.

This guide explains both parts of that reality: what the law says, and how those rules behave inside an actual property transaction. Maximos Real Estate is not a law firm and does not decide applications — citizenship is granted only by the Turkish state. What we bring is a different kind of experience: more than 20 years of real-estate practice in Türkiye, over 800 completed property transactions, and practical assistance to more than 1,000 people through citizenship-related purchases and applications, always working alongside qualified Turkish lawyers and the responsible government authorities. That transaction-side perspective is what this article adds to the legal texts.

What Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901 Regulates

Law No. 5901, in force since 2009, is the single statute governing how Turkish nationality is acquired, lost, and regained. It replaced the older 1964 citizenship code and is applied together with its implementing regulation, which fills in procedure: which authority receives which application, what documents a file must contain, and how decisions are recorded in the civil registry maintained by the General Directorate of Civil Registration and Nationality (NVİ).

The statute organises acquisition into two broad families. Acquisition by birth covers citizenship through a Turkish parent (Article 7 — often called citizenship by descent) and, in narrow cases, through birth on Turkish territory (Article 8). Acquisition after birth covers everything else: naturalisation by decision of the competent authority, acquisition through marriage, acquisition through adoption, exceptional acquisition, and the reacquisition of a nationality previously lost. The law also regulates loss — renunciation, withdrawal — and the restoration of citizenship.

Two structural points matter for investors. First, the investment route sits inside “exceptional acquisition,” which means it is discretionary by design: meeting the financial condition makes a person eligible to apply, never entitled to receive. Second, the monetary thresholds are not written in the statute itself. They live in the implementing regulation and are adjusted by presidential decision — which is why the figure has moved from USD 1,000,000 to 250,000 to the current 400,000 without Law 5901 ever being rewritten. Anyone relying on an article published before June 2022 is reading a dead threshold.

The Legal Structure of Citizenship by Investment

The amendment of July 28, 2016 added paragraph (b) to the first paragraph of Article 12 of Law 5901. It provides that foreigners who obtain a short-term residence permit under Article 31(1)(j) of Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection — the investor residence permit — by investing within the scope and amount determined by the President may acquire Turkish citizenship by decision of the President of the Republic. Holders of the Turquoise Card fall under the same provision.

Read that sentence carefully, because every word carries procedural weight. The investment does not produce citizenship; it produces access to a specific residence permit and the right to submit an exceptional-acquisition file. The file then passes through verification by the ministry responsible for the investment category, examination by the NVİ, and security and archive checks involving law enforcement and intelligence institutions. Only after that review does the file reach a presidential decision. The state retains full discretion at the final stage — public order, national security, and character assessments can defeat an application even where the financial condition is perfectly met. This is the legal reason no honest professional can “guarantee” Turkish citizenship, and the practical reason clean documentation matters as much as the money itself.

All Citizenship Routes Recognised by Law

The investment route is one of several. Understanding where it sits prevents two common confusions: treating naturalisation rules as if they applied to investors, and treating investor privileges as if they applied to everyone else.

Birth through a Turkish parent

A child of a Turkish citizen mother or father is a Turkish citizen from birth, whether born in Türkiye or abroad (Article 7). This is citizenship by birth through a Turkish parent — sometimes described as citizenship by descent — and it is the ordinary operation of the law. It involves no discretionary naturalisation application, only registration of the parent-child relationship.

Birth on Turkish territory

Türkiye does not apply general birthright citizenship. A child born in Türkiye acquires Turkish nationality only if the child would otherwise be stateless — for example, foundlings discovered in Türkiye.

Adoption

A minor adopted by a Turkish citizen may acquire citizenship from the date of the adoption decision, provided there is no obstacle relating to national security or public order.

Marriage

Marriage to a Turkish citizen does not confer citizenship automatically. Under Article 16, a foreign spouse may apply after at least three years of marriage, subject to conditions including a genuine family union, conduct compatible with the marriage, and absence of any threat to national security or public order. Sham-marriage screening is active and interviews are standard.

General naturalisation

Article 11 sets the ordinary path for long-term residents. The core conditions include legal capacity, five years of uninterrupted lawful residence in Türkiye before the application, demonstrated intention to settle, good moral character, no disease constituting a public-health obstacle, sufficient Turkish language ability, income or occupation adequate to support oneself and dependants, and no quality posing an obstacle in terms of national security and public order. Even where every condition is met, the grant remains discretionary.

Exceptional acquisition

Article 12 allows the state to grant citizenship outside the ordinary conditions to defined groups: persons who bring industrial facilities or exceptional service in scientific, technological, economic, social, sporting, cultural or artistic fields; the investors described above under paragraph (b); and persons whose naturalisation is deemed necessary. The investment programme is legally a subset of this exceptional mechanism.

Reacquisition

Persons who previously lost Turkish citizenship — including by renunciation — may regain it under the reacquisition provisions, in defined cases without a residence requirement.

Route	Legal basis	Core requirement	Residence condition	Decision character
Birth through a Turkish parent	Article 7	At least one parent is Turkish and the parent-child relationship is established	None	Acquired by operation of law
Birth in Türkiye	Article 8	Child would otherwise be stateless	None	Acquired by operation of law
Adoption	Article 17	Minor adopted by a Turkish citizen, subject to statutory conditions	No general residence requirement	Subject to authority review
Marriage	Article 16	Generally at least three years of genuine marriage and family life, plus statutory conditions	No separate residence period as such	Application and authority review
General naturalisation	Article 11	Statutory personal conditions	Generally five years of qualifying lawful residence plus additional requirements	Discretionary administrative decision
Exceptional acquisition	Article 12	Defined exceptional grounds	Varies by route	Discretionary decision
Investment through property	Article 12(b)	Qualifying property investment, current value threshold, documentation and conformity process	No multi-year residence requirement; in-person formalities still required	Presidential decision after review
Reacquisition/restoration	Articles 13–14	Former Turkish citizen meeting applicable conditions	Varies	Authority review

Naturalisation Through Residence — and Why It Is Not “Citizenship by Residence”

A persistent misunderstanding among foreign property owners is that holding a residence permit for long enough converts into citizenship. Turkish law separates these concepts strictly, and the distinctions matter financially.

Lawful residence is simply being in Türkiye on a valid permit. Property-owner residence is a renewable short-term permit available, where current immigration rules are met, to foreigners who own a qualifying individual property in Türkiye under Law No. 6458 — valuable, but it is a permission to stay, not citizenship. See the dedicated section below on the USD 200,000 residence rule. Investor residence under Article 31(1)(j) of Law 6458 is the specific permit tied to the citizenship investment framework. Long-term residence is a separate permanent status under Law 6458, generally reachable after eight years of uninterrupted legal residence — it grants stability, not nationality. Our guide to permanent residency in Turkey covers that track in detail. Citizenship sits above all of these and is reached only through the Law 5901 routes described in this article.

For general naturalisation, the five-year residence period is only the entry ticket. The authorities also assess continuity of residence and time spent abroad, Turkish language ability, income, good character, consistency of the applicant’s records, and national-security and public-order considerations. Time spent on certain permit types may not count fully toward the period. Nobody “ages into” Turkish citizenship; every naturalisation file is examined and can be refused.

Comparison	Property-owner residence permit	Long-term residence	Turkish citizenship
Legal basis	Law No. 6458 and current immigration rules	Law No. 6458	Law No. 5901
Legal nature	Temporary permission to stay	Indefinite residence status	Turkish nationality
Property requirement	One individual property meeting the applicable value/location rules, currently commonly around USD 200,000; several separate properties must not be combined for this residence threshold. Exact immigration, valuation and location rules must be checked at the time of application. This is not a citizenship threshold.	No specific property-purchase threshold	One or several qualifying properties with a combined accepted value of at least USD 400,000, subject to Article 12 requirements
Residence condition	Permit validity and renewal rules	Generally eight years of qualifying lawful residence for long-term residence	No multi-year residence requirement for Article 12(b), but in-person citizenship formalities are required
In-person attendance	Follow current immigration/application requirements	Follow current application requirements	Applicant should plan for approximately two days in Türkiye for required citizenship formalities and fingerprinting; adult dependent children may have different attendance requirements
Passport	No	No	Yes, after citizenship approval and registration
Voting rights	No	No	Yes, as a Turkish citizen
Absence/loss	Absence can affect permit validity or renewal under immigration rules	Long-term residence can be interrupted or affected under applicable Law No. 6458 rules	Ordinary absence does not itself remove citizenship; loss is governed by Law No. 5901

Property-Owner Residence Permit: The USD 200,000 Rule

A property-owner residence permit is not citizenship. Under Law No. 6458 and current immigration practice, foreigners who own real estate in Türkiye may, where the applicable conditions are met, apply for a renewable short-term residence permit. That permit is a permission to stay. It does not create nationality, a Turkish passport, or voting rights.

The property requirement for this residence route is generally one individual property that meets the current minimum value and location rules — commonly around USD 200,000 in official practice at the time of writing. Several cheaper properties should not be combined to manufacture that residence-permit threshold. Ownership of a property at any value does not automatically guarantee a residence permit: immigration legislation, location rules, official valuation practice and file-specific review all matter, and applicants must check the rules in force when they apply.

Do not confuse this with the exceptional citizenship route. The USD 400,000 pathway under Article 12(b) of Law No. 5901 is a separate legal system, administered under citizenship rules rather than ordinary immigration residence rules. For citizenship, one or several qualifying properties may generally be combined so that their accepted values together reach at least USD 400,000, subject to all Article 12, valuation, payment, title-deed annotation and resale requirements.

USD 200,000 for one property concerns the property-owner residence route. USD 400,000, potentially combined across qualifying properties, concerns the exceptional citizenship route. These are different legal systems with different authorities and outcomes.

Article 12 Investment Categories in 2026

The scope and amounts, as set by the September 18, 2018 regulation framework and adjusted since by presidential decision, currently stand as follows. Each category is verified by a specific state authority — a design feature that shapes the paperwork of every file:

• Real estate — minimum USD 400,000 (or equivalent foreign currency) with a three-year no-sale annotation on the title deed, attested by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change. Raised from USD 250,000 by presidential decision published in June 2022.
• Fixed capital investment — minimum USD 500,000, attested by the Ministry of Industry and Technology.
• Job creation — employment for at least 50 people, attested by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
• Bank deposit — minimum USD 500,000 held in banks operating in Türkiye for at least three years, attested by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency.
• Government bonds — minimum USD 500,000 held for at least three years, attested by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance.
• Real estate investment fund or venture capital fund shares — minimum USD 500,000 held for at least three years, attested by the Capital Markets Board of Türkiye.
• Private pension contribution — minimum USD 500,000 kept in the system for at least three years, attested by the Insurance and Private Pension Regulation and Supervision Agency.

The asymmetry is deliberate and explains the market reality: real estate is the lowest financial threshold, produces a tangible asset that can be occupied or rented during the holding period, and is the category our audience uses in the overwhelming majority of cases. It is also the category with the most technical failure points — which is where the rest of this guide concentrates. Who qualifies personally, including nationality-specific considerations, is covered in our Turkish citizenship eligibility guide.

Property Citizenship Law in Practical Detail

This is where the legal text meets the land registry — and where, in our experience across hundreds of citizenship-linked transactions, applications are won or lost long before any citizenship form is filed.

The threshold is an appraised value, not a price tag

USD 400,000 refers to the value established in an official valuation report prepared by an appraiser licensed by the Capital Markets Board (SPK), not to the price in a listing or even the price you actually pay. A property advertised at USD 450,000 can be appraised at USD 360,000 — and the file fails. And the appraisal is not the only figure examined: under the land-registry procedure set out in Circular 2019/5 and applied to the threshold in force at the time of the transaction, three values are checked together — the price declared on the bill of sale (or preliminary contract), the value in the valuation report, and the bank transfers actually made. In practice, a file is only safe when each of the three satisfies the current USD 400,000 requirement; a shortfall in any one of them invites rejection or a demand to cure. Two further registry rules surprise buyers: the value declared on the official deed cannot be changed afterwards, and a valuation report is valid for only three months from its date — commission it too early and it expires before the transfer. How the report is produced, and what appraisers actually examine, is explained in our guide to the property valuation report in Turkey.

Currency, conversion and the paper trail

The USD equivalent of amounts paid in Turkish lira is calculated using the Central Bank (TCMB) exchange rate of the last working day before each relevant date — the payment date for bank receipts, the report date for the valuation, and the application date for the transfer. When several payments are made on different dates, each converts at its own rate. The purchase may be paid in USD or in Turkish lira. Where foreign currency is used, the required foreign-currency purchase certificate (DAB) may be obtained through a Turkish bank, including through the seller’s account on behalf of the buyer/sender where the banking records properly identify the transaction. Payment records must be traceable to the buyer, contract and seller; cash handovers, crypto transfers, unexplained third-party payers and unrecorded offsets can make an otherwise sufficient amount legally unusable.

The title deed and its annotation

Ownership in Türkiye transfers only by registration at the Land Registry Directorate — a notarised sale agreement alone does not transfer the property. For citizenship purposes, the deed must carry the annotation that the property will not be sold for three years, entered at the applicant’s own declaration during the transfer. That annotation, together with a declaration that the purchase is made for citizenship purposes, is what connects the deed to the citizenship framework. Our TAPU guide walks through the registration procedure itself.

One property or several

The threshold can be met with a single property or a combination of properties whose appraised values together reach USD 400,000, provided they are handled within the framework’s timing rules and each carries the required annotation.

Preliminary sale contracts

A statutory-form preliminary sale contract drawn up before a notary can qualify — but only under conditions the land registry applies strictly. The contract is possible solely for property with registered condominium ownership or floor easement, which is why the project’s registry status decides everything for off-plan purchases. The unit must be registered in the name of the person making the commitment: a “promise of a promise” is not accepted, and an independent unit cannot carry more than one preliminary contract. Critically, the qualifying amount must be paid in advance, no later than the date the contract is drawn up at the notary — a receipt dated after the contract date is not treated as an advance payment and will not be accepted. The signed commitment and the three-year no-transfer annotation are then recorded at the land registry. An ordinary, unregistered “reservation agreement” qualifies for nothing.

Eligible and ineligible properties

Residential and commercial real estate with clean registration — apartments, villas, offices, shops — are the standard cases. Structural constraints from the Land Registry Law No. 2644 still apply to any foreign buyer: a cap of 30 hectares per person nationwide, no acquisition in military forbidden zones and military security zones, special-security-zone purchases subject to governorate permission, and a ceiling of ten percent of any district’s private-property area held by foreign natural persons. Land without existing construction carries an additional statutory obligation to submit a development project to the relevant administration within two years — and undeveloped plots are, in practice, a materially riskier citizenship vehicle than completed units.

The seller — and the property’s history — matter as much as the property

The framework excludes circular transactions, and the land-registry rules (as amended in 2021) are precise about it. The property must not be registered to any foreign natural person — including the buyer’s own spouse and children. It must not have been transferred to a Turkish national or company after January 12, 2017 by the applicant, their spouse or children, or a foreign national of the same nationality, in a route back to the applicant. It must not belong to a company in which the applicant, their spouse or children are shareholders or managers, nor to a foreign-capital company under Article 36 of the Land Registry Law with same-nationality shareholders. A property previously owned by a foreign national can qualify only after passing through genuine Turkish ownership first — and even then, one rule catches almost everyone off guard: a property or share that has already been used once to acquire Turkish citizenship can never be used again for citizenship by any later foreign buyer, even after the ownership has changed. The parcel’s transaction history is therefore a substantive eligibility question, not a formality, and it must be pulled from the registry before any money moves.

Encumbrances and financed purchases

Mortgages, liens, attachments and similar burdens must be checked at the Land Registry Directorate before any commitment — publicly queryable at parcel level through the official parcel-inquiry system. Buying mortgaged or attached property is not forbidden as such, but the registry rule for financed purchases is unforgiving: where the acquisition involves a loan or a legal mortgage, the amount remaining after deducting the loan from the sale price — the money the buyer actually paid in advance — must itself meet the full threshold. A USD 500,000 purchase carried by a USD 200,000 mortgage counts as USD 300,000 and fails. Financing therefore cannot be used to reach the threshold, only to buy above it.

Instalments and timing

Instalments must follow the payment schedule regulated by the contract. Where a property is sold for USD 600,000, for example, citizenship may be applied for once at least USD 400,000 has actually been paid and documented; the applicant does not necessarily have to complete the full contract price first. In a preliminary sales contract, the notary instrument and registry rules determine which payments qualify, so the payment dates and receipts must be checked before signing. Complementary purchases or contracts may be used where permitted to reach the threshold, but no Certificate of Eligibility is issued until the qualifying USD 400,000 has actually been reached and evidenced. This is one of the areas where we insist buyers get the payment schedule reviewed by a lawyer before signing, not after.

The Certificate of Eligibility

Once the transfer and annotation are complete, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change verifies the file — deed, valuation, DAB and payment records — and issues the Certificate of Eligibility (Uygunluk Belgesi). Only with that certificate does the buyer proceed to the investor residence permit and the citizenship application itself. The certificate is the state’s confirmation that the property side of the file is compliant; it says nothing yet about the personal, security-side review.

The three-year restriction, honestly stated

The annotation blocks a sale for three years from registration. The owner may live in the property, rent it out, and keep the income during that period. The undertaking signed at the registry expressly references Article 31 of Law 5901: citizenship acquired through false declarations or by concealing material facts is cancelled by the granting authority. The land-registry compliance rules also look beyond the three-year mark: where the property is transferred to a third party in violation of the annotation, or transferred back to the original seller after the commitment expires, the registry refers the matter to the General Directorate and the Certificate of Eligibility underlying the citizenship is reassessed. The practical lesson is simple — a citizenship purchase must be a genuine purchase, not a disguised round-trip.

How the Law Works in a Real Transaction

On paper the process is a list. In practice it is a sequence of dependencies, and the order protects the buyer. This is the chain as we run it, with the professional responsible at each step:

1. Buyer profile and screening — nationality-specific constraints, funds provenance, family composition. (Real-estate company + lawyer.)
2. Property eligibility check — registry status, seller identity, transaction history, zone restrictions. (Real-estate company + lawyer.)
3. Title and encumbrance review — official registry extracts, parcel inquiry, project status for off-plan. (Lawyer.)
4. Valuation before commitment — the SPK-licensed appraisal ordered before funds are locked in, precisely because a property can look expensive enough and still fail the legal valuation. (Licensed appraiser; coordinated by us.)
5. Currency conversion and payment — bank transfer, FX sale, DAB issuance, receipts matched to the contract. (Buyer’s bank; documented with lawyer.)
6. Transfer and registration — deed signing at the Land Registry Directorate with the three-year annotation and purpose declaration entered. Where a proxy acts, the power of attorney must specifically authorise the purchase, the three-year no-sale commitment and the citizenship application — a generic property PoA is insufficient. (Land Registry; sworn interpreter where required.)
7. Certificate of Eligibility — ministry verification of the property file. (Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.)
8. Investor residence permit — the Article 31(1)(j) permit for the applicant. (Presidency of Migration Management; lawyer.)
9. Citizenship file — application with civil-status documents, translations, apostilles; the full checklist is in our guide to documents required for Turkish citizenship. (Lawyer; NVİ.)
10. Government review and decision — ministry and security-institution examination, then presidential decision. Realistic durations for each stage are covered in our Turkish citizenship timeline. (State only.)
11. Identity and passport — civil registration, Turkish ID card, passport application after approval.

Where does a real-estate company belong in this chain, legally? Steps 1, 2, 4 and the commercial side of 5 and 6 — sourcing compliant property, pre-checking eligibility, coordinating valuation, and managing the transaction so that the legal team receives a clean file. Steps 3, 8, 9 belong to qualified lawyers; steps 7, 10 and 11 belong exclusively to the state. Anyone offering to compress that division of labour is offering you risk. The full cost stack across all steps — taxes, fees, translations, legal work — is itemised in our guide to Turkish citizenship costs.

Family Members

An approved investor’s application legally extends to the spouse and children under 18 on the same investment — no additional threshold per family member. Adult children are generally included only where a legally recognised disability or continuing-care dependency applies; ordinary financial dependence on parents is not, by itself, sufficient for citizenship inclusion. In practice, such adult children may instead first pursue a residence status appropriate to their circumstances. Parents of the investor are not included and must pursue their own status separately. The scope, documentation and edge cases — second marriages, custody, children near the age limit, dependent adult children — are treated in depth in our family and dependants guide.

Passport and Dual Nationality

The Turkish passport is a consequence of citizenship, not a feature of the investment. It becomes available only after the presidential decision and civil registration are complete. Türkiye permits its citizens to hold other nationalities as far as Turkish law is concerned; whether the applicant’s current country tolerates dual nationality is a question of that country’s law and must be checked case by case — some states require renunciation or notification. We deliberately make no visa-free travel claims here: destination lists change, and the current, verified picture of what the passport does and does not offer is maintained in our Turkish passport benefits guide.

Legal Risks and Refusal Reasons

Across the files we have accompanied, the failures cluster into patterns — almost all of them preventable at the transaction stage:

• Valuation shortfall — the appraisal comes in under USD 400,000 after the buyer is already committed.
• Three-value mismatch — paid price, appraised value and declared registry value do not align above the threshold.
• Ineligible property — seller is a foreign national or related party; parcel sits in a restricted zone; project lacks the registry status a preliminary contract requires.
• Untraceable funds — cash components, third-party payers, missing DAB, transfers that cannot be matched to the contract.
• Currency documentation errors — conversion done outside the required banking procedure or dated inconsistently with the transfer.
• Premature resale — breaching the annotation, with consequences for citizenship already granted.
• Incomplete or inconsistent personal records — name discrepancies across passports, birth and marriage documents, missing apostilles or translations.
• Security and public-order findings — criminal records, adverse intelligence results, false or incomplete declarations anywhere in the file.
• Outdated-information errors — structuring a purchase around the pre-2022 USD 250,000 articles that still circulate online, or assuming a residence permit ripens into citizenship automatically.
• Guarantee reliance — trusting an agent or lawyer who “guarantees approval.” No private party can; the decision is the state’s alone.

Most of these have a common cure: sequence the transaction so that verification precedes commitment. The specific prevention playbook — what to check, in what order, with which documents — is our rejection prevention guide.

Why Practical Real-Estate Experience Matters

A citizenship property purchase is two things at once: a legal process governed by Law 5901 and its regulation, and an ordinary Turkish property transaction with all of that transaction’s commercial risks — pricing, condition, developer solvency, resale prospects after year three. Law firms are indispensable for the first part. The second part is our profession. Maximos Real Estate has operated in Türkiye for more than 20 years, completed over 800 property transactions, and assisted more than 1,000 people through citizenship-related processes together with qualified lawyers and the relevant authorities. We do not grant citizenship, we do not guarantee approvals or processing times, and we do not replace legal counsel — we make sure the property side of the file is worth approving. Buyers who want to start from inventory that has already passed our eligibility screening can browse the properties pre-approved for Turkish citizenship.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a separate “Turkish citizenship law” for foreigners who buy property?

No. There is one citizenship statute — Law No. 5901 — for everyone. Property investors use a specific exceptional route inside it, Article 12(b), whose financial conditions are set by the implementing regulation and presidential decisions.

What is the current investment threshold in 2026?

USD 400,000 in officially appraised value for the real-estate route, unchanged since June 2022. Other investment categories require USD 500,000, and the job-creation route requires employment for at least 50 people. Thresholds can change by presidential decision, so the figure should always be verified against official sources at the date of purchase.

Does buying property for USD 400,000 guarantee citizenship?

No. It makes you eligible to apply through the exceptional route. The file still passes ministry verification, security and background review, and a discretionary presidential decision.

Do I have to live in Türkiye to apply through the investment route?

Article 12(b) has no multi-year residence requirement like general naturalisation. Preparation such as property coordination, obtaining a tax number and bank procedures may often be arranged remotely. The applicant must still attend in person for the required citizenship formalities and fingerprinting. In practical terms, plan for approximately two days in Türkiye; adult dependent children included in the file may have different attendance requirements. This is not a statutory “two-day residence qualification,” and it must not be confused with the five-year residence condition applicable to general naturalisation.

Can I combine several cheaper properties?

For the exceptional citizenship route, yes: one or several qualifying properties may generally be combined so that their accepted appraised values together reach at least USD 400,000, each carrying the required three-year annotation and handled within the framework’s timing rules. That combining rule does not apply to the separate property-owner residence-permit threshold, which is generally assessed on one individual property (commonly around USD 200,000) and must not be manufactured by aggregating several cheaper properties.

Can I rent out the property during the three-year period?

Yes. The annotation restricts sale, not use. You may live in the property or earn rental income throughout the holding period.

Can I sell after three years and keep my citizenship?

Once citizenship has been validly granted and the three-year restriction has expired, selling the property does not revoke your nationality. Selling before the restriction expires is a different matter entirely and endangers the legal basis of the grant.

My listing price is in euros — does that matter?

The legal threshold is denominated in US dollars against the official rate on the transaction date. A EUR listing price near the threshold is not evidence of eligibility; only the USD-equivalent appraised value decides it.

Primary Legal Sources

• Turkish Citizenship Law No. 5901 and its Implementing Regulation (Official Gazette of the Republic of Türkiye).
• Law No. 6458 on Foreigners and International Protection, Article 31(1)(j).
• Land Registry Law No. 2644, Articles 35–36.
• Regulation amendments of September 18, 2018 and subsequent presidential decisions setting current investment amounts.
• General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, Circular No. 1799 (2019/5) of May 30, 2019, as amended by court-approved decision of March 22, 2021 — a key land-registry procedural reference for citizenship purchases, read together with later amendments and current official guidance (its USD 250,000 / 1,000,000 figures are historical and superseded by the current USD 400,000 threshold).
• Republic of Türkiye Investment Office, Acquiring Property and Citizenship.