What taxes and fees should I pay?

• Title deed transfer tax - 3% of the sale price. In fact, this tax is 6%, but once in a lifetime a foreigner has an opprotunity to have it reduced to 3%. If you registered a title deed at a reduced rate of 3%, then in case of the sale of this property and a subsequent purchase of another property, the title registration for the new property will be 6%. Previously, foreign citizens could register only one title deed, the registration of the second title was impossible without the preliminary sale of the first property. Nowadays, a foreigner has the right to have up to 3 title deeds registered in his/her name. The title deed registration for the second property is 9%, for the third property - 10%.
• Transformer fee - utility connection. For each project the amount of the transformer fee is different, it can vary from £1,000 to £2,250 depending on the total cost of utility connection of a particular project and the number of units in a project. The transformer fee is usually paid together with VAT upon receiving the keys. However, sometimes it may be paid 3 months before receiving the keys or one year after receiving the keys. This fee is also paid directly to the developer.
• Annual property tax – 1.5-2 TL or £0.2 for each square meter of closed area.

Thus, in case of buying from a developer, you pay 8.5% from the sale price if you decide to transfer the title deed into your name, or 5.5% if you do not register the title deed (it makes sense if you buy for investment purposes and plan to resell it).

We also work in the resale market.

As a rule, in case of a resale VAT has already been paid by a previous owner. But you need to be extremely careful, as some construction companies require VAT payment not when receiving the keys, but when transferring the title deed.

Thus, if you buy a resale and the title deed is still in the name of the construction company, there is a possibility that VAT has not been paid. It is not a common case, but it may happen. Therefore, if you see a cheap resale property somewhere on the Internet, most likely, in addition to the sale price, you will have to pay VAT (and that's the best case). A worst-case scenario is you will also have to pay capital gain tax (stopaj) which is usually paid by the developer on transferring the deed.

It may happen with old resale properties which still have title deeds in the name of a construction company which no longer operates. Therefore, this tax will also have to be paid by the buyer, if of course you manage to find a representative of a defunct construction company with the power of attorney to sign such a contract.