A foreign individual buying property in Türkiye is subject to Article 35 of the Land Registry Law: thirty hectares nationwide, ten per cent of the district, restricted zones, nationality rules. A Turkish company with foreign shareholders is a different legal person subject to a different provision — and one that many investors reach for precisely to escape those limits. Whether it works depends on what the company is actually for. This article explains the rules that apply.
Two different regimes
Article 35 governs acquisition by foreign natural persons and by foreign legal entities established abroad, with the quantitative limits and restrictions familiar to individual buyers.
Article 36 governs acquisition by Turkish companies with foreign capital — that is, companies established under Turkish law in which foreign investors hold, directly or indirectly, fifty per cent or more of the shares, or the power to appoint or dismiss the majority of managers.
The distinction matters. A Turkish company is a Turkish legal person, and its acquisitions are not measured against the thirty-hectare individual cap. What applies instead is a different test.
What Article 36 requires
A company within its scope may acquire immovable property and limited real rights in order to carry on the activities set out in its articles of association, subject to an assessment procedure conducted through the governorate, which consults the relevant authorities.
Three elements follow:
- Purpose. The acquisition must serve the company's stated field of activity. A logistics company acquiring a warehouse is within it; the same company acquiring a coastal villa is not.
- Assessment. The transaction is examined before it completes, including for security-related restrictions. This is not a formality and it takes time.
- Restricted zones. Acquisition in military forbidden and security zones remains prohibited or subject to permission, as it is for individuals.
Sector-specific legislation — energy, mining, tourism, industrial zones — may provide its own regime for acquisitions made under a licence, and where it does, that regime governs.
The structure investors reach for, and its limits
The reasoning is straightforward: an individual is limited to thirty hectares, a company is not, so form a company and buy through it.
Where the company has a genuine commercial purpose that the property serves, this is legitimate and routine. A foreign group establishing a manufacturing operation buys a site; a hotel operator buys a hotel; a developer buys land to develop. Nobody objects, because the acquisition is what the company exists to do.
Where the company exists only to hold a property for its foreign shareholder's personal use, the position is weaker. The acquisition must serve the company's stated activities, and a company whose activity is nominal invites scrutiny of the arrangement. It also brings costs that make no sense for a holiday home: annual accounting, tax filings, corporate compliance, and the eventual complexity of extracting the property or selling the shares.
The honest advice is that Article 36 is a route for businesses, not a workaround for individuals.
What it costs to hold property in a company
- Accounting — a licensed accountant, monthly.
- Tax filings — monthly withholding and VAT, quarterly advance corporate tax, annual return, whether or not the company trades.
- Corporate compliance — annual general assembly, registry filings.
- Corporate tax on any rental income, and on gains when the property is sold.
- Extraction cost. Getting value out of the company — dividends, salary, liquidation — is taxed. An individual owner who sells simply receives the proceeds.
Against these, the advantages are real where the business is real: limited liability, the ability to hold multiple properties without the individual cap, deductibility of expenses against business income, and the ability to sell the company rather than the property, which can be simpler for a purchaser.
Selling shares instead of property
Where a property is held in a company, a sale can be structured as a share transfer rather than a property transfer. This is common in commercial real estate and has genuine advantages: it avoids the title deed fee on the property's value, and it transfers the asset with its contracts and permits intact.
It also carries risks that a property purchase does not. The buyer acquires the company's history — its tax position, its liabilities, its employment obligations, its litigation. That is why share purchases are preceded by due diligence and supported by warranties and indemnities, and why they are not a shortcut.
Where the underlying company is property-rich, tax authorities in some jurisdictions look through the share sale to the property, and treaty provisions may do the same. Take advice on both sides before structuring a sale this way.
The citizenship question
An investor should be clear that property held by a company does not support a citizenship application. The regulation requires the applicant — the individual — to acquire the qualifying property in their own name, with the three-year annotation on the title.
An investor who buys through a company for the perceived flexibility, and later decides to apply for citizenship, must acquire property personally. The two objectives pull in opposite directions and should be decided at the outset.
Due diligence before a corporate acquisition
- Title register: ownership, encumbrances, annotations.
- Zoning and designation, and whether the intended use is permitted.
- Construction and occupancy permits, and whether the building matches the approved project.
- Restricted zone status.
- Whether the acquisition falls within the company's stated field of activity, and whether the articles need amendment first.
- The Article 36 assessment route and its expected timetable.
- Outstanding taxes and service charges attaching to the property.
- Where a company is being acquired rather than a property: full corporate due diligence.
The item most often missed is the third from the top: amending the articles of association before the acquisition where the field of activity does not cover it. Amending afterwards does not cure an acquisition that fell outside the company's purpose.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Turkish company with foreign shareholders subject to the thirty-hectare limit? No — Article 36 applies instead, with its own assessment.
Can the company buy a residence for its shareholder? The acquisition must serve the company's stated activities. A nominal purpose invites scrutiny.
Does company-held property support a citizenship application? No. The applicant must acquire personally.
How long does the Article 36 assessment take? Longer than an individual purchase. Build it into the timetable.
Can a foreign company established abroad buy directly? That falls under Article 35 and is materially more restricted. Take advice.
Is it cheaper to hold property in a company? Rarely for a single residential property. Often sensible for commercial assets.
Can I transfer property from the company to myself later? Yes, as a transaction with tax consequences on both sides. Plan it rather than assume it.
Decide the purpose first
Corporate property ownership in Türkiye works well where a business needs the asset and badly where an individual is using a company to sidestep a limit. The costs, the compliance and the exit all follow from that distinction.
Dural Hukuk advises on corporate property acquisitions, reviews and amends articles of association before purchase, conducts title and corporate due diligence, and manages the Article 36 assessment process. Call +90 535 260 74 54 or use the contact form on this site.
This article is general information on Turkish law as at August 2026 and is not legal or tax advice. Acquisitions turn on the specific parcel and company; obtain advice before committing funds.