Property Taxes in Turkey: What Owners Actually Pay
Turkish property tax is smaller than most foreign buyers fear and calculated on a figure most of them have never seen. This guide sets out the 2026 rates, the assessed value they are applied to, when the two instalments fall due, and the charges that sit alongside them.
The rate is not the number that matters. The valuation is.
Almost every question a foreign owner asks about Turkish property tax is really a question about the valuation, not the rate. The rates themselves are low, publicly set and easy to look up. What catches people out is that they are applied to an official assessed value — the vergi değeri — which is calculated by formula from municipal land values and standard construction costs, and which bears no direct relationship to the price written on a contract or quoted by an agent.
That single distinction explains why a buyer who has just paid a substantial sum for a sea-view apartment often receives an annual bill that looks implausibly small. It also explains why the bill can move sharply in a year when the underlying land values are revised, even though the headline rate has not changed at all. Understanding which number your tax is charged on is the difference between budgeting accurately and being surprised.
Below are the 2026 rates as set out in the Property Tax Law General Communiqué Series No. 89, published in the Official Gazette of 31 December 2025, together with how the assessed value is built, when payment falls due, and the other charges that attach to owning Turkish property. For the purchase process itself, see our guide to buying property in Turkey and the pitfalls to avoid, and for the wider library our Turkey property guides.
Emlak Vergisi 2026 — At A Glance
Annual property tax, as it applies to owners
Turkish property tax rates for 2026
These are the rates applied to the assessed value. The right-hand column is the one most foreign owners need, because the great majority of foreign-owned property in Turkey sits inside a metropolitan province.
| Property type | Ordinary municipalities | Metropolitan (büyükşehir) provinces | Applies to foreign owners |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residence (mesken) | 0.1% | 0.2% | Yes — identical |
| Commercial premises (işyeri) | 0.2% | 0.4% | Yes — identical |
| Building plot (arsa) | 0.3% | 0.6% | Yes — identical |
| Agricultural land (arazi) | 0.1% | 0.2% | Yes — identical |
| Cultural heritage contribution | An additional 10% of the property tax assessed, collected by the municipality together with it | Yes — identical | |
The doubling in metropolitan provinces is not a penalty aimed at particular cities; it is a structural feature of the law that applies wherever a metropolitan municipality has been established. Thirty provinces currently fall into that category: Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Aydın, Balıkesir, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Hatay, İstanbul, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Muğla, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Şanlıurfa, Tekirdağ, Trabzon and Van.
For foreign buyers that list is worth reading closely, because it captures essentially every market international buyers actually shop in. İstanbul, Antalya, Muğla — which contains Bodrum and Fethiye — Aydın, Mersin and İzmir are all on it. In practice, if you are buying a holiday home or an investment apartment on the Turkish coast or in İstanbul, you should assume the 0.2% residential rate rather than 0.1%.
How the assessed value is built
Turkish property tax is charged on a value the state calculates rather than a value the market observes. Two inputs drive it. The first is the minimum square-metre unit value for land, fixed by dedicated valuation commissions for every neighbourhood and, within a neighbourhood, street by street — and in tourist areas down to individual sheets, blocks and parcels identified by the provincial governor. The second, for anything with a building on it, is a standard construction cost per square metre, published jointly each year by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change.
Those two inputs are combined under regulations made under the Property Tax Law to produce the assessed value. A building’s figure reflects its external floor area and its construction class, with adjustments for features such as lifts and central heating and a deduction for depreciation. Land is simply unit value multiplied by area. Fractions are rounded down: amounts below one thousand lira are ignored in the assessed value, and amounts below one lira are ignored in the tax itself.
The land unit values are not reset annually. They are fixed by the valuation commissions once every four years, and the values that govern the current cycle were determined before 30 June 2025 and apply for 2026 through 2029. In the intervening years the assessed value is uprated by the official revaluation rate. That is a change worth noting: legislation passed in December 2025 replaced the previous formula, under which assessed values rose by half the revaluation rate, with one that applies the full rate from the years following 2026.
The 2026 exercise was unusual because the four-yearly reset coincided with a period of high inflation, and in many areas the newly assessed land unit values came in dramatically above the previous ones. Parliament responded with a transitional cap. Where the 2026 figure calculated from the new unit values exceeds a multiple of the 2025 assessed value, the capped figure is used instead. The published worked example makes the mechanism concrete: a plot assessed at 900,000 lira in 2025 whose new unit values would have produced 6,000,000 lira for 2026 is instead assessed at 2,700,000 lira.
What an owner actually has to do
Annual property tax is one of the few Turkish obligations that runs on autopilot once it is set up correctly — but it does have to be set up.
Establish which municipality you belong to
Property tax is a municipal charge, collected by the local authority in whose area the property sits. Your first task after completion is to identify that municipality and confirm it holds a record for you as owner. Whether it is a metropolitan municipality also determines whether you pay the standard or the doubled rate.
File the declaration where one is required
The law requires a declaration to the municipality when a new building is completed, when part of it is brought into use before completion, or when one of the events that alters assessed value occurs. It is filed within the budget year, or within three months if the event happens in the final three months of the year.
Check the assessed value on your record
Ask for the vergi değeri, not merely the amount payable. In the 2026 cycle it is also worth confirming that the transitional cap has been applied where the newly calculated figure would otherwise have exceeded the permitted multiple of the 2025 value.
Pay the first instalment between March and May
Most municipalities now accept payment online or through Turkish banks, and many owners set up a standing arrangement. Non-resident owners commonly delegate this, since a missed instalment is easy to overlook from abroad.
Pay the second instalment in November
The second half falls due in November. The additional cultural heritage contribution, calculated at 10% of the property tax assessed, is collected by the municipality together with the tax rather than billed separately.
Keep the receipts
Evidence of paid property tax is routinely requested when you come to sell, and a clean municipal record removes a common source of delay at completion. If you are considering an exit, our guide to selling property in Turkey covers what a buyer’s side will ask for.
The other charges that attach to Turkish property
Annual property tax is only one line in the total cost of ownership. These are the others foreign owners meet, and what determines each of them.
Title deed fee (tapu harçı)
A one-off transfer charge under Charges Law No. 492, payable by both seller and buyer. It is calculated on the sale price, which by law cannot be declared below the property statement value issued by the municipality. Confirm the current percentage before you budget.
Cultural heritage contribution
An additional 10% of the property tax assessed against you, levied to fund the protection of cultural assets in the municipality’s area and collected together with the main bill. It is not optional and not separately invoiced.
Valuable housing tax
A national tax on high-value residences, declared to the tax office rather than the municipality. Owners whose 2025 assessed building value exceeded 15,709,000 lira had to file by 20 February 2026.
Rental income tax
If you let the property, the rental income is taxable in Turkey and a return is required. Rates, allowances and the exemption applying to residential rent are revised regularly, so treat current-year figures as something to confirm rather than assume.
Gains on resale
A gain on disposal can be taxable depending on how long you have held the property and how the disposal is characterised. This is the area where advice pays for itself, because the answer turns on facts specific to you.
Compulsory earthquake insurance
DASK cover is required and is one of the documents the Land Registry expects at transfer. Premiums are set by reference to the building rather than negotiated, and cover has to be kept current for as long as you own.
Who pays less, and why it rarely helps a foreign owner
Turkish law does provide a zero rate on building tax, but it is targeted rather than general. It is available only to an owner whose single residence in Turkey has a gross external area of no more than 200 square metres, and only where that owner falls into one of five categories: people with disabilities; people who can document that they have no income whatsoever, excluding those under eighteen who have someone legally responsible for them; people whose income consists solely of a retirement, widow’s, orphan’s, death or disability pension paid by a social security institution established by law; veterans; and the widows and orphans of those killed in service.
Two features of that list matter for international owners. The relief requires the property to be your only residence in Turkey, which rules out most investors immediately. And the pension category is defined by reference to social security institutions established under Turkish law, so a foreign state pension does not bring an owner inside it. In the ordinary case, a foreign owner should budget for the full rate.
Two narrower reliefs are worth knowing exist. Where the use of a building, plot or land is legally restricted by legislation, the tax is collected at one tenth of the normal amount for as long as the restriction continues, reverting to the full amount from the budget year following its removal. And in areas that a metropolitan municipal council has formally designated as rural neighbourhoods or rural settlement areas, residential buildings and land used in agricultural production are exempt, while property used for commercial, industrial or tourism activity is charged at a 50% reduction — though neither the exemption nor the reduction is available to taxpayers who keep accounts on a balance sheet basis.
One further rule catches owners of newly built property. For four years following the year in which construction ends, the tax on a building cannot be less than the tax that would have been charged on its land or land share. It is designed to stop a completed building being assessed more lightly than the plot it stands on.
Not sure what your Turkish property actually costs to hold?
We can check the assessed value on your municipal record and set up payment so nothing lapses while you are abroad.
Property taxes in Turkey — frequently asked questions
The questions foreign owners ask most often about what Turkish property costs to hold each year.
Where to go next
The rest of our foreign-owner library, from the purchase itself through to letting and resale.
- Turkey property guides — the full index of our guides for international buyers and owners.
- Buying property in Turkey: seven pitfalls — the checks to run before you commit funds.
- Selling property in Turkey — what the buyer’s side will ask for, including a clean tax record.
- Turkey’s tax incentives for foreign investors — where the wider regime is heading.
- Property management and rentals — running a Turkish property, and its bills, from abroad.
- Legal services — title work, due diligence and introductions to licensed tax advisers.
- Turkey property buyer’s guide — the complete purchase walk-through for foreign buyers.
- Turkey real estate FAQ — answers for international property buyers.
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