Estate Agent Fees in Turkey: The 4% Rule and the Licence to Check
Turkish estate agency is a licensed activity with a capped commission written into national regulation. Most foreign buyers never learn either fact, and pay accordingly. Here is what the rule actually says, and how to verify in minutes that the person selling to you is entitled to.
There is a cap, it is national, and it is written down.
Foreign buyers arriving in the Turkish market usually assume estate agency commission works the way it does at home: a matter of negotiation, custom and whatever the agency puts in front of you. In Turkey it is more constrained than that. Since 2018, dealing in real estate has been a regulated activity, and the fee an agency may charge for arranging a sale or a letting is capped by national regulation rather than left entirely to the market.
The instrument is the Taşınmaz Ticareti Hakkında Yönetmelik — the Regulation on Real Estate Trading — made under Law No. 6585 on the Regulation of Retail Trade and published in the Resmî Gazete of 5 June 2018, No. 30442. It does two things that matter to a buyer. It caps the service fee, and it requires anyone trading in real estate as a business to hold an authorisation certificate issued by the Ministry of Trade.
Neither point is obscure or hard to check. Both are routinely unknown to buyers who are dealing with an unfamiliar market in a language they do not read, at a distance, under time pressure — which is precisely the situation in which an inflated fee or an unlicensed intermediary is easiest to accept without question.
This page covers what the fee cap says, how it is split, when the agency earns it, what the licence is and how to verify it. For the wider transaction, see our guide to the pitfalls foreign buyers still fall into, and for the question of independent legal representation, whether you need a lawyer to buy in Turkey.
The Fee Rules At A Glance
Regulation on Real Estate Trading, Article 20
What the fee rule actually says
The relevant provision is the hizmet bedeli — service fee — article of the Regulation on Real Estate Trading. Four points do most of the work.
Sales are capped at 4% of the price, VAT excluded
The service fee for mediating a sale may not exceed four per cent of the sale price stated in the mediation contract, excluding value added tax. Two details are easy to miss. The cap bites on the price in the contract, so an agency cannot calculate its fee on some other figure. And VAT sits outside the cap — it is charged on the service fee at the applicable rate in addition to it, so the total cash cost of the service is the fee plus tax rather than the fee alone.
Lettings are capped at one month’s rent, VAT excluded
For mediating a tenancy, the fee may not exceed one month’s rent as stated in the rental mediation contract, again excluding VAT. This is the figure that matters if you are letting a Turkish property rather than selling it, or renting somewhere while you search. The same points apply: the cap is measured against the contractual rent, and tax is additional.
The default is that both sides share it equally
Unless the parties agree otherwise in writing, the service fee is split equally between them. This is the single most misunderstood part of the rule. The 4% is a cap on the total fee for the transaction, not a fee chargeable to each side — so the default position is 2% from the buyer and 2% from the seller, plus VAT on each. A buyer being asked for 4% alone, with the seller paying the same again, is being asked for double the regulated maximum unless something quite different has been agreed in writing.
The fee is earned on completion, not on introduction
The agency becomes entitled to the fee when the transfer of the property is registered at the Land Registry, or, for a letting, when the tenancy is established between landlord and tenant. Showing you properties, making introductions and exchanging drafts do not by themselves trigger payment. A demand for the full commission before the transfer is registered is not how the regulation frames the entitlement, and is worth questioning rather than paying.
It all has to be in a written mediation contract
The cap is expressed by reference to the aracılık sözleşmesi — the mediation contract. That document is where the price, the fee, the split and the trigger are recorded. If there is no written contract, there is no agreed fee to point at when a dispute arises, and you are negotiating from memory against someone negotiating from habit. Ask for it, read it, and keep a copy.
The agency itself must be licensed
Real estate trading may be carried on only by businesses holding an authorisation certificate — a yetki belgesi — issued in the name of the business. Applications have been made through the Ministry of Trade’s Real Estate Trade Information System since 5 August 2018, and the certificate is issued by the provincial trade directorate for the place where the business operates. The certificate runs for five years.
How to check an agency before you sign
None of this requires a lawyer or a trip to Turkey. It is a short sequence of questions, and a legitimate agency will answer all of them without hesitation.
Ask for the certificate number
Request the yetki belgesi number in writing. A licensed agency will have it to hand and will usually display it already. Hesitation, a promise to send it later, or a claim that the application is “in process” are all answers in themselves.
Verify it independently
Check the number against the Ministry of Trade’s Real Estate Trade Information System (TTBS) at ttbs.gtb.gov.tr, or through the e-Devlet portal, which lists an authorisation certificate enquiry service. Verify at the source rather than accepting a screenshot.
Check it is the right entity
The certificate is issued to a business, not to an individual salesperson. Confirm that the name on the certificate is the company you are actually contracting with and paying, and that it matches the entity named on the mediation contract and the invoice.
Get the fee in writing first
Insist on a written mediation contract stating the price, the fee, whether it is inclusive or exclusive of VAT, how it splits between the parties and what event triggers payment. Agree it before viewings turn into offers.
Test the fee against the cap
Work out what is being asked as a percentage of the contract price, remembering that the regulated maximum is a total for the transaction and that the default is an equal split. If the arithmetic exceeds it, ask on what written basis.
Pay the company, and get an invoice
Pay the agency’s corporate account against a proper invoice, never an individual’s personal account in cash. An agency unwilling to invoice its own commission is telling you something about how it treats the rest of the transaction.
Compliant practice against warning signs
None of the behaviour in the right-hand column is automatically unlawful in every circumstance. All of it is worth stopping for, and asking about, before money moves.
| What you are checking | What good practice looks like | Worth stopping for | Verifiable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authorisation | A current yetki belgesi in the company’s name, number supplied on request | “Our licence is being renewed”, or a number that belongs to a different company | Yes — TTBS |
| The fee | A figure inside the regulated cap, stated as a percentage of the contract price | A percentage charged to each side that together exceeds the cap | Yes — arithmetic |
| VAT | Stated explicitly as additional to the fee, and shown on the invoice | A quoted rate that quietly becomes larger at invoice stage | Yes — the invoice |
| The contract | A written mediation contract signed before offers are made | A verbal arrangement, or a document produced only at completion | Yes — your copy |
| Trigger for payment | Commission due when the transfer is registered at the Land Registry | Full commission demanded on introduction or reservation | Yes — the contract |
| Where money goes | The agency’s company account, against a numbered invoice | Cash, or a transfer to an individual’s personal account | Only if you ask |
| Whose interests | Independent legal advice, obtained separately from the agency | A lawyer, valuer and agent all introduced by, and paid by, one party | Only if you ask |
The pattern worth noticing in that table is how much of it a buyer can settle alone, before instructing anybody. The authorisation certificate is verifiable against a government system. The fee is verifiable with arithmetic. The contract terms are verifiable by reading a document you are entitled to a copy of. The two items that cannot be checked from the outside — where the money actually goes, and whose interests your advisers serve — are the two where buyers are most exposed, which is a good argument for instructing your own lawyer rather than accepting an introduction.
Work with a licensed agency and know the fee up front
We put the authorisation, the fee and the trigger in writing before you view anything.
Where to go next
The rest of our foreign-buyer library on cost, process and protection.
- Buying property in Turkey: the pitfalls — the seven mistakes foreign buyers still make.
- Do you need a lawyer to buy in Turkey? — independent representation and what it covers.
- Escrow accounts in Turkey — how purchase funds are meant to move.
- Property taxes in Turkey — the recurring charges after completion.
- Aidat and service charges — the communal charge every flat carries.
- Real estate agencies in Istanbul — how the market is structured in the city.
- Turkey property buyer’s guide — the full purchase walk-through.
- All Turkey property guides — the complete foreign-buyer library.
Estate agent fees in Turkey — frequently asked questions
The questions foreign buyers ask most often about commission, who pays it, and how to check an agency is licensed.
Ask for the licence and the fee in writing
Tell us what you are looking for and we will confirm our authorisation, set out the fee and the point at which it becomes payable in writing, and work alongside independent Turkish legal advice rather than in place of it.
