Tapu Randevu: How to Book a Land Registry Appointment in Turkey
Almost everything in a Turkish property transaction can now be prepared online. The one thing that cannot is the signature — and that happens at an appointment. Here are the three official ways to book one, what foreign buyers need instead of a Turkish ID, and the sequence the appointment sits inside.
The paperwork moved online. The signature did not.
Turkey has spent the last decade moving the land registry onto the internet, and the change is genuine. Through Web Tapu, an owner can view their own property record, obtain an officially valid current title deed, mortgage document or registry extract after paying electronically, authorise someone else to view their records, and — the part that matters most here — lodge an application and send the supporting documents to the land registry without attending in person, so that the transaction is started and brought up to the signature stage remotely.
What has not moved online is the signature. The transfer of ownership is executed in person at a Tapu Müdürlüğü, a Land Registry Directorate office, in front of an officer. That is the appointment — the tapu randevu — and it is the fixed point every other part of the timetable has to be arranged around.
For a foreign buyer, two further things make the appointment worth understanding properly in advance. The first is identification: the booking form asks for an identity number, and foreign buyers who do not have one need to know what to supply instead. The second is attendance: if you cannot be in Turkey on the day, that has to be solved before the appointment rather than on it.
This guide covers all three official booking channels, what to have ready before you book, how the fee notification actually works, and the order in which the whole thing fits together. For the wider purchase sequence, see our Turkey property buyer’s guide.
Tapu Randevu — At a Glance
Where to book and what it asks for
The three official ways to get an appointment
All three lead to the same diary. Which suits you depends on whether you hold Turkish e-Devlet credentials, whether you are in the country, and how much you would rather speak to a person.
randevu.tkgm.gov.tr
The Land Registry’s own appointment service, and the most direct route. The form asks whether you are a Turkish citizen or a foreign national, then takes an identity number or a tax number, the province and district of the office, and the date and time you want.
e-Devlet
The Turkish state portal carries the same appointment service for anyone who already holds e-Devlet credentials. Convenient if you have them and are set up for other Turkish e-government services; not a route to pursue purely for this if you do not.
ALO 181
The General Directorate’s call centre. Its published guidance states that operators can book appointments for Land Registry Directorate transactions, that the service runs on weekdays from 08:00 to 18:00, and that callers from abroad should use +90 312 410 86 00.
Web Tapu — the application
Not an appointment channel, but the one most people confuse with it. This is where the application is lodged and the documents are sent, bringing the transaction up to the signature stage without attendance. The slot is still booked separately.
Checking a booking
The appointment service has a lookup for an existing booking, which is also where a booking is cancelled or changed. It asks for the same identifying details you used to make it — which is one good reason to record exactly which identity number went into the form.
Two domains, no others
Everything official happens at tkgm.gov.tr and webtapu.tkgm.gov.tr. Land registry business does not move to a different domain for your convenience, and a payment link pointing somewhere else is not a shortcut you have been offered.
What to supply when you have no Turkish ID number
The appointment form is built around an identity number, which is why it stops some foreign buyers before they start. In fact it handles the situation explicitly: the first thing it asks is whether you are a Turkish citizen or a foreign national, and for foreign nationals it accepts a foreign identity number or a tax number.
The tax number is the practical answer for most buyers. A foreign identity number is issued to foreigners who hold a Turkish residence permit; a buyer who is not resident will not have one. A Turkish tax number, by contrast, is available to any foreign national, the procedure is short and free, and it is needed for other parts of the purchase anyway — most obviously to open a Turkish bank account. If you are buying and do not yet have one, get it at the beginning rather than discovering you need it the week of completion.
The second issue is attendance. The signature stage requires the parties, or someone properly authorised to act for them, to be at the office. Buyers who cannot travel on the day of the appointment solve this with a power of attorney drawn so that a representative in Turkey can sign. That document needs to be prepared correctly, in the right form and properly legalised, well before the appointment — it is not something that can be improvised in the days beforehand, particularly if it has to be executed at a Turkish consulate abroad.
Transactions involving foreign buyers also carry checks that purely domestic ones do not, including confirmation that the property does not sit within a restricted military zone. These are a normal part of the process rather than an obstacle, but they are a reason to leave room in the timetable instead of booking an appointment for the earliest slot you can find and hoping everything else catches up.
Before You Book
Have these settled, not pending
Which channel does what
Four systems, regularly confused with one another. This is what each one is actually for.
| Capability | randevu.tkgm.gov.tr | e-Devlet | ALO 181 | Web Tapu |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Books an appointment | بله | بله | Yes, via operator | نه |
| Lodges the application | نه | نه | نه | بله |
| Sends documents to the office | نه | نه | نه | بله |
| Usable without e-Devlet credentials | بله | نه | بله | نه |
| Accepts a tax number for foreigners | بله | Not applicable | بله | Not applicable |
| Reachable from outside Turkey | بله | بله | +90 312 410 86 00 | بله |
| Speak to a person | نه | نه | بله | نه |
| Issues title deed and registry documents | نه | نه | نه | Yes, after payment |
| Blocks transactions without your attendance | نه | نه | نه | Yes, by declaration |
| Replaces attending to sign | نه | نه | نه | نه |
Where the appointment sits in the transaction
The appointment is near the end, not the beginning. Treating it as the last step rather than the first is what keeps a transaction from arriving at the office unready.
Get your Turkish tax number
Do this first. It is the identifier the appointment system will accept from a foreign national who has no foreign identity number, and it is needed to open a bank account and to move money for the purchase. It is a short, free procedure and there is no reason to delay it.
Identify the property precisely
You need the province, district and the parcel details, not just an address or a development name. The Land Registry’s spatial system allows a parcel to be located and viewed online — our guide to parsel sorgu explains how to check that the parcel you have been shown is the parcel you are buying.
Run the title and encumbrance checks
Read what is registered against the property, not just who owns it. Mortgages, liens, disputes and annotations all sit in the record and all affect what can be transferred. This belongs before the appointment is booked, because it is the step most likely to change whether you want one at all.
Put the required policies and documents in place
Compulsory earthquake insurance is required for properties classed as buildings, and a transfer will not complete without it. Where anyone is acting through a representative, the power of attorney has to exist, in the correct form, before the appointment rather than on the day.
Lodge the application through Web Tapu
The application is made and the documents are sent electronically, which brings the transaction up to the signature stage without anyone attending. This is the part people mistake for the appointment. It is not — but it is what makes the appointment itself short.
Book the appointment
Use randevu.tkgm.gov.tr, e-Devlet or ALO 181. Book at the office that covers the district where the property is. Record which identity number you used, because the lookup for checking or cancelling the booking will ask for the same details.
Pay the fee when it is notified
The Land Registry Directorate notifies the revolving fund fee by SMS once the application is in. That is the message to expect — and the pattern that lets you recognise anything else claiming to be a tapu payment demand as something that does not fit the process.
Attend and sign
The parties, or their authorised representatives, attend at the appointment time and complete the signature stage, and the transaction is carried out. Ownership changes on the register at this point — which is also the point at which, under Turkey’s secure payment arrangements, funds are released to the seller.
The fee message, and the ones that are not
Because so much of the process now runs through online channels and text messages, it is worth knowing precisely what a genuine land registry communication looks like — so that anything else stands out.
The General Directorate’s own description of the inheritance transfer procedure spells out the pattern, and the same shape applies more broadly: the application is lodged through Web Tapu, the Land Registry Directorate then notifies the revolving fund fee by SMS, and once the fee has been paid the parties attend at the appointment time given by the directorate to complete the signature stage.
Three things follow from that. A fee notification arrives after an application exists, not before — so a demand relating to a transaction you have not lodged does not fit. Official land registry business lives at tkgm.gov.tr and webtapu.tkgm.gov.tr, so a link to any other address is not the land registry. And the appointment time comes from the directorate, not from a third party offering to arrange one.
There is also a protective feature worth knowing about if you own Turkish property and spend most of the year elsewhere. Web Tapu allows an owner to place a declaration on their own property preventing transactions from being carried out without the owner attending in person, and to remove it again later. It exists specifically as a measure against attempted fraud, and for a non-resident owner it is one of the more useful things in the system. Our guide to Web Tapu covers how it works alongside the system’s other functions.
The same system also lets an owner grant an estate agent a defined authority to view title information and make applications to the land registry — and to revoke that authority. If you are working with an agent, understanding what you have authorised, and being able to withdraw it, is worth more than it sounds.
Genuine Or Not
Reading a land registry message
Want the checks run before the appointment is booked?
We handle the title, encumbrance and document work, and co-ordinate the land registry appointment around it.
Tapu randevu — frequently asked questions
The questions foreign buyers ask most often about booking a Turkish land registry appointment.
Where to go next
The rest of our land registry and foreign-buyer library.
- Web Tapu — the Land Registry’s online system, what it does and how to use it.
- Tapu: the Turkish title deed — what the register records and how to read it properly.
- Parsel sorgu — checking a Turkish land parcel online before you commit.
- Takyidat: encumbrance checks — what is registered against a property and why it matters.
- Turkish tax number for foreigners — the identifier you will need first.
- Power of attorney for Turkish property — completing without travelling.
- DASK earthquake insurance — the policy a transfer cannot complete without.
- Buying property in Turkey: the pitfalls — the mistakes foreign buyers still make.
- Turkey property buyer’s guide — the complete purchase walk-through.
- Turkey property guides — the full library for foreign buyers and owners.
Arrive at the appointment with everything in order
Tell us the property and where you will be on completion day, and we will handle the title and encumbrance checks, the document file and the land registry appointment — including acting under power of attorney if you cannot travel.
