Building Age and Earthquake Codes in Turkey
AFAD records seven revisions of Turkey’s building earthquake regulation between 1947 and 2007, before the code now in force. Which version a property was designed under depends entirely on the date of its construction permit — which makes that date one of the most useful things on the file, and one of the least often asked for.
One date on the file tells you more than the brochure ever will
Foreign buyers looking at Turkish property tend to assess a building the way they would at home: the finish, the balcony, the year the agent says it was built, whether it looks well kept. Those are reasonable instincts and they are almost entirely beside the point on the question that actually matters.
Turkey sits across active fault systems, and its building regulation has been rewritten repeatedly in response. What that means for a purchase is specific and unusually tractable. A building is designed to the earthquake regulation that applied when its construction permit — its yapı ruhsatı — was issued. Not the regulation in force when it was finished, not the one in force when it was last renovated, and certainly not the one in force when you buy it. Establish the permit date and you have located the building within a documented sequence of standards.
This guide sets out the documented sequence of Turkish earthquake regulations, what the current one is and when it took effect, how urban transformation and the concept of a risky structure fit in, and — importantly — the limits of what any of this can tell you. It is written for buyers who are not resident in Turkey. For the wider purchase sequence, see our Turkey property buyer’s guide, and for the permit that signs off a finished building, our guide to the iskan or habitation certificate.
The Regulations, In Order
What the record shows, and where to look
The regulation generations, and what each means to a buyer
AFAD records seven revisions between 1947 and 2007, followed by the regulation now in force. Cutover dates differ between revisions, so establish the permit date first and confirm which regulation applied to it.
| Regulation generation | What it means for a building permitted then | What to ask for |
|---|---|---|
| 1947, 1953, 1961, 1968 | The earliest generations of Turkish earthquake regulation. A building of this vintage was designed to standards several revisions behind current practice. | A structural engineer’s assessment, and the title record checked for any risky-structure annotation. |
| 1975 | Still four revisions behind the current regulation. Age alone does not condemn a building, but it raises the value of an independent assessment sharply. | Permit date in writing, engineer’s assessment, and the building’s alteration history. |
| 1998 | A significant revision, but two generations behind the regulation now in force. | Permit date, occupancy permit, and confirmation of any strengthening work carried out since. |
| 2007 | The regulation immediately preceding the current one, and the version it replaced. | Permit date and occupancy permit, plus the usual title and annotation checks. |
| From 1 January 2019 | Designed under the Türkiye Bina Deprem Yönetmeliği, published 18 March 2018 and in force from 1 January 2019. | Permit date confirming it falls after the cutover, plus the occupancy permit for the finished building. |
The Türkiye Bina Deprem Yönetmeliği
Turkey’s current building earthquake regulation, the Türkiye Bina Deprem Yönetmeliği, was published in the Resmî Gazete on 18 March 2018 and entered into force on 1 January 2019. That gap between publication and entry into force is itself worth noticing: it gave the construction sector a transition period, and it means the meaningful line for a buyer is the January 2019 date rather than the March 2018 one.
According to AFAD, the Turkish disaster and emergency management authority, the regulation establishes minimum requirements for earthquake-resistant design and construction, taking into account the seismic characteristics of the location where a building sits and the properties of the soil beneath it. AFAD also records that the update was produced by a dedicated commission working with a large technical group across a series of workshops, and that it replaced the 2007 regulation.
The soil point deserves emphasis, because it is where intuition misleads buyers most. Two buildings of identical design and identical permit date can behave very differently in an earthquake if one stands on competent rock and the other on soft, saturated ground. Ground conditions are a property-specific question, not a district-wide one, and they are precisely the kind of thing that a design carried out under a modern regulation is required to take into account.
Risky structures, urban transformation, and the title deed
Running alongside the design regulation is a second body of law dealing with buildings that already exist. The Law on the Transformation of Areas Under Disaster Risk, Law No. 6306, was adopted on 16 May 2012 and published in the Resmî Gazete on 31 May 2012. Its stated purpose is to determine the procedures and principles for improvement, clearance and renewal in areas under disaster risk, and in respect of risky structures outside those areas, in order to establish healthy and safe living environments complying with engineering and architectural norms and standards. This is the legal basis of what is generally called kentsel dönüşüm, or urban transformation.
The concept a buyer needs from this law is the riskli yapı, the risky structure. It means a structure, whether inside or outside a designated risky area, that has completed its economic life or that carries the risk of collapse or serious damage, determined on the basis of scientific and technical data. It is a formal determination made under a defined procedure, not a general impression that a building looks tired.
Here is the part that connects directly to the purchase process, and it is the reason this topic belongs in a buyer’s guide at all. Where a structure is determined to be risky, that determination is notified to the relevant land registry office and annotated on the title deed record. In other words, it shows up in exactly the place a careful buyer should already be looking — the annotations page of the tapu, rather than the front of it. Reading the full title record, annotations included, is the check that catches this. It is the same check that catches mortgages, liens and sale restrictions, and it is the single most valuable habit in the whole process, as we set out in our guide to the pitfalls foreign buyers fall into.
A property caught up in urban transformation is not automatically a bad purchase, and for some buyers it is the opportunity. But it is a materially different transaction from buying a finished apartment to live in, with a different timeline, different rights and different risks. What you must not do is buy into one without knowing you have.
What a permit date cannot tell you
Everything above is a filter, not a verdict, and it would be irresponsible to present it as more than that. A regulation governs design. It does not govern whether the design was followed.
The gap between the two is where the real risk lives. A building permitted under a modern regulation may have been built with substitutions the drawings never contemplated. Structural elements may have been altered afterwards — a column removed to open up a shop unit at ground level is a well-known example of a change that can matter enormously and is invisible from the street. Ground conditions may have been assessed thoroughly or perfunctorily. None of that is visible in a permit date, and none of it is visible in a viewing.
So the honest framing is this. The permit date and the applicable regulation give you a defensible way to sort a shortlist and a specific question to put to a seller. For any property you actually intend to buy, that is the beginning of the enquiry. The end of it is an assessment by a qualified structural engineer instructed by you, alongside the documentary checks — the full title record and its annotations, and the occupancy permit certifying that the completed building matched its approved plans and passed final inspection.
Three things to request on any building you are serious about
All three are ordinary requests. None of them requires you to be in Turkey or to read Turkish.
The construction permit date
The date of the yapı ruhsatı, in writing. It fixes which earthquake regulation the building was designed under, and it is a matter of record rather than recollection.
The full title deed record
Including the annotations page. A risky-structure determination under Law No. 6306 is notified to the land registry and annotated on the record, so this is where it surfaces.
An engineer’s assessment
For any property you intend to buy, an assessment by a qualified structural engineer instructed by you. No document in this guide substitutes for it.
Six checks, in sequence
Each one narrows the field before the next one costs you anything. Run them before a payment, not after.
Establish the construction permit date
Ask for the date of the yapı ruhsatı rather than the year the building was finished or the year it was marketed. The permit date is what determines which earthquake regulation the design had to satisfy.
Identify the regulation that applied on that date
AFAD records revisions in 1947, 1953, 1961, 1968, 1975, 1998 and 2007, followed by the current regulation published on 18 March 2018 and in force from 1 January 2019. Cutover dates differ, so confirm rather than assume.
Read the full title record, annotations included
A risky-structure determination under Law No. 6306 is notified to the land registry and annotated on the title deed record. So are mortgages, liens and sale restrictions. Read the whole record, not the front page.
Ask for the occupancy permit and the alteration history
The iskan certifies that the finished building matched its approved plans and passed final inspection. Then ask separately what has been changed since, particularly at ground-floor level where structural alterations are most common.
Instruct your own structural engineer
For any property you are serious about, commission an assessment from a qualified engineer you are paying. This is the only step that speaks to the actual condition of the actual building rather than to the standard its design had to meet.
Arrange DASK, and understand what it does not cover
Compulsory natural disaster insurance must be in place before the Land Registry will register the transfer. Treat it as the legal minimum and a financial backstop, and keep the separate question of structural soundness firmly on the table.
Want the permits and title record checked before you commit?
We run the title, annotation and permit checks as standard, and can arrange an independent structural assessment.
Building age and earthquake codes — frequently asked questions
The questions foreign buyers ask most often about building standards, risky structures and what insurance does and does not mean.
Where to go next
The rest of our foreign-buyer library, from the purchase walk-through to the permits and insurance that sit around a completed building.
- Iskan: the habitation certificate — the permit that signs off a finished building.
- DASK earthquake insurance — what the compulsory cover does and does not include.
- Tapu: how the Turkish title deed works — and why the annotations page matters.
- Seven pitfalls foreign buyers fall into — the checks that close each one.
- Is it safe to buy property in Turkey? — an honest risk assessment.
- Buying off-plan in Turkey — permits, protections and staged payments.
- Turkey property buyer’s guide — the complete purchase walk-through.
- Turkey property guides — the full library index.
Check the building, not just the apartment
Tell us the property you are considering and we will establish the construction permit date, read the full title record and its annotations, and arrange an independent structural assessment before anything is signed.
