Sending Money to Turkey for a Property Purchase
Getting the funds into the country is not the hard part. Getting them in through the right channel, converted in the right order and documented in the right name is what decides whether your purchase, your citizenship application or your VAT exemption survives contact with the paperwork.
The money has to arrive in a particular way, not just arrive
Foreign buyers tend to treat the payment as the simple part of a Turkish purchase. The property is chosen, the price is agreed, the lawyer is instructed — and then someone sends a wire and assumes the rest is administration. In fact the movement of money is where a surprising share of Turkish transactions run into trouble, and almost always for the same reason: the funds arrived, but they arrived in a way that cannot be evidenced, or they were converted at the wrong moment, or they were converted in the wrong person’s name.
Three separate requirements are in play at once, and they are easy to confuse. The seller must ultimately be paid in Turkish lira. The conversion from your currency into lira should be documented by a certificate your bank issues, known as a Döviz Alım Belgesi or DAB. And since 1 July 2026, the payment itself must travel through Turkey’s mandatory secure payment system rather than passing directly from you to the seller, with funds released only once ownership is registered.
Each of those exists for a different reason — one is a currency rule, one is an evidence rule, one is a protection rule — and satisfying two out of three is not good enough if you are relying on the purchase for a citizenship application or a tax exemption. This guide sets out the sequence, what the certificate has to say, and the handful of errors that cannot be corrected afterwards.
The guidance below is written for buyers who are not resident in Turkey and are moving money from abroad. If you want the mechanics of how the funds are then held and released at completion, our guide to escrow accounts in Turkey and our explanation of the secure payment system cover that side in detail.
Moving Money — Key Points
What has to be true about the funds before completion
What a DAB is, and what it has to say
It is not a transfer receipt and not a bank statement. It is a specific document recording a specific conversion, in a specific name.
A record of a conversion, not of a transfer
The distinction matters more than it sounds. A SWIFT confirmation shows that money left one account and reached another. A DAB shows that a stated quantity of foreign currency was exchanged into Turkish lira at a named bank, on a named date, at a stated rate, for a named person. When a Turkish authority wants to know that foreign capital genuinely entered the country and was brought into the local currency through official channels, the transfer receipt does not answer the question and the certificate does.
A DAB will normally record the buyer’s full name and passport number, the foreign currency and the amount converted, the Turkish lira amount received, the exchange rate applied, the date and time of the transaction, the bank’s name, branch and official stamp, and a unique transaction reference. Keep the original. Keep the translation if one is prepared. And keep the SWIFT confirmation alongside it, because the two together tell the complete story of where the funds came from and what happened to them on arrival.
Where the certificate is unavoidable
There are two situations in which a DAB is not a matter of prudence but a condition of the outcome you are seeking.
The first is Турецкое гражданство за инвестиции. The property route requires a qualifying investment of at least USD 400,000, confirmed by a valuation report from a licensed appraiser and accompanied by a commitment not to sell for three years. The framework was unchanged through 2026. Because the qualifying amount is expressed in dollars while the purchase settles in lira, the certificate is what proves the dollar equivalent was genuinely brought in and converted — and the figure it shows has to meet the threshold, not come close to it. A certificate that lands slightly under because of an unfavourable rate on the day is a rejected application, not a rounding error. Our overview of the Turkish citizenship by investment programme covers the wider requirements.
The second is the VAT exemption available to certain non-resident foreign buyers on qualifying first-hand purchases. That relief is conditioned on the funds being brought into Turkey as foreign currency through the banking system, with the money traced to the same person named on the sales invoice. Turkish practitioners commonly describe the payment conditions as requiring a substantial share of the price — typically at least half — to be paid before the title deed is issued, with the balance transferred into Turkey within a year. Those conditions are detailed and unforgiving, and they are exactly the sort of thing that changes, so treat the shape of the rule as the takeaway and confirm the current detail with your adviser. Our guide to taxes in Turkey for foreigners sets out the broader tax position.
And where the position is less clear-cut
For an ordinary purchase — a holiday apartment, a family home, an investment flat, with no citizenship application and no VAT claim — the picture reported by Turkish practitioners is less uniform. Some describe the currency conversion obligation as applying to every foreign buyer paying in foreign currency; others frame the DAB primarily as a requirement of the citizenship and VAT routes. We are not going to pretend that ambiguity does not exist, because buyers encounter contradictory advice on precisely this point and deserve to know why.
The practical resolution is straightforward. Obtaining a DAB costs very little and takes minutes at the counter where you are already converting the money. Not having one, in a case where it turns out to be needed, can cost you an application. Ask your bank and your conveyancer to confirm the position for your specific transaction, and in the meantime get the certificate. It is the cheapest insurance in the whole purchase.
Moving the money, in order
The order is the substance. Every one of these steps produces something the next step needs, and two of them cannot be done retrospectively at all.
Get a Turkish tax number
Nothing else can start without it. Foreign nationals receive an identification number beginning with 99, which serves as the tax number and is required to open a bank account. It is free and issued quickly. See our guide to the Turkish tax number for foreigners.
Open a bank account in Turkey in your own name
In the name of the person who will appear on the title deed — not a spouse, not a company, unless that entity is genuinely the buyer. This is the account that will receive the transfer, perform the conversion and pay the running costs afterwards. Our guide to opening a bank account in Turkey covers the documents.
Prepare your source-of-funds evidence before you send anything
Turkish banks apply anti-money-laundering checks to inbound transfers of this size, and a large sum arriving from abroad with no explanation attached is the single most common cause of funds being frozen pending enquiries. Have the evidence ready: sale contracts, investment statements, employment or business records, inheritance documents — whatever genuinely explains the origin.
Transfer the funds through the banking system
Use a conventional bank transfer into your own Turkish account and keep the SWIFT confirmation. Avoid informal transfer arrangements and third-party intermediaries entirely: they break the audit trail, they leave you without the documents you will be asked for, and they defeat the point of every rule described here.
Convert to Turkish lira and request the DAB
Do this before any money reaches the seller. Ask the bank explicitly for the Döviz Alım Belgesi at the time of conversion, check the name and passport number on it before you leave, and confirm the amount shown. If you are buying for citizenship, verify that the recorded amount clears the threshold rather than sitting on it.
Pay through the secure payment system
Since 1 July 2026 the funds must move to the seller through Turkey’s mandatory secure payment channel, where they are held and released only once the transfer of ownership is registered at the Land Registry. This applies to partial payments as well as the balance. A request to pay around it is a reason to stop, not a convenience.
File the certificate ahead of the registry appointment
The DAB is normally submitted through Web-Tapu before the Land Registry appointment rather than handed over on the day. Give your conveyancer the original and any required translation in good time, and check that the name on the certificate matches the name on the application exactly.
Keep the whole file after completion
The DAB, the SWIFT confirmations, the bank statements and the receipts belong together and should be retained. You may need them for a citizenship application, a VAT claim, a future capital gains calculation, or to demonstrate the cost base when you eventually sell. Reconstructing them years later ranges from difficult to impossible.
Six ways buyers break the chain
Every one of these is easy to prevent beforehand. Several of them cannot be fixed at all afterwards.
Converting after paying
The certificate must document the funds actually used for the purchase. Convert first; paperwork requested afterwards will not do the job.
The wrong name on the DAB
It must be the person going on the title deed. A spouse, a relative who sent the wire or a controlled company will not be accepted.
Landing just under the threshold
On the citizenship route the recorded amount must clear USD 400,000. An unfavourable rate on the day is a rejection, not a rounding issue.
Paying outside the secure system
Direct payment to the seller has not been permitted since 1 July 2026, and it strips away the protection that release-on-registration provides.
No source-of-funds evidence
Large inbound transfers attract compliance review. Without documentation explaining the origin, funds can be held while enquiries run.
Discarding the paperwork
The file supports citizenship, VAT relief and your future capital gains position. Years later it cannot be reconstructed.
What the money rules require of you
The channel and the currency are the same in every case. What changes is how strictly the evidence is examined, and what you lose if it is wrong.
| Requirement | Ordinary purchase | Citizenship route | VAT exemption claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seller paid in Turkish lira | Да | Да | Да |
| Secure payment system | Mandatory | Mandatory | Mandatory |
| Turkish bank account | In practice yes | Да | Да |
| DAB certificate | Strongly advised — confirm your case | Требуется | Требуется |
| DAB in the buyer’s own name | Yes, if obtained | Strictly enforced | Strictly enforced |
| Minimum recorded amount | Нет | USD 400,000 equivalent | No fixed minimum |
| Licensed valuation report | Not generally required | Требуется | Not for this purpose |
| Funds must originate abroad | Not a formal condition | Да | Да |
| Timing conditions on payment | None beyond the contract | Before the application | Yes — confirm current terms |
| Consequence of getting it wrong | Delay at the registry | Application refused | Relief lost |
Read down the last row rather than across the top. For an ordinary purchase, a mistake in the money chain is an inconvenience: an appointment is postponed, a document is re-issued, the transaction completes a week later than planned. For the citizenship and VAT routes, the same mistake removes the benefit you were buying for, and does so at a point when the money has already gone and the property is already yours. The rules are identical; what differs is how expensive it is to get them wrong.
That asymmetry should shape how much care you take. If your purchase has no application riding on it, the sensible approach is to follow the sequence properly, keep the paperwork, and not lose sleep. If it does, treat every step as if it will be audited — because it will be. And in either case, do not let a seller, an agent or a well-meaning acquaintance persuade you that an informal route is faster. It is faster right up until the moment it is not.
Three things the money rules do not do for you
It is easy to read all this and conclude that a compliant payment chain means a safe purchase. It does not. The currency and payment rules govern how money moves; they say nothing at all about whether the thing you are buying is what you think it is.
They do not check the title. The secure payment system releases funds against registration of the transfer, which protects you from a seller who takes the money and does not complete. It does not protect you from a property that carries a mortgage, an attachment, a forest annotation or a resale restriction you did not read. That work is separate, and it belongs before payment rather than after. Our guide to the Turkish title deed explains what to look for.
They do not tell you whether the price is sensible. A valuation report is required on the citizenship route precisely because the threshold has to be tested against something other than the parties’ own agreement. On an ordinary purchase nobody will stop you paying too much. If you are buying at a distance, in a market you do not know well, commissioning an independent valuation is worth considerably more than it costs.
They do not make an under-declaration safe. Buyers are still occasionally invited to record a lower price on the deed than the one actually paid, usually framed as a saving on transfer costs. Leave aside the legal exposure: it also puts your declared purchase price permanently out of line with the money your own bank records show entering the country, which is precisely the mismatch these rules are designed to detect. It also raises your eventual capital gain. Our guide to the pitfalls foreign buyers fall into covers this and the other recurring traps.
Want the payment chain set up correctly from the start?
We work with licensed Turkish conveyancers and banks, and every transaction we handle settles through the secure payment system.
Sending money to Turkey — frequently asked questions
The questions foreign buyers ask most often about currency, certificates and getting funds safely into a Turkish transaction.
Where to go next
The rest of our foreign-buyer library, from the payment mechanics to the citizenship route and the title work behind both.
- Escrow accounts in Turkey — how funds are held and released at completion.
- The secure payment system — what changed on 1 July 2026.
- Opening a bank account in Turkey — the account the money lands in.
- Turkish tax number for foreigners — the first step in the chain.
- Турецкое гражданство за инвестиции — the property route and its thresholds.
- Taxes in Turkey for foreigners — where the VAT exemption sits.
- Pitfalls foreign buyers fall into — the recurring, avoidable mistakes.
- Turkey property guides — the full library for foreign buyers.
Get the payment chain right the first time
Tell us what you are buying and what you need it to achieve. We will set out the sequence for your case — tax number, account, transfer, conversion, certificate and settlement — and coordinate with licensed Turkish conveyancers so nothing is done in the wrong order.
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