Turkey Residency for Investors

The two thresholds

• USD 200,000 buys the right to a short-term residence permit, issued for up to two years at a time. The home has to be a dwelling and you have to live in it.
• USD 400,000 of property, held three years, opens citizenship by investment. Other routes exist, including fixed capital investment and bank deposits.

Both figures are tested at the acquisition date, in dollars, while the price is paid in lira, so the rate on the day of the deed is part of the answer.

Turkey residency for investors: where the real money is

Not in the permit. Article 20/D exempts the foreign-source income of new Turkish tax residents from Turkish income tax for twenty years: foreign dividends, interest, rent and capital gains. For somebody living on a portfolio rather than on salary, that is the reason to look at Turkey at all, and the property purchase is only one way of earning the right to be here.

Inheritance tax runs at 1% during the same period, which for an estate of any size is the quieter half of the 2026 law.

Three conditions that decide it

Three calendar years with no Turkish domicile and no Turkish tax liability before you become resident. Actual Turkish tax residency, which a permit alone does not give you. An exemption certificate applied for by the end of your first resident year. Miss the third and you are an ordinary Turkish taxpayer on worldwide income at 15% to 40%.

The conflict worth knowing early

A home that supports your residence permit cannot be let out, because the permit rests on you living there. Investors who bought with yield in mind usually end up separating the two: one property for income, a different address for the permit.