Buyers arriving from England, Ireland, the United States or Australia ask the same question early: who holds the money until the property is transferred? At home the answer is escrow — a solicitor's client account, a title company, a licensed escrow agent — and the deal is built around it.
The answer has two halves. Turkish law has no general escrow institution and no profession whose ordinary job is to hold the price until completion — so if you are looking for the equivalent of a solicitor's client account, you will not find it.
But for a property purchase there is something very close, and most foreign buyers have never heard of it: Tapu Takas, a payment system run by the Land Registry itself together with Takasbank, in which your money sits in a blocked account and is released to the seller only once the transfer has actually been registered. That is the first thing to ask about, and it is where this page starts.
Beyond it, the architecture is different from the one you know: transfer and payment normally happen at the same counter at the same moment, and where that is not possible the buyer's position is secured by a notarial contract annotated in the land register, by statutory protections for off-plan purchases, or by bank instruments.
This page sets out those tools, what each one actually protects against, and the payment patterns that cause almost all the losses.
Ownership Passes at the Registry, Not on Signature
Turkish property transfer is a public act. Ownership does not pass on signature of a contract; it passes when the transfer is executed and registered at the land registry (tapu müdürlüğü), by an official deed drawn up by the registry itself. A private sale agreement, however elaborate, does not transfer anything.
That single fact removes most of the work escrow does elsewhere. Because the decisive moment is a scheduled appointment at a public office, the standard practice is simply this: buyer and seller attend, the price is paid, the transfer is registered, and everyone leaves. There is no gap for a stakeholder to bridge.
Tapu Takas: the Land Registry's Own Payment System
This is the closest thing to escrow that Turkish practice offers, and it is operated by the state registry itself under a protocol between the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre and Takasbank, the Turkish settlement and custody bank. Its whole purpose is the problem escrow solves: making the ownership and the money change hands at the same time.
How it runs, in the order you will meet it:
- Your transfer application is made at the land registry as normal. The registry then sends each party an SMS containing a payment number.
- Buyer and seller register with the system — through its website, its mobile application or e-Devlet — and each enters the sale figure.
- The buyer transfers the price to the account the system designates. The money is then blocked at Takasbank. It is not with the seller, and it is not with an agent.
- When the registry completes the transfer and records it in TAKBİS, the registry's own database, the blocked amount is released automatically and sent to the seller's account.
- You can use it. Foreign nationals may participate, provided they hold an identity document the registry accepts and an account at a bank resident in Turkey. Opening the Turkish account early is therefore not only convenient — it is what keeps this option open.
- The money can only reach the seller. Even where the registry procedure is handled by an attorney under a power of attorney, the seller must register their own account, and the price is paid only into it. The system structurally rules out the second loss pattern described below — payment routed through an intermediary.
The cost is a small fixed commission per party, published on the system's own fee page. Against the sums involved it is negligible.
The limits are as important as the features, because they tell you when you need something else from this page:
- transfers are in Turkish lira only, and through banks in Turkey — a payment sent directly from your bank abroad does not enter the system;
- it does not accommodate credit-financed purchases, where a lender pays part of the price;
- cancellation is possible only before the two sides' figures have been matched;
- it secures the payment at transfer. It does nothing for a deposit paid months earlier, and nothing for an off-plan purchase where there is no transfer to trigger the release.
So the practical rule is: for a straightforward purchase of an existing property, ask for Tapu Takas and use it. For everything that happens before the transfer — deposits, staged payments, off-plan — read on.
The Nearest Equivalent: a Notarial Promise, Annotated
Where the parties must be bound before the transfer can happen — the seller needs time, a mortgage must be discharged, a permit is pending — the instrument is the promise to sell (satış vaadi sözleşmesi).
Two provisions make it work:
- Article 237 of the Turkish Code of Obligations requires the official form: a sale of immovable property is valid only if made in official form, and a promise to sell is likewise invalid unless drawn up in official form — in practice, drawn up by a Turkish notary. A privately signed reservation form is not this.
- Article 1009 of the Civil Code allows the rights arising from a promise to sell to be annotated in the land register, and provides that once annotated they can be asserted against the holders of rights subsequently acquired over that property.
That second sentence is the whole point. An unannotated contract gives you a claim against the seller personally — worth what the seller is worth. An annotated promise attaches to the property: a later buyer, a later mortgagee, a later creditor takes subject to your right.
- Have the promise to sell drawn up by a notary — not signed privately and certified.
- Ask the notary or your lawyer to apply for annotation in the land register. Under Article 26 of the Land Registry Act, a notarial promise to sell is annotated at the request of either party.
- Watch the clock: the same article provides that if the sale is not completed within five years of the annotation, the annotation is cancelled ex officio.
A promise to sell that was never annotated is the commonest disappointment in this area: the document exists, the protection does not.
Off-Plan Purchases: Where the Statute Does the Work
Buying from a developer before completion is the situation where an escrow would be most missed — and it is also where Turkish law gives the most protection, in Articles 41 to 45 of the Consumer Protection Act (Act No. 6502). These apply to pre-paid housing sales to consumers.
- Form (Art. 41). A pre-paid housing sale must be registered in the land register, or the promise to sell must be drawn up by a notary in official form. And there is a rule with teeth: the seller may not ask for any payment under any name, nor for any document placing the consumer under an obligation, unless a valid contract has been made.
- Security (Art. 42). For projects above a size set by the Ministry, the seller must — before starting pre-paid sales — take out building completion insurance or provide other prescribed security. Critically, what that security provides cannot be included in a bankruptcy or liquidation estate, cannot be attached, and cannot be made subject to an injunction or precautionary attachment. This is the closest thing in Turkish law to ring-fenced money.
- Withdrawal (Art. 43). Fourteen days, no reason, no penalty. The seller bears the burden of proving that you were informed of the right.
- Delivery (Art. 44). Delivery within the contractual period and in no case later than 48 months from the contract date.
- Getting out (Art. 45). For 24 months from the contract date the consumer may withdraw without giving a reason. The seller may claim taxes and charges plus compensation capped by period: up to 2 % in the first three months, 4 % from three to six, 6 % from six to twelve and 8 % from twelve to twenty-four. Refunds are due within 180 days of the withdrawal notice reaching the seller. And if the seller has not performed its own obligations, it may claim nothing at all.
Article 46 leaves the rest — pre-contract information, the mandatory content of the contract, the parties' rights and obligations — to be fixed by regulation, so the statute is the frame rather than the whole picture.
Bank Instruments: What They Do and Do Not Do
Where a payment genuinely must sit somewhere before completion, the practical answers are banking ones rather than legal institutions:
- A blocked account at a Turkish bank, released on defined conditions. This is a contractual arrangement with the bank, not a statutory escrow, so everything depends on how the release conditions are drafted — have them drafted, not adapted from a template.
- A bank letter of guarantee given by the seller's bank in your favour, callable if the seller fails to perform. This shifts the risk from the seller's solvency to a bank's.
- A mortgage registered in your favour over the property, securing repayment of what you have already paid. Where a large deposit is unavoidable and the seller owns the property outright, this is often the strongest protection available.
None of these is automatic and none is standard practice — you have to ask for them, and the seller has to agree. Their cost is real but small next to the sums at stake.
The Payment Patterns That Cause Losses
Losses suffered by foreign buyers tend to trace back to one of four patterns, and none of them requires bad faith on anyone's part:
- A substantial deposit on a private reservation form. No official form, no annotation, no registration — a personal claim against whoever signed it.
- Payment into an agent's or intermediary's account. Pay the registered owner, in the owner's own name; if a third party is to receive funds, ask why in writing.
- Cash. A bank transfer is the only payment that proves itself later. Cash paid at the counter is the hardest thing to reconstruct in a dispute.
- Paying the full price before the transfer is executed because the appointment slipped. If the appointment slips, the payment slips with it.
Overview: Risk and Instrument
| Situation | What can go wrong | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| Completed property, both parties available | paying before registration, or money diverted | Tapu Takas — blocked at Takasbank, released on registration |
| Seller needs time before transfer | sale to someone else, new mortgage | notarial promise to sell, annotated |
| Large deposit unavoidable | seller's insolvency | mortgage in your favour, or bank guarantee |
| Off-plan from a developer | non-completion, delay | Consumer Act arts. 41–45: registration or notarial promise, completion insurance, withdrawal rights |
| You cannot attend in person | wrong powers, rejected document | power of attorney drawn up at a Turkish consulate |
| Purchase financed by a loan | Tapu Takas not available | blocked account with drafted release terms, or bank guarantee |
If You Cannot Attend the Transfer
The transfer can be handled by an attorney under a Turkish power of attorney. Two points matter more than the rest.
First, the power must carry the express authority to transfer or acquire immovable property, identify the property, and — for land registry use — bear a recent photograph of the principal. Because Turkish law requires such powers to be drawn up by the notary rather than merely signed before one, and because a common-law notary public ordinarily does the latter, the consulate route is the safer one. This is set out in Power of Attorney for Turkey from Abroad.
Second, there is a mechanism worth knowing about: under a 2019 addition to Article 26 of the Land Registry Act, where the parties to a transfer are at different land registry offices — or at the ministry's overseas organisation — their declarations may be taken separately by the officials and the contract completed on that basis, under rules laid down by regulation. Whether it is available for your transaction is a question for the registry concerned, but it is worth asking before assuming that everyone must be in the same room.
Five Mistakes That Cost Money
- Not asking about Tapu Takas. The registry's own payment system does for the transfer exactly what an escrow agent would, and most buyers never hear of it because nobody volunteers it.
- Signing a private promise to sell. Article 237 requires official form; a privately signed promise is invalid.
- Getting the promise notarised but never annotated. Without the annotation your right does not bind later acquirers.
- Paying a developer before the contract is valid. Article 41 says the seller may not even ask; if it is asking, something is missing.
- Letting the paper trail break. Pay the registered owner by bank transfer. Everything else is harder to prove exactly when proof matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there escrow in Turkey?
Not as an institution — there is no general escrow in Turkish law and no profession whose ordinary role is to hold the price. But for a property purchase there is a close functional equivalent: Tapu Takas, operated by the Land Registry together with Takasbank. The buyer’s money is blocked at Takasbank and released to the seller automatically once the transfer is recorded in the registry’s TAKBİS database. Foreign nationals may use it if they hold an accepted identity document and an account at a bank in Turkey. It covers the payment made at transfer; for deposits paid earlier and for off-plan purchases you need the other instruments on this page.
Can my lawyer hold the money like a solicitor at home?
A Turkish lawyer's client account is not an escrow account, and holding the purchase price is not a standard part of the retainer here — nor does it need to be. For the payment made at transfer, Tapu Takas does the job better, because the release is triggered by the registry itself rather than by anyone’s judgement. If money has to sit somewhere before that point, the workable arrangements are a blocked bank account with carefully drafted release conditions, a bank letter of guarantee, or a mortgage registered in your favour — not an informal stakeholding.
The seller wants a deposit before the land registry appointment. How do I protect it?
Have a promise to sell drawn up by a notary — Article 237 of the Code of Obligations requires official form — and have it annotated in the land register. Under Article 1009 of the Civil Code, an annotated right can be asserted against anyone who later acquires rights over the property, so a subsequent sale or mortgage does not defeat you. If the deposit is large, ask additionally for a mortgage in your favour securing repayment.
How long does the annotation last?
Article 26 of the Land Registry Act provides that if the sale is not completed within five years of the annotation, the annotation is cancelled ex officio by the registry. Five years is generous for a normal transaction but not infinite; if completion depends on a permit or a construction schedule, keep the deadline in view.
I am buying off-plan. What actually protects me?
Articles 41 to 45 of the Consumer Protection Act. The sale must be registered or the promise drawn up by a notary, and until a valid contract exists the seller may not request any payment. For projects above the ministry threshold the seller must hold building completion insurance or other security before selling, and that security cannot be drawn into a bankruptcy estate or attached. You have fourteen days to withdraw without reason, delivery must occur within 48 months, and for 24 months you may withdraw without cause against capped compensation of 2 to 8 per cent depending on when.
What if the developer goes bankrupt?
That is the risk Article 42 addresses: for projects above the threshold, the building completion insurance or equivalent security is expressly ring-fenced — it cannot be included in the bankruptcy or liquidation estate, attached, or made subject to an injunction. Whether the protection exists in your case depends on whether the project is above the threshold and whether the seller actually complied, which is why asking to see it before paying is not an unreasonable request.
Should I pay in cash at the land registry?
No. Pay the registered owner by bank transfer. A bank record is the only payment that proves itself later, and disputes about what was paid, to whom and when are far more common than disputes about the property itself. The same applies to payments routed through an agent's account: pay the owner, in the owner's own name.
Do I have to be in Turkey for the transfer?
No — an attorney can act under a Turkish power of attorney, which must expressly authorise the transfer or acquisition, identify the property and, for land registry use, carry a recent photograph. Because Turkish law requires such powers to be drawn up by the notary rather than merely signed before one, granting it at a Turkish consulate is the safer route. There is also a mechanism under Article 26 of the Land Registry Act allowing declarations to be taken separately where the parties are at different registry offices; ask the registry whether it applies.
Is the valuation report a form of protection?
It is a control on price rather than on payment, but it is useful. For foreign buyers a report from a licensed appraiser is required for the transfer, and obtaining it early tells you whether the price you are being asked to pay bears a relation to the property. In practice it is often the point at which a problem first becomes visible.
Conclusion
- Ask for Tapu Takas. For a straightforward purchase the registry’s own system blocks the money until the transfer is registered — that is the escrow you were looking for.
- If money must move first, make the contract official and annotate it. Notarial form under Article 237, annotation under Article 1009 and Article 26.
- Off-plan is governed by statute. Articles 41 to 45 give you form requirements, ring-fenced security, and a 24-month exit — use them.
- Ask for a mortgage or a bank guarantee where a large sum has to be exposed.
- Keep the payment trail clean. Registered owner, bank transfer, no intermediaries.
Related Guides
- Buying Property in Turkey
- Power of Attorney for Turkey from Abroad
- Inheritance in Turkey for Foreign Nationals
- Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments
If a payment has to be made before the transfer, send the draft contract and the title deed details to info@arifgolcan.av.tr and we will tell you which of the instruments above fits — and what the wording has to say for it to work.
This guide is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Thresholds, statutory percentages and registry practice change; have the arrangement checked against the specific transaction before any payment is made.