13.10.2026

"Won't I get scammed?" Almost every client asks me this question, sometimes out loud, sometimes just with a look. And I understand them. Many people know Turkey from bazaars and hotels, where haggling is customary and the seller is always a little crafty. Real estate works differently: the state registration system here is one of the most transparent in the region. It's not the system or the country that deceives people, but specific individuals around the transaction. Over my years in the business, I have seen almost every scheme. Below are the 10 most common ones and 10 rules that will protect you from each of them.

1. Property ownership in Turkey is registered by the state (Tapu ve Kadastro). Forging a TAPU is practically impossible, so most fraud happens before and around the transaction.

2. Most foreigners lose money not on forgeries, but on illiquid property sold at an inflated price with attractive promises.

3. Foreigners account for less than 2% of all home purchases in Turkey. Liquid property is property that locals want to buy.

4. The most frequent deceivers are "helpers," non-resident companies and, oddly enough, compatriots.

5. Almost any scheme can be spotted within a day: by checking the TAPU, analyzing the resale market and paying only through a bank.

I'll say something many people don't like to hear. Most often, it's not Turks who deceive buyers. Most often, it's your own compatriots. Compatriot to compatriot: Russian to Russian, Kazakh to Kazakh, Ukrainian to Ukrainian, German to German. The scheme is simple: the person speaks your language, understands your mentality, and you relax. And you stop checking.

There are three groups I advise you to be especially careful with.

"Helpers." A taxi driver, a tour guide, a restaurant waiter, a hotel entertainer, someone you met on the beach. They are experts in everything and will assure you they can sort out your property purchase better than anyone. They have no license, no office and no accountability. All they have is the commission paid to them by the developer, and the more expensive and worse the property, the higher it is.

Non-resident companies. Agencies in your home country that "have partners in Turkey." They have learned the names of a few districts and a dozen projects and consider themselves experts. In practice, they sell clients illiquid property, and when it can't be sold or rented out, they say: "Well, the market has changed" or "Our partners let us down." During the 2023-2025 stagnation, many of these agencies simply closed, leaving their clients with apartments nobody can sell and no help.

Fly-by-night firms. A beautiful website, strong advertising, no office, no track record. A year of operation, loud promises, then a new name.

You're shown renders, palm trees and a pool and told: "This is a future upscale neighborhood, everything will be here soon." In reality, it's a field 15 kilometers from the sea where locals don't want to live, with no schools, transport or shops. It may become "upscale" in twenty years, or perhaps never.

How to spot it: ask how much completed apartments cost on the resale market in this specific area and how quickly they sell. If there is no resale market or resale is cheaper than new builds, it is not a prestigious area.

People are buying, but who? If a property only appeals to foreigners, that is the main sign of illiquidity. In Turkey, more than 98% of residential transactions are made by local residents. When you want to sell the apartment in five years, the buyer will be a Turkish family. If a Turkish family doesn't want this area or this format, your only buyer will be a foreigner, and there are dozens of times fewer of them.

How to spot it: ask what percentage of buyers in the complex are locals. If the answer is "almost all foreigners," think twice.

The same apartment is sold to a local at one price and to a foreigner at another, 30-40% higher. This happens especially often in illiquid areas, where there is simply nothing to compare the difference with. Part of the overpayment goes to the intermediary as an inflated commission.

How to spot it: compare the price per square meter with similar properties on Turkish portals (Sahibinden, Hepsiemlak) and with Endeksa data for the area.

Promises of a 30-50-100% increase in value within a year. Growth in lira can indeed be large, but it is often eaten up by exchange rate changes. For a foreigner, what matters is growth in dollars or euros, and the honest figures there are completely different. Anyone who promises you a specific percentage of growth either doesn't know the market or is deceiving you.

How to spot it: ask to see how prices in this area have changed over the last 3-5 years in US dollars, based on actual transactions rather than the developer's price list.

One of the most popular fairy tales: buy at the foundation stage, and in a year we'll resell it at a profit. In reality, during construction you are competing with the developer itself, which is selling identical apartments, often with installment plans and discounts. The buyer will choose the developer, not you.

How to spot it: ask how many apartments in this complex have already been resold by investors and at what price. Ask for those people's contact details.

They promise 10-15% yields or even "guaranteed rent." The guarantee is often built into the price: you overpay for the apartment, and then your own money is returned to you in installments. Once the guarantee period ends, the yield drops several times over. The real net rental yield in liquid areas after all expenses is usually far more modest than advertised.

How to spot it: do the math yourself. Rent minus aidat, taxes, management, vacancy and wear and tear. Compare it with what neighboring apartments actually rent for.

If a property is in an illiquid area, it won't sell in a week or in a year. Let alone for more than you paid.

How to spot it: look at how many similar apartments are currently listed in the area and how long the listings have been up. If hundreds of listings have been sitting for months, that's your answer.

The most dangerous scheme of all, and it happens during the transaction itself. There are many variations: a cash "reservation" prepayment to an intermediary, a transfer to an "agent's" personal account, one apartment sold to two buyers, signing a contract that gives you nothing without registration in the TAPU. The person hands over the money and ends up with nothing.

How to spot it: in Turkey, you become the owner only at the moment of registration at the TAPU Directorate. Any payment before that must be protected by a contract and go through a bank to the seller's or developer's account, not an intermediary's. A deposit of 1 000 to 5 000$ may be paid through an intermediary, but no more than that, and only if you are in another country and have no way at all to pay the deposit to the seller's or developer's account in Turkey.

On the resale market, apartments are sold with a mortgage, a seizure for debts (haciz), a ban on sale or an unsettled inheritance. For example, the owner has died, there are several heirs, one of them sells, and the others later challenge the transaction in court.

How to spot it: before making any payment, check the TAPU extract: who the owner is and whether there is a mortgage, seizure or restriction. For inherited properties, check the certificate of inheritance (veraset ilamı) and the consent of all heirs.

You are sold an apartment with tenants living in it, and no one tells you that Turkish law protects them very well. Evicting a tenant can be difficult, often only through the courts, and it can drag on for months or even years. Another "surprise": very troublesome neighbors, whom the seller will, of course, keep quiet about.

How to spot it: find out who lives in the apartment now and on what terms. Review the lease agreement. Visit the building in the evening and talk to the building manager and the neighbors.

And three more tricks that often come as an add-on: a fake or "adjusted" valuation for citizenship, where the price in the valuation report does not match the real one; fake reviews on websites and social media; and pressure such as "reserve today, it will be more expensive tomorrow."

Rule 1. Never buy property through "helpers." Taxi drivers, tour guides, waiters, hotel and beach staff. Even if the person is very pleasant.

Rule 2. Never deal with non-residents of Turkey. A company operating from another country "with partners in Turkey" does not know the market from the inside and will not be there when you need to sell your apartment.

Rule 3. Check the company itself. How many years it has been on the market, whether it has a real office in Turkey and whether you can visit it. Whether the agency has a real estate trading license (Taşınmaz Ticareti Yetki Belgesi), which has been mandatory in Turkey since 2018. Who the founder is, and whether they have a face, a name and a track record.

Rule 4. Always look at the resale market. How quickly similar apartments sell, how much they cost and how much they rent for. Unlike a developer's price list, the resale market cannot lie.

Rule 5. Check local demand. A liquid property is one that Turkish families want to buy, wherever it is located. No local demand means no liquidity. Look at the liquidity metrics: shortage of land for development, transportation, schools, infrastructure, proximity to work.

Rule 6. Check the documents before paying. TAPU extract, encumbrances, heirs, building permit (yapı ruhsatı), occupancy permit (iskan) for completed housing, tenants.

Rule 7. Money only through a bank. The main amount is paid at the moment of the title transfer at the TAPU office on the resale market, or to the Developer's bank account according to the terms of the signed contract (installments, construction stage, valuations…)

It is also better to pay the reservation fee directly to the seller's or developer's account. If that is not possible for you, it is acceptable to "pass" the reservation amount through a licensed real estate agency, but as a recommendation, no more than $1,000.

Rule 8. Check the price independently. Compare it with similar properties and with a licensed valuation (SPK). For citizenship, the valuation must match the actual transaction price.

Rule 9. Do not give in to pressure. "The last apartment," "today only," "the price goes up tomorrow." A good property will withstand a couple of days of checking.

Rule 10. Check every promise with numbers. Yield, growth, time to sell. Ask for a written calculation and check it against the market. If the numbers sound too good to be true, they most likely are.

The registration system in Turkey itself is reliable, and it is practically impossible to forge a TAPU. Foreigners more often lose money by overpaying and buying illiquid properties sold with false promises than through outright fraud.

Request a TAPU extract: the owner, mortgages, seizures, restrictions. Check the building and occupancy permits, heirs and tenants. Compare the price with the resale market.

I do not recommend it. Payment should go through a bank to the seller's or developer's account and be tied to the contract. A bank transfer also confirms the legal origin of the funds, which is important when you sell the property later.

Check how many years the company has been on the market, whether it has an office in Turkey and a license to operate (Taşınmaz Ticareti Yetki Belgesi). Read not only reviews but also the analysis published by the founder, and ask about real Client cases.

Review the lease agreement before buying. Under Turkish law, tenants are well protected, and evicting them can be difficult. If you need the apartment to live in, it is better to buy one that is vacant.

The net yield after all expenses is usually noticeably lower. Promises of 10-15% and "guaranteed rental income" should be checked with your own calculation and a comparison with neighboring apartments.

I have been in the Turkish real estate market since 2020, and my main rule is simple: I only sell a Client property that I can later help them sell. Here is what the Company does on every transaction:

The Company's offices are located in Istanbul and Antalya, and you are always welcome to come by and meet us in person.

Sergei Dubinets - founder and CEO of DDA Real Estate Turkey, licensed broker, active in the Turkish real estate market since 2020. He divides his time between two cities: Antalya and Istanbul. The Company's offices are located in Istanbul and Antalya. ddakey.com