As of 1 October 2026. Status: In force. Instrument: Regulation Amending the Regulation on Real Estate Trade (Taşınmaz Ticareti Hakkında Yönetmelikte Değişiklik Yapılmasına Dair Yönetmelik), Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete) of 1 October 2026, No. 33387, issued by the Ministry of Trade. The amendment is in force today; the rule that makes the payment system compulsory does not apply to sales made before 1 December 2026.
If you have sent money towards a flat in Istanbul, Antalya or Alanya and expected to close this autumn, you were probably told that from 1 October every sale price must pass through a state-built escrow channel. That was the position the Ministry announced on 26 June 2026. On the morning that deadline arrived, the Gazette pushed it back by two months. A sale signed at the land registry today does not have to use the system.
What the text says
The obligation sits in Additional Article 1 (ek madde 1), inserted into the regulation by Gazette No. 33238 of 29 April 2026. Paragraph 1 says that where all or part of the price in a property sale is paid in cash, by bank transfer, by electronic funds transfer or by another method the Ministry designates, the price is paid through a payment system built so that ownership of the property and the sale price "change hands simultaneously". The paragraph covers businesses and "other natural or legal persons", so a private sale between two individuals with no agent involved is caught as well.
Paragraph 2 carves out mortgage money: where a bank or a finance company lends part of the price, only the non-loan portion goes through the system. Paragraph 3 introduces a usage charge for every transaction and deducts it from the amount paid out to the seller.
Today's amendment does two things. It replaces "1/7/2026" with "1/12/2026" in paragraph 10 of Provisional Article 1, which now reads that use of the system "is not mandatory" for sales made up to 1 December 2026, and it again gives the Ministry power to extend that date by up to three months. It also rewrites paragraph 5 of Additional Article 1: the Ministry will authorise an integrator company, and the exempt sales, a pilot phase, the usage charge and how that charge is shared will all be set in a protocol between the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change and the integrator.
| Date | Document | Mandatory start |
|---|---|---|
| 29 April 2026 | Gazette 33238, Provisional Art. 1(10) added | 1 July 2026 |
| 26 June 2026 | Ministry of Trade statement, three-month extension power used | 1 October 2026 |
| 1 October 2026 | Gazette 33387, Provisional Art. 1(10) amended | 1 December 2026 |
| Open | New three-month extension power | 1 March 2027 at the latest |
What the text leaves open
Which moment counts as the "sale"? A buyer who signs a notarised promise-to-sell contract (satış vaadi sözleşmesi) in October and completes at the land registry in December could read the rule either way. The text does not choose.
Is 1 December 2026 itself inside or outside? "Up to" in Turkish drafting can fall on either side. The Ministry's press statement of 28 September 2026 calls 1 December 2026 the "mandatory start date".
The largest gap is the protocol. The old paragraph 5 said the procedures would be announced on the Ministry's website. The new paragraph 5 does not contain that sentence; the size of the usage charge, the list of exempt sales and the pilot's scope are left to the protocol. As of today we have not seen the protocol text and found no record of its publication.
Our reading
We take the date of the land registry transaction as decisive. The system is designed around ownership and money moving at the same instant, and ownership of Turkish real estate passes by official deed at the registry (Turkish Civil Code Art. 706, Land Registry Law Art. 26). So if completion could fall on or after 1 December 2026, we recommend building the payment plan around the system now, even if the preliminary contract was signed in October. We also treat 1 December itself as covered.
For a buyer bringing money from abroad, the practical point is this: do not plan to wire the full price straight to the seller's account ahead of completion if the deal could slip into December. Where the purchase supports a citizenship application, the foreign currency conversion certificate and proof of payment through a bank are already part of the file; we did not find anything in the regulation that explains how those documents and the new payment system will fit together. If you are selling, factor in that the usage charge comes out of your proceeds (Additional Art. 1(3)).
What did not change
Paragraphs 1 to 4 of Additional Article 1 stand as written: the payment methods, the mortgage carve-out, the charge deducted from the seller and the two-ministry commission. Nothing in this amendment touches the foreign ownership rules in Article 35 of the Land Registry Law, the valuation report requirement, or the USD 400,000 threshold for citizenship by investment. The amendment entered into force on publication, 1 October 2026 (Art. 3).
How to verify
Today's amendment: resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2026/10/20261001-1-1.htm. The underlying rule is in the 29 April 2026 issue: resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2026/04/20260429-4.htm, under "EK MADDE 1". The consolidated regulation is on the official legislation database as No. 24645; search Provisional Article 1, paragraph 10, for "1/12/2026". The Ministry's statements of 26 June and 28 September 2026 are in the news section of ticaret.gov.tr.
Our guide to buying property in Türkiye as a foreigner and our due diligence checklist both carry an earlier date for this system and will show a dated note pointing here. If you want to set your completion timetable against the new date, reach us through our Türkiye real estate page; when the protocol appears, the update will be on Legal Updates.
