Residency Through Property: The 2026 Rules

If you are considering buying a home in North Cyprus — as an investment, a retirement base or a route to residency — start with this fact: the foreign property-ownership rules changed on 11 May 2026 by emergency decree, and they are still in flux. The permanent law has not yet passed Parliament. Nothing on this page is legal advice; before signing a contract or transferring money, have a licensed North Cyprus lawyer confirm which regime is in force that week.

Residency through property is two separate official processes: first a purchase permission (Ministry of Interior and the Council of Ministers), then a residence permit (Immigration Office). This page covers both, from the official texts — which are published in Turkish.

The legal situation: changed by decree, awaiting Parliament

• The base regime is Law 39/2024 (Official Gazette, 21 May 2024, No. 102), which rewrote the 2008 foreign-acquisition law (52/2008).
• Decree with Force of Law 63/2026 (Official Gazette, 11 May 2026, No. 87) replaces key parts of that regime — ownership quotas, deadlines, transition rules — but only "while the decree remains in force". It also introduces new mechanisms: the Licensed Intermediary Investor and the Usage Certificate.
• Under a Constitutional Court interpretation dated 9 April 2026, such decrees are limited to 90 days. The same content was tabled as Draft Law No. 399/5/2026 (Official Gazette, 13 May 2026, No. 89) to make it permanent. If the bill does not pass, the fate of the decree's rules is uncertain.

Practical consequence: any figure marked "63/2026" below applies only while the decree (or a law replacing it) is in force. Verify before acting.

What foreigners can buy: 39/2024 baseline vs the 63/2026 decree

Foreign individuals and companies can buy or long-lease immovable property only with Council of Ministers permission. The two regimes compared:

| Topic | Law 39/2024 (baseline) | Decree 63/2026 (while in force) | |---|---|---| | Apartments | 1; up to 3 for citizens of reciprocity countries | 3; 6 for reciprocity countries | | Two-storey detached villas within a housing estate | No separate category | New: 2; 3 for reciprocity countries | | Land with building permission | Max 1,338 m², one dwelling | Unchanged | | Detached house plot | Max 3,300 m², no second dwelling | Unchanged | | Registering the sale contract at the District Land Registry | 75 working days (Law 41/2024); unregistered contracts become void | 1 month, and all taxes and fees must be paid | | Transfer deadline (from publication of the permission in the Official Gazette) | 6 months, or the permission lapses | 1 year; if no mortgage favours the seller, the clock starts when the full price is paid | | Deadline to pay title-transfer fees | 60 working days | 75 working days | | Large-investment exception threshold (art. 8(11)) | 20,000,000 euros | 10,000,000 euros | | Licensed Intermediary Investor | — | New (below) | | Usage Certificate | — | New (below) |

A "reciprocity country" is one that recognises the TRNC and grants TRNC citizens the same acquisition rights. Rules that did not change: agricultural and forest land cannot be sold to foreigners; condominium title (kat mülkiyeti) or a condominium easement (kat irtifakı) must exist before the sale; foreigners cannot buy shared title in bare land. The purchase-permission service fee is defined as half of the current gross monthly minimum wage, so it moves with the wage.

Two mechanisms the decree introduced:

• Licensed Intermediary Investor (arts. 8A/8B): an annually licensed operator that takes at least ten homes a year under written agreement — without taking ownership — and markets them to foreign buyers, with a two-year deadline to transfer them on. If your seller is one of these, have your lawyer check the licence and that its agreement is registered at the Land Registry.
• Usage Certificate (transitional article 1): for pre-existing contracts covering more property than a buyer may own, a 10-year certificate (indefinite for properties under the Holiday Homes legislation) granting use and enjoyment while ownership stays with the seller. The full price must have been paid; the holder can later demand transfer of ownership — without the seller's consent — by paying the taxes and fees. It is not a title deed; treat it as an interim status.

If you signed a contract before the decree, the transition clocks restarted on 11 May 2026: roughly six months (to about 11 November 2026) to register contracts and apply, then 24 months to bring excess holdings into compliance, and 36 months to complete transfer of homes already built and handed over. Old-contract holders should review this timetable with a lawyer urgently.

Title deed types — Turkish, Exchange (Eşdeğer), Allocation (Tahsis) — and the risks attached to each are a separate subject: read Turkish, Exchange and Allocation Title Deeds before choosing a property.

The short-term property-owner permit (Regulation art. 14(b))

The Residence Permits and Visas Regulation (A.E. 88/2020) gives property owners a short-term residence permit route. The Immigration Office's official criteria:

• The home must be suitable for living and actually used as your residence.
• You do not need the title deed. If you bought under contract: at least one third of the sale price must be paid, and the Council of Ministers purchase-permission application must have been filed.
• Income test: if the deed is in your name, a monthly income of at least three times the minimum wage; if you are still paying under contract, that income is required on top of the monthly instalment.
• One permit per home: if a home's title is split into shares and one shareholder already holds a permit through it, no other shareholder can get one for the same home.
• Duration: one-year permits for the first three years; two-year permits after that, provided the deed has been transferred into your name.

The threshold is indexed to the minimum wage. The legislation says only "the minimum wage"; the officially announced minimum wage is the gross figure and minimum-wage-indexed fines explicitly reference the gross minimum wage, so the threshold is calculated on the gross minimum wage. The current gross monthly minimum wage is ₺70,893.00^{17 Jul 2026 ↗}, in force from 2026-07-01^{17 Jul 2026 ↗}. Multiply by three for the current threshold.

One warning about the official English page: at the time of writing it says "one monthly minimum wage", while the Turkish original and the underlying Regulation say three. The Turkish text governs; budget for three.

Minimum property value: there used to be no minimum property value for this property-based short-term permit. Under Law 39/2024, Decree 63/2026 (Official Gazette 87) and the Immigration Department's implementing circulars, the property's contract or deed value must now be at least USD 200,000 (or equivalent). This is a different figure from the 125,000-euro permanent-residence home route below, and the two are frequently confused — the short-term permit's floor is the property-value test above; the permanent-residence figure is a separate legal threshold reached only after years of residence.

How the $200,000 is verified and converted: the rule depends on how your sale contract is denominated. If it is in a foreign currency — most commonly pounds sterling in this market — the Immigration Office applies the international cross-rate on the date the sale was registered at the Land Registry (Tapu). If the contract is in Cyprus lira, it applies the North Cyprus Central Bank's selling rate on the date the contract was submitted and stamped at the Land Registry. In both cases, the registered/stamped contract or title deed is not enough on its own: you also need your bank transfer receipts. A cash receipt alone is not accepted as proof of payment.

This permit does not become permanent residence on its own. Holding a property-based short-term permit — for three years, ten years, or longer — does not automatically upgrade you to permanent ("White ID") status. Permanent residence has its own separate test: six unbroken years of legal residence while actively covered by health insurance is the usual route (see the permanent-residence section below), and the clock does not start just because you own a qualifying property. Spouses and children do not come with the permit automatically either; the holder can act as sponsor under the family residence permit — see Residence Permit Types and Income Thresholds for that framework.

Permanent residence: property, or a cash deposit instead

Permanent ("White ID") status is a separate legal category from anything above, and international buyers most often reach it one of two ways: the property-value route under article 5 of the Permanent Residence Permit Law (51/2015), or a blocked cash deposit that does not require owning property at all. Either way, the baseline is six unbroken years of legal residence while actively insured — a property-based short-term permit, however long held, does not convert into permanent status by itself.

The property route (Law 51/2015 art. 5). The conditions, from the official text:

• At least six years of uninterrupted residence permits in the home-plus-guaranteed-income category. For applicants aged 60 or over at the date of application, six years reads as three (art. 5(3)) — the accelerated track most retirees care about.
• Owning a home in North Cyprus worth, for the purposes of this article, at least 125,000 euros or the equivalent.
• A guaranteed income covering you and your family: under the law's definition, a regular income of one monthly minimum wage each for you and your spouse plus half a minimum wage per dependent child — or a bank deposit equal to a year of that amount.
• No more than 180 days abroad in any of the last six years (the annual cap is waived if the total stays under 1,080 days; for the over-60 track the total reads as 540 days).
• No contagious disease, valid health insurance in North Cyprus, and a clean criminal record.

The cash-deposit route. Instead of owning qualifying property, you can meet the same permanent-residence test with a blocked cash deposit of roughly 125,000 euros equivalent , held in your own personal North Cyprus bank account (not a company account, and not simply wired in and out), plus a passive-income test of at least three times the gross minimum wage in regular monthly income. The exchange rate that matters here is the North Cyprus Central Bank's selling rate on the date you submit the online application — not your entry date, not the date of any property contract, and not the date you transferred the funds. Convert on the day you file, and keep a record of that day's published rate.

Dependent child definition: the general rule is under 18 and unmarried. Unmarried children aged 18-25 keep dependent status only while enrolled full-time at a North Cyprus university; a disabled child with a medical board report has no age limit at all. A child who actually lives abroad does not count as a dependant for this purpose — dependant status requires physical residence in North Cyprus plus legal entry — and is excluded from the income-threshold calculation even if you support them financially.

Criminal record certificates — the third-country case. Turkish citizens can use an e-Devlet barcoded certificate valid for 3 months, no apostille required. Everyone else — the more relevant case for most of this page's readers — needs a certificate valid within the last 6 months (or a shorter window if the issuing country specifies one), apostilled, translated by a certified translator, and notarised in North Cyprus. That chain of steps can itself consume up to 6 months of the certificate's validity, so start it as soon as you decide to apply, not once you have a completion date. Dual nationals, or anyone who has lived a year or more in another country within the last five years, must also submit that country's certificate.

Retirees should also read Retiring to North Cyprus for the wider over-60 picture, including the separate retiree residence categories the Immigration Department assigns case by case.

From Usage Certificate to full title, and what transfer costs. If the Council of Ministers purchase permission has already been issued, transfer of ownership typically takes about 10-15 working days; if a fresh security clearance is needed, or the transfer is to a third party, it can stretch to 6-12 months. At completion, per intermediary sources and the official tariff: the buyer's transfer fee is 6% on a first property for Turkish/TRNC nationals (8% on a second, 9%+ on a third or more) and 9-12% for other foreign nationals — with any fee already paid at initial registration credited against it; a new build bought from a developer carries 5% VAT on top, while a resale between individuals is VAT-exempt; and the seller separately owes withholding tax (4-4.5% for a professional seller, 2.8% for an occasional one) plus 0.5% stamp duty, not re-charged if already paid at first registration. Confirm current rates with your lawyer or the Land Registry before completion.

Where to apply

Two processes, two institutions:

Purchase permission — Ministry of Interior, Immovable Property Unit (official page, in Turkish):

• Online portal: tmb.icisleri.gov.ct.tr ("Taşınmaz Mal / Property Permission"). Applications are also accepted in person, by proxy or through a lawyer — most foreign buyers apply through their lawyer.
• Documents (from the official list): application letter stating the share being bought, information form, passport/ID copy, title deed copy, site plan, an original criminal-record certificate from your home country — apostilled, and within the validity windows described above (3 months for Turkish citizens' e-Devlet certificates, 6 months for everyone else, or shorter if your country specifies) — and the sale contract if there is one. A negative security check means refusal.

Residence permit — Immigration Office:

• Applications go to the District Police Directorate's Immigration Branch for your address, within 30 days of entry.
• Online system: permissions.gov.ct.tr/staypermit; appointments: randevu.icisleri.gov.ct.tr.

The official pages and portals are largely in Turkish and change over time; verify the current addresses on the institutions' own sites.

Trustee and nominee purchases are banned

Buying through a trustee (yediemin) to hold more property than the law allows is prohibited (39/2024 art. 8(15)); a foreigner's trustee counts as a foreigner, and every party to such a contract commits an offence. The statutory ceiling is a fine of up to 500 times the gross monthly minimum wage at the date of conviction. Decree 63/2026 gives pre-existing trustee contracts a registration window at the District Land Registry; unregistered contracts, or those designed to defeat the law, are void. The full penalty framework and deed risks are in the title deed guide.

Pre-signature checklist

• Which regime is in force this week — the 63/2026 decree, a passed law, or the 39/2024 baseline? (lawyer's confirmation)
• Deed type and share status (District Land Registry)
• Condominium title or easement established? (a precondition for the purchase permission)
• If the seller is a Licensed Intermediary Investor: licence and registered agreement
• Contract registered at the District Land Registry within the deadline
• For the residence permit: proof of income and payment records

For the wider permit landscape, see Residence Permit Types and Income Thresholds; for the move itself, the Relocation Roadmap.