Restrictions Placed Upon Foreigners

Two formal restrictions are placed on foreign nationals i.e. those not holding Turkish Cypriot citizenship.

For the registration of any immovable property into foreign national’s name the permission of the Council of Ministers must first be obtained. The application process is generally a formality and checks by various government offices including the Police are done on the applicant and the location of the property.

The current restrictions imposed by the government calls for every foreign household to be allowed to privately purchase one property, flat or piece of land and in any case for the land that the property is located on do not exceed one donum in size (one third of an acre).
In the past this rule has been relaxed to sometimes allow for example for just over one donum to be purchased, but you certainly should not rely on this practice continuing or happening in your case.

Some have got round this size restriction in the past by using a third party to take title to part of the land involved. However, this is not a guaranteed answer. Firstly you cannot use your legal spouse to be such a partner. Secondly, their application will require a separate title deed for the additional land and this is not necessarily straight forward.

A legally formed company with Turkish citizen majority share ownership has been the way used by some to purchase more than one donum of land. Entering into an arrangement of this type will not be for the majority and should only be considered under independent legal advice.