The rules for foreign buyers are rewritten by amendment law
Law 39/2024 rewrites the foreigner property rules
· Turkish Cypriot administration (TRNC) · Amendment law
Adopted on 20 May 2024 and gazetted on 21 May 2024, the amendment redefined "foreigner" to include companies with any foreign shareholding and trustees, limited foreigners to one property (three apartments for citizens of recognising states), required unit titles before application, created the online application with a fee of half the gross minimum wage, set six-month transfer and sixty-business-day tax deadlines, capped same-nationality ownership within a parcel, banned trustee agreements used to exceed limits, set a twenty-million-euro investment threshold, and imposed transitional deadlines on existing contracts.
- Before
- The 2008 law with the 2018 Council decision in practice: several units per foreigner and trustee arrangements were common.
- After
- One property per foreigner under the statute, mandatory registration and permission with deadlines, and criminal penalties for evasion.
Rules introduced or carried by this instrument
- Who counts as a "foreigner"
- Statutory acquisition limit: one property per foreigner
- A separate unit title must exist before a foreigner applies
- Applications are made online with documents set by Ministry circular
- Application service fee: half the monthly gross minimum wage
- Criminal-record certificate and security investigation
- Statutory deadline: transfer within six months of the permission being published
- Statutory deadline: taxes and fees within sixty business days
- Trustee agreements may not be used to exceed the limits
- Investment-purpose purchases outside the limits (statutory threshold)
- Penalties: fines of up to five hundred times the monthly gross minimum wage
Concepts
Sources for this event
Numbered in order of first use. Each entry names the kind of source it is and the day we read it.
- [1]Official Gazette No. 102 of 21 May 2024, Supplement I: Law 39/2024 amending the Immovable Property Acquisition and Long-Term Lease (Aliens) Law
Official Gazette of the TRNC (State Printing Office) · Legislation and gazettes · 21 May 2024 · original in Turkish · accessed 14 September 2026 · register entry
- [2]Immovable Property Acquisition and Long-Term Lease (Aliens) Law, No. 52/2008, consolidated with amending Law 39/2024
Central Legislation Office, TRNC · Legislation and gazettes · 10 November 2008 · original in Turkish · accessed 14 September 2026 · register entry
- [3]2024 – New rules on purchasing immovable property for foreigners (TRNC) (Erginel Law)
Erginel Law, Advocates and Legal Consultants · Professional and legal sources · accessed 14 September 2026 · register entry
Identifier event-2024-05-21-law-39-2024 · last verified 14 September 2026 · Open data · challenge