_480x320.jpg)
Property acquisition is a process that requires increased attention and knowledge of local peculiarities. It is not only about the nuances of registration of property documents, which are different in each country.
So let's talk about the key points, which are often unknown to Russians who buy an apartment in Turkey, and it is necessary to warn them about it, because sometimes sellers keep them a secret in their selfish interests.
Review from the Turk.Estate web-portal about the most common mismatches will help you to be fully prepared.
So, here are ten key differences.
1. ISKAN AND TAPU: TWO DOCUMENTS INSTEAD OF ONE
Russians who do not know how to buy housing in Turkey are sometimes informed that document of ownership is a TAPU. However, when buying housing in this country, you need to take care of a second document, which is called an iskan. This is the technical passport of the house — the act of object delivery and the permission to use the building for living. More accurately, this is a certificate of commissioning of the building and confirmation of compliance with the quality of construction with a number of requirements in comparison with the Russian documents.
It happens that a house is sold with only one TAPU. You can get such real estate, and you can also live in it. However, if there are any technical problems, it will be more difficult to solve them. In addition, those who want to buy such a property (if you want to sell it later) will be noticeably less without the iskan. And if you do not have the iskan, utility bills are always higher.
The housing sale with no iskan is explained by different circumstances. If there is no iskan, this does not mean that it cannot be obtained later. Often all the owners of a house or residential complex get together and complete this document. But it is better to have it initially, since no one will give you guarantees for receiving the iskan later, if you do not have it at the time of receiving the TAPU.
2. SQUARE FOOTAGE (AREA)
In Turkey, when buying real estate, you are told about the gross weight – it is the total area (it is also indicated in the technical passport for housing). The documents also mention net weight – it is the net area. In fact, this is the very interior space of the apartment, which is intended to be for living. But the difference between the first weight and the second one is significant. Why?
The gross weight includes a part of the ladder platform, a part of the elevator, the balcony, and even the thickness of the walls which you have to remove in order to have only the net area.
The balcony is another story: thanks to the warm climate, the inhabitants of the houses spend a lot of time on the balconies in Turkey. There they have breakfast, relax, sunbathe, and have family parties. So the area of balconies in this country can be equal to the area of small apartments in the Russian Federation. And they are included to a living space. As a result, the buyer who buy an apartment of 80 sq. m. remotely may be very surprised when he comes to see his new property and has a 35-meter "birdhouse" with a balcony of about the same area. After all, the walls and common areas have 10 sq. m. remained.
Moreover, the difference in area between gross and net areas can reach up to 20-25%, or even 30%.
So that you have to:
* remember about the balconies
* try to see the real apartment before making a deal, or even it is better to measure all the walls
* ask to give you a plan indicating the length of each wall in meters, the thickness of the walls, etc.
For reference: to understand its actual living area (together with a balcony), you should remove about 10 sq. m. from a one-bedroom apartment, about 15 sq. m. from a two-bedroom apartment, 20+ sq. m. from three-bedroom apartment, etc.
The apartment area is not even registered in the TAPU as in the main document confirming the property. After all, the apartment location is rather important in Turkey, as well as the land plot, which is also given to you. That is, when buying an apartment in a house, you will be the owner not only of the apartment, but also of a part of the land plot where the house is located.
3. BALCONY IS EVERYTHING
This difference is rather pleasant. The balcony is the heart of a house in Turkey, the main place for communicating with people and spending time during the warm season – it is for 8-9 months. Therefore, it is considered a living area. It is equipped appropriately: the balconies often have built-in fireplaces for heating and even cooking. If there is no fireplace, there is a place for a grill or barbecue. There is very often a water supply system and a tap. There is often an exit from different rooms to the balcony, if it is one, for example, from the hall and the kitchen or from the hall and the bedroom. The balcony can occupy half a floor or the entire floor, if you have a multi-room apartment.
There are batteries on the balcony in the houses with heating. Sometimes the balconies are with glass windows, sometimes not. Nevertheless, the balcony is a full-fledged part of a house in Turkey. It is fully equipped with furniture: tables, chairs, sofas, couches. Sometimes there are garden swings and spacious inflatable pools for children because the balconies are so large.
4. HEATING
It is a surprise for many Russians who are used to central heating that it is the exception rather than the rule for Turkey. Heated houses are more common in Istanbul, Ankara, and in some other continental cities. Almost 100% of residential buildings (except for year-round hotels) do not have batteries in the resorts. A rare exception is completely new most modern residential complexes.
So you have to take care of the heating of the premises on your own in winter. Also you have to make sure that there are no cracks in the windows and have underfloor heating or buy heaters. Someone heats the house with fireplaces (if it is their own house, and if it has a fireplace). Some houses have stoves that look like ones called bourgeois in Russia.
Foreigners who live permanently in resorts, however, prefer to stock up electric sheets, electric blankets and other gifts of progress, as well as install warm floors, and heat the air in the apartment with the help of electrical appliances and air conditioners. You get the desired effect, but electricity bills increase significantly in the autumn-winter-spring period.
2.jpg)
5. WATER HEATING
Most often, hot water is provided by solar panels in a residential complex. Therefore, those who want to have a sufficient amount of water at any time of the day and in any month of the year, it is better to install either a flow or a storage water heater in advance.
6. IS AIDAT A COMMUNITY SERVICE OR NOT?
This is a community service, but it is not exactly. In fact, this is a monthly fee from each owner of an apartment in the residential complex. A community service is given for services to the house maintenance of the house. It is called cite in Turkey. Both tenants and owners pay the aidat: there is no difference in the price whether you are temporarily living here, or have bought a property.
The size of the aidat differs only depending on the house level, its infrastructure, etc. And the amount of aidat can vary many times – from several tens to several hundred liras per month.
But this includes not only the repair of elevator doors and the replacement of light bulbs. Russian management companies limit it. In Turkey, aidat includes cleaning the entire residential complex, cleaning the pool, taking care of the surrounding area by planting lawns, mowing bushes, caring for trees, etc.
But if you are the owner of the villa and you take care of everything that is on the territory of the land plot where the villa is located, you do not have to pay the fee.
7. RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX INFRASTRUCTURE: WHAT IS INCLUDED?
Apartment buyers sometimes complain about the size of aidat in Turkey. Especially when you have to give it all away year round, when in fact you spend only a few months or even weeks a year in your apartment at the resort. However, you should remember that this is quite a reasonable fee for the use of the hotel infrastructure, the demand for which has increased dramatically.
There are almost no residential complexes left in Turkey, where there is almost nothing but a few lawns with a playground and a small garden. Or rather, they are left but there is just a little bit of housing there because of the lack of demand. With the pandemic induced increase in the need for large spaces and leisure facilities on the territory of your own cite, both the price and demand for residential complexes with extensive infrastructure are growing.
So you pay for the use of:
- the surrounding area;
- children's playground;
- barbecue and picnic area;
- swimming pool, or even several ones (often there is also an indoor heated pool all year round);
- the gym;
- sauna and hammam;
- sometimes a small business center.
Depending on the features and high cost of the residential complex, there may be an advanced fitness center, a spa, a coworking room, and a children's room with a free nanny for your kids (her work is also paid from aidat) and so on.
8. TURNKEY REPAIRS
Here is another obvious advantage of buying an apartment in Turkey, which differs from the Russian real estate: apartments here are sold with complete repairs, and often even with appliances and furniture. So, in fact, you can move into an apartment taking a couple of suitcases of your personal things. And you will have a complete repair (at least floors, walls, lighting, kitchen set without appliances). The maximum-format is when you get absolutely everything according to dishes and bedspreads on the bed. Your task is to express your wishes in time for what to fill your apartment with: you should approve the original offer, or replace some pieces of furniture and appliances with things you want.
This is very convenient especially for those who had the experience of buying an apartment in the Russian Federation at the beginning of the construction and suffered with repairs for months trying to control the teams of workers. Despite the fact that the repair cost an amount of money equal to almost a third, or even half (if the housing is inexpensive) the cost of the apartment.
Before buying, you are told the price of all inclusive in Turkey. It includes both furniture and appliances, if they are provided.
9. BATHROOM SURPRISES
Bathrooms have this name only nominally: it is the baths that are not installed here (except in status hotels). Shower cabins are provided in the bathrooms in the vast majority of apartments and houses.
So if you need a bath, you will have to take care of its installation on your own. However, bathrooms are usually spacious in Turkey. There will be no difficulties: you just have to control the installation, so as not to accidentally flood the neighbors from below.
But there are more bathrooms in Turkey than in apartments of the same size and number of rooms in Russia. For example, there may be two bathrooms with a toilet and 1-2 additional toilets for guests in large apartments. There is a private bathroom for almost every bedroom in some houses, such as villas. So there are 4-5, or even 6 bathrooms in a small villa.
But, in the absence of baths, a jacuzzi tub are often install in villas: on the terrace, next to the pool, or somewhere else. It is not luxurious, but it is common and widespread.
By the way, given the fact that the country is Muslim, the toilet complements the presence of bidet in the vast majority of cases.
.jpg)
10. HOUSING FORMATS: 2+1, 4+2 — WHAT IS IT?
In Turkey, there is a different classification of apartments. The description of the apartments goes with "+". The first number is the number of bedrooms, the second one is the number of living rooms.
Examples:
2+1 — a two-bedroom apartment with a combined kitchen-living area
3+1 — a three-bedroom apartment with a kitchen-living area
4+2 — a four-room bedroom apartment with two living rooms, etc.
In more detail, we talked about housing formats in a special review of TurkEstate.
There may also be several balconies (see points 2 and 3).
But the apartments «1+0» (studios from the Russian point of view) are gradually going out of use. You cannot find them in the new houses in the resorts. However, you can come across apartments "1+0" on the continent – in industrial and student cities; but it is secondary housing in the vast majority of cases.
Studios are restricted at the legislative level. A 1+0 construction prohibition clause has been added to the technical regulations since July 1, 2017 in Turkey. 28 sq. m is the minimum area for small apartments — there must be a bedroom (from 9 sq. m), a living room (from 12 sq. m), a kitchen and a bathroom. According to the Turks, this is a sanitary minimum for a comfortable living in apartments even if it is only about one person. So Russian small-scale studios with an area of 15-18 square meters, which are now actively sold by domestic developers, are not suitable for living in the understanding of the Turks.
So you can find and buy 1+0 studios, but this is secondary housing. 1+1 apartments are much more popular: this is a minimum space for spending the night, for students who often go on business trips or buy housing for work for several years, etc.
Families — even without children — almost never choose apartments less than 2+1 in Turkey: it is considered that it is cramped. A three-bedroom apartment with two bathrooms is not just normal even for a family of two, but often it is the required minimum.
By the way, duplexes (duplex apartments) are another interesting and popular format. As a rule, these are apartments with three bedrooms or more.
If the duplex occupies the penultimate and last, or the last and attic floors of the building, then they are often called penthouses. By the way, this option is common in resort cities: the main number of apartments are one-level in the cite (residential complex in Turkey), but there are spacious duplexes on the upper two floors. There are many of them in Antalya and Alanya.
However, there are also duplexes on the ground and the first or the first and the second floors. If the apartment is on the ground floor, you can fence your own territory next to your windows on a land plot, you can fence: there is a direct entrance to the garden, a personal vegetable garden (especially for pensioners who love to grow herbs and flowers) — this is very convenient.
By the way, such duplexes often have a separate (own) entrance on the lower floors. In this case you don’t have to use the common one: in fact, you live in your own house.
WHAT OTHER NUANCES OF APARTMENT LAYOUT ARE POSSIBLE IN TURKEY?
American kitchen is a familiar kitchen in the Russian sense. This is a cooking area with a dining table and other necessary furniture and appliances. More often, the kitchen is combined with the living room in Turkey.
There are kitchens with different zones (part of the kitchen-living room, separated by either a half-wall, an arch, or a bar counter), built-in dressing rooms (very often — in the hallway, sometimes — in the bedrooms), jacuzzi tub (we have already mentioned this, see point 9), etc.
CONCLUSION
Apartments on the ground and first floors are always cheaper than the rest of ones partly because of security (or rather, insufficient security: it is easier to get into the window on the first floor, and there are few people who want to install iron bars on all windows and balconies). Sometimes there are difficulties with waterproofing and ventilation on the ground and first floors.
You need to keep in mind possible roof leaks during the rainy season on the upper floor.
But in general, the vast majority of mismatches between Russian and Turkish realities are smoothed out by buying high-quality housing with a smart home system, warm floors (they are installed more often), powerful air conditioners with a heating option, high-quality water heaters, etc. Thanks to the large-scale infrastructure, you get the opportunity to live in the resort as in a comfortable hotel without paying anything for it, except for the aidat, when the apartment is already purchased.
So the vast majority of foreigners who bought an apartment in Turkey are very happy with the purchase.
You can read the article about how a resident of another country can buy residential real estate in the Republic of Turkey on the web-portal TurkEstate.