Renting out your property in Turkey without travelling there.

01

Power of attorney: two routes

To let a property in Turkey from abroad, collect the rent and take legal steps when needed, you give a notarised power of attorney to a person or company in Turkey. From abroad there are two routes, and neither requires you to travel.

The first is the Turkish consulate in your country. Abroad, notarial business is carried out by consuls (Notary Law No. 1512, Arts. 191–193), so a deed signed there is a Turkish notarial act and is used in Turkey as it stands, without an apostille or a translation. You need an appointment, your ID (passport or Turkish ID card) and the agent’s details: a Turkish ID number for a person, or the registered name and tax number for a company. A power of attorney for land-registry transactions must carry a photograph (Notary Law Art. 80; Notary Law Regulation Art. 93(b)). A power of attorney cannot be issued online or remotely; you sign in front of the consular officer.

The second is a local notary in your country. The document must then carry an apostille under the 1961 Hague Convention, be translated in Turkey by a sworn translator, and have the translation certified by a Turkish notary. In countries outside the Hague Convention, consular legalisation replaces the apostille. On the HCCH status table as at 10 September 2026, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait are not parties; Saudi Arabia has been a party since 7 December 2022 and Canada since 11 January 2024. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the United States and Turkey are parties. The list changes, so confirm it against the HCCH table before you start. This route takes longer and costs more; where a Turkish consulate is within reach, the first route is simpler.

02

What the power of attorney should cover

A power of attorney is governed by the mandate provisions of the Turkish Code of Obligations (TBK Arts. 502 ff.). Where the deed does not state its scope expressly, it is read from the nature of the work; without express authority the attorney cannot sue, settle, go to arbitration, or transfer immovable property or encumber it with a right (Art. 504). Authority to sell, or to bring an eviction action, must therefore be written into the deed in terms.

A power of attorney is limited to what it says. Authority to let does not by itself cover collection, notices or litigation. For remote rental management the typical powers are:

• —To sign, renew and terminate leases; to set and increase the rent
• —To collect rent and deposit, issue receipts and operate the bank account
• —To handle dues, tax, insurance and utility matters; to take out DASK and home insurance
• —To serve notices, attend mediation, start enforcement and instruct a lawyer for eviction (power of substitution)
• —To file returns and obtain a tax number with the tax office and the Revenue Administration
• —Duration and revocation terms; whether several agents act jointly or separately

Authority to sell is a separate matter; it is not needed in a letting power of attorney and leaving it out is safer for you. If you do intend to sell, a separate, narrowly drawn power of attorney is issued for that.

03

Foreign ID number and tax number

For Turkish citizens the national ID number serves for every transaction. Foreign owners need a tax identification number for tax matters in Turkey; this “potential tax identification number” is obtained from a tax office or online through the Revenue Administration’s Interactive Tax Office with a passport. Holders of a residence permit receive a foreign ID number starting with 99, which also serves as the tax number.

Rental income returns, bank account opening and the DASK policy all use these numbers, and your agent can obtain the number for you under the power of attorney. Where a foreign national already owns a property in Turkey, no further permit or application is needed to let it. The permit required for short-term tourism letting under Law No. 7464 is a separate matter and outside this guide.

04

Transferring rental income abroad

Non-residents may open accounts at banks in Turkey and send lira rental income abroad after converting it to foreign currency. Turkish exchange rules leave such transfers free: transferring foreign currency abroad through banks is unrestricted (Decree No. 32). The bank asks for the source of funds (the lease, the rent receipts). A foreign-exchange purchase document (DAB) is not a legal requirement for sending rental income abroad; it is simply the record a bank issues when currency is bought. The rate, the bank’s charges and the amount that arrives are the bank’s.

In practice: rent arrives in lira in the account in Turkey; the account holder or agent buys foreign currency; the bank sends it by SWIFT to your account abroad in USD, EUR or GBP. Each transfer carries a bank charge and an exchange spread, so periodic bulk transfers cost less than small monthly ones.

Setting the rent itself in a foreign currency is a separate question, and the test is residence, not nationality: persons resident in Turkey may not, among themselves, denominate residential or roofed-workplace rent in — or index it to — a foreign currency where the property is in Turkey (Communiqué 2008-32/34, Art. 8(2)). Turkish citizens working abroad as employees, freelancers or independent business owners still count as resident in Turkey under Art. 2(b) of Decree No. 32; living abroad does not by itself take them outside the ban. By contrast, where a person resident in Turkey who holds no Turkish citizenship is the tenant, foreign-currency terms are permitted (Art. 8(3)); that exception turns on being the tenant, not the landlord. Where one party is resident abroad, the contract falls outside Art. 8(2) altogether. Even when rent is received in foreign currency, the tax return is made in lira at the Central Bank rate on the day of collection.

Document and limit practices differ between banks; ask the bank where the account is opened about its international transfer terms from the start.

05

The non-resident owner’s tax position

Rent earned from a home in Turkey is taxed in Turkey, wherever the owner lives. Two tests decide residence for tax: having your domicile in Turkey, or staying in Turkey continuously for more than six months in a calendar year (GVK Art. 4; temporary absences do not break the period). Either one makes you a full taxpayer, so someone whose domicile is in Turkey is a full taxpayer even if they spend most of the year abroad. Those who meet neither test are non-resident taxpayers — dar mükellef in Turkish — and are taxed only on income earned in Turkey (Art. 6).

The residential rent exemption (2026: 58,000 TL) applies to non-residents too. No annual return is filed for rental income taxed in full by withholding in Turkey (Art. 86/2); where there is no withholding, anything above the exemption is declared in March whatever the amount, and your agent can file it for you. See the rental income tax guide for detail.

Turkish citizens living abroad follow the same non-resident rules as long as they are not resident in Turkey. If your country of residence also taxes this income, the double taxation treaty and that country’s credit rules apply, and which method is used varies from treaty to treaty. Ask our team about your own country’s position.

06

Document list for letting from abroad

The agent needs the documents for whatever task they will carry out:

• —Copy of the title deed and the plot/parcel details
• —Notarial or consular power of attorney (with its certified translation if apostilled)
• —Copy of passport or ID; tax identification number
• —Bank account details in Turkey (for rent and deposit)
• —Current DASK policy, latest property tax and dues receipts
• —Existing lease and tenant details, if any
• —Electricity, water and gas subscription details (for transfer to the tenant)