On 4 June 2026 Turkey published Law No. 7582 in Official Gazette No. 33270. Article 4 of that law inserted Repeated Article 20/D into Income Tax Law No. 193. The new article grants a twenty-year income-tax exemption on earnings derived outside Turkey to individuals who become tax resident in Turkey from 1 January 2026, provided they had no domicile and no tax liability in Turkey in the three preceding calendar years.The citizenship-by-investment threshold did not change. The property route is still USD 400,000 of qualifying real estate held for three years. What changed is the tax environment around becoming resident after a purchase.

Disclosure. This article was created with AI assistance and then reviewed, fact-checked and edited by Samaram’s human editorial team. It is information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Rules should be confirmed with a licensed Turkish tax adviser and the current text of the Official Gazette.

What Repeated Article 20/D actually says

According to the enacted text published on 4 June 2026:

  • The person must be deemed resident in Turkey.
  • In the three calendar years before that residence, the person must have had neither a domicile nor a tax liability in Turkey.
  • Income and earnings derived outside Turkey are then exempt from Turkish income tax for twenty years.
  • Prior Turkish tax files limited to rental income, movable-capital income or capital gains do not by themselves block the exemption.
  • Exempt foreign income is not declared on the annual return and is not included if another return is filed.
  • Costs related to the exempt income cannot be deducted against taxable Turkish income.
  • Foreign tax paid on the exempt income cannot be credited against Turkish income tax.

PwC Turkey, KPMG Vergi and independent Turkish tax circulars confirm the same statutory points. Inheritance and Gift Tax Law No. 7338 was amended in the same package: during the exemption window, inheritance transfers involving qualifying persons are taxed at 1 percent.

What the exemption does not do

  • It does not exempt Turkish-source rental income.
  • It does not exempt a gain on the sale of a Turkish property.
  • It does not replace the short-term residence permit or the citizenship programme.
  • It does not change tapu fees, annual property tax or DASK insurance.
  • It does not freeze the USD 400,000 citizenship threshold or the USD 200,000 post-16 October 2023 residence-by-property practice that many advisers still treat as the working floor for new purchases.

Why this matters for a 2026 property purchase

Many foreign buyers become Turkish tax residents after they buy a home and spend more than six months in the country. Until 2026, worldwide income could then fall into the Turkish income-tax net. Article 20/D splits the picture:

  1. Foreign salaries, dividends, business profits and overseas rents can stay outside Turkish income tax for twenty years if the three-year clean-history test is met.
  2. Turkish rents, Turkish capital gains and other domestic income stay inside the ordinary system.

That split is useful for an investor who keeps a company, portfolio or salary abroad and uses a Turkish apartment as a second home or a citizenship asset. It is not a reason to ignore title quality, appraisal rules or city-level price risk.

Citizenship and residence rules that did not change

Route 2026 status (verified) Holding / condition
Citizenship by real estate USD 400,000 qualifying property (SPK appraisal), unchanged since June 2022 3-year no-sale annotation on the tapu
Bank deposit / bonds / funds / fixed capital USD 500,000 Generally 3-year hold where the regulation requires it
Property types for CBI Independent unit under Condominium Law 634, or titled land with a lawful completed building Bare land requiring a two-year project, farmland and timeshare are excluded
Short-term residence via property Practice after 16 October 2023 commonly applied a USD 200,000 floor on new purchases; tourist-type permits remain separate from citizenship Title, insurance, address and Göç İdaresi file still required
Laws 7579 and 7584 (May–June 2026) Zoning, inspection, cadastre and condominium amendments Do not rewrite CBI thresholds

Sources: Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law Art. 20(2)(b); Official Gazette 4 June 2026 No. 33270; IMI Daily analysis of Laws 7579 and 7584.

Official market snapshot, July 2026

The tax change landed in a market where lira prices are still rising and inflation-adjusted prices are still falling.

Indicator Latest official figure Period Source
Residential Property Price Index (2023=100) 234.8 July 2026 CBRT / TCMB
Nominal annual house-price change +25.0% July 2026 / July 2025 CBRT
Real annual house-price change −5.1% July 2026 CBRT
Istanbul / Ankara / İzmir annual RPPI +27.7% / +26.6% / +23.1% July 2026 CBRT
Monthly RPPI: Istanbul / Ankara / İzmir +2.7% / +2.2% / −0.5% July 2026 CBRT
New-tenant rent index, Turkey, annual +28.4% July 2026 CBRT
CPI, annual +31.75% July 2026 TÜİK / Treasury
Home sales 123,603 units July 2026 TÜİK
New / existing home sales 42,529 / 81,074 July 2026 TÜİK via Trading Economics
H1 2026 total sales 699,516 (−3.1% y/y) Jan–Jun 2026 TÜİK
H1 2026 mortgage sales 142,794 (+32.2% y/y) Jan–Jun 2026 TÜİK
H1 2026 sales to foreigners 9,083 (−9.2% y/y) Jan–Jun 2026 TÜİK
June 2026 sales to foreigners 2,015 (+20.1% y/y) June 2026 TÜİK

Nominal versus real house-price change

CBRT RPPI, July 2026 — annual change (%)Nominal +25.0%

Real −5.1%
Unit: percent. Period: July 2026 vs July 2025. Source: CBRT RPPI.

Portal asking-price series (Endeksa / Emlakjet, July 2026) are not official statistics. They put the national average asking price near TRY 41,703 per square metre and TRY 5,212,875 per home, with Istanbul at TRY 65,078/m². Treat those as listing estimates, not CBRT quality-adjusted prices.

Purchase costs that still apply

Cost 2026 working rule Note
Tapu harcı (title fee) 2% buyer + 2% seller = 4% of declared value Declared value cannot sit below the municipal property-tax value. Contracts often shift the full 4% onto the buyer.
TKGM revolving fund 2026 base indicator TRY 2,227 × local coefficient, plus a published extra when a foreign person is a party Confirm the tariff at the local tapu office on appointment day.
Annual property tax 0.1% standard residential; 0.2% inside metropolitan municipalities Assessed on municipal value, paid in May and November.
DASK Compulsory earthquake insurance Required for tapu and most utility files.
CBI appraisal CMB/SPK-licensed report The USD 400,000 test follows the appraisal, not the brochure price.

Gross rental yields are not net USD returns

Global Property Guide’s September 2026 city table, built from listing medians, shows gross residential yields of about 9.92% for Istanbul as a whole, 8.51% Ankara, 7.35% Izmir and 6.57% Antalya, with Kadıköy much lower at 5.10%. REIDIN’s June 2026 national series put gross yield near 7.63% and payback near 13.6 years. Those are gross lira figures before tax, vacancy, aidat, management and currency conversion. Net USD yields on a carefully chosen long-let asset are typically several points lower.

CBRT’s new-tenant rent index rose 28.4% year on year in July 2026 — still below 31.75% CPI — so real new-lease rents were also soft.

Practical analysis for foreign buyers

  1. Do not buy only for the tax headline. Article 20/D rewards people who already have foreign income and who can pass the three-year non-residence test. It does not raise the value of a weak title or an overpriced unit.
  2. Model Turkish-source income separately. If the plan is to rent the apartment, budget Turkish income tax, stopaj where relevant, and the 2026 municipal tax base, which rose sharply after the 2026 revaluation cap in Temporary Article 23 of Law 1319.
  3. Citizenship files are stricter on the asset, not the dollar threshold. 2023–2024 tightening on property type, seller identity (Turkish citizen or Turkish company) and appraisal quality remains in force in 2026.
  4. Price risk is real, not nominal. A 25% lira gain against 31.75% inflation and a 5.1% official real decline is a different investment from the 2021–2022 boom.
  5. Foreign unit demand is thinner. H1 2026 foreign purchases fell 9.2% even though June bounced 20.1%. Luxury stock above local purchasing power is slower to clear.

Conclusion

Law 7582 is one of the few genuinely new 2026 rules that change the after-tax result of becoming resident in Turkey. It is generous on foreign-source income and silent on Turkish bricks-and-mortar cash flow. The right sequence is still: confirm title and zoning, confirm whether the asset is CBI-eligible if that is the goal, price the unit against CBRT and local comparables, then map tax residency with a licensed adviser against the three-year look-back in Article 20/D.

Sources

  • Official Gazette 4 June 2026, No. 33270, Law No. 7582
  • Income Tax Law No. 193, Repeated Article 20/D
  • CBRT Residential Property Price Index and New Tenant Rent Index, July 2026
  • TÜİK CPI July 2026 (annual 31.75%, monthly 1.78%)
  • TÜİK housing sales: July 2026 123,603; H1 2026 699,516
  • Regulation on the Implementation of the Turkish Citizenship Law, Art. 20(2)(b)
  • PwC Turkey Tax Bulletin 2026/35; KPMG Vergi bulletin on Law 7582
  • Endeksa / Emlakjet July 2026 listing averages (non-official)
  • Global Property Guide rental-yield table, September 2026 update

External links

SAMARAM Investment Group publishes market research for readers considering Turkish real estate. Figures above are attributed to named official or research sources and were checked against those sources on 2 September 2026. Laws and municipal tariffs change; verify before any transaction.