How Is an Estate Divided If a Person Who Invested in Turkey or Acquired Turkish Citizenship by Investment Passes Away?

As the number of foreigners acquiring real estate, company shares, or bank deposits in Turkey grows, and as more people obtain Turkish citizenship through investment, the question of which legal path their heirs should follow upon their death comes up frequently. There is no single answer to this question: the correct path cannot be determined without examining, together, the deceased’s citizenship at the date of death, whether they held any other citizenship, the nature of their assets, and whose name the assets were registered under.

In this article, we examine the rights of heirs of foreign investors in Turkey and of individuals who acquired Turkish citizenship through investment, the law applicable to their estates, and the basic legal steps that can be followed.

Asking the Right Question First: What Was the Deceased’s Status?

In practice, three distinct situations are often confused with one another, and each can produce different outcomes:

• A foreigner who invested in Turkey but did not acquire Turkish citizenship: even if they purchased real estate, founded a company, or opened a deposit account, at the date of death they remain solely a citizen of their foreign state.
• A person who acquired Turkish citizenship through investment: once the citizenship decision has become final, they are a Turkish citizen as of the date of death, and in most cases retain their prior citizenship as well.
• A person whose spouse or children also acquired citizenship under the same investment application: the citizenship status of each family member must be verified individually; inclusion in the application does not mean that every family member’s citizenship has become final.

Being “of foreign origin” alone does not determine the applicable law. What matters is the deceased’s citizenship status at the date of death, together with the nature and registration status of the assets.

Applicable Law: The General Rule Under MÖHUK and the Real Estate Exception

Under Article 20 of Law No. 5718 on Private International Law and International Civil Procedure (MÖHUK), inheritance is, as a rule, governed by the deceased’s national law. However, the same article provides that Turkish law applies to real estate located in Turkey. Accordingly, Turkish inheritance law governs a flat in Turkey belonging to a foreigner who has not acquired Turkish citizenship, while movable assets such as bank deposits or company shares are, as a rule, governed by the deceased’s national law.

If the deceased held both Turkish and another citizenship at the date of death, the dual-citizenship rule under MÖHUK Article 4 applies: where a person holds more than one citizenship and one of them is Turkish, Turkish law is treated as the national law. Consequently, for the estate of a person who acquired Turkish citizenship through investment and retained their prior citizenship, Turkish law generally applies not only to real estate in Turkey but, as a rule, to the rest of the estate as well. The outcome may differ if citizenship was lost before death or if the citizenship decision had not yet become final.

A will drawn up abroad is not automatically invalid in Turkey, nor should it be treated as having no effect. The formal validity of the will is assessed under the relevant MÖHUK rules, while its substantive content is assessed under the applicable inheritance law. For real estate in Turkey, rules such as Turkish law’s forced-heirship (reserved share) provisions are also taken into account. Whether the will needs to be opened, recognized if necessary, and submitted with properly prepared documents in order to be processed in Turkey must be examined separately.

Why the Type of Investment and Whose Name It Is Registered Under Matters

Whether the investor acquired real estate, bank deposits, company shares, or another form of investment in Turkey directly affects the path heirs must follow:

• If the real estate is registered in the deceased’s own name, it forms part of the estate, and transfer at the land registry (TAPU) proceeds on the basis of a certificate of inheritance.
• If the real estate is registered in a company’s name, heirs do not inherit the property directly but, depending on the circumstances, inherit the deceased’s share in the company. In this case, the company’s articles of association, any restrictions on share transfer, and the relevant corporate law rules must also be examined.
• Bank deposits and investment accounts can be paid out to heirs, once heirship has been proven, upon submission of the documents the relevant institution requires.
• Having acquired citizenship through investment does not mean that all of a person’s assets are automatically subject to the same legal regime; each asset is assessed separately according to its nature and location.
• If real estate acquired for citizenship purposes carries a three-year non-sale undertaking or another commitment annotated on the title deed, this should not be assumed to lapse automatically on death. The title deed record and the citizenship file must be checked together.

It should be noted that the general rules on foreigners acquiring real estate in Turkey and the real estate requirements under the citizenship-by-investment programme are separate matters. The former governs whether, and within what limits, a foreigner may own real estate; the latter governs the conditions under which an investment is taken into account for a citizenship application.

Being an Heir Is Not the Same as Registering the Property in Your Own Name

A foreigner may well become an heir to an estate in Turkey; however, the status of heir and the ability to register inherited real estate in that foreign heir’s name at the land registry are separate matters. The acquisition of real estate by foreigners in Turkey is subject to the citizenship, location, and surface-area restrictions set out in Article 35 of the Land Registry Law No. 2644.

For this reason, the heir’s citizenship, the location of the property, and the acquisition restrictions in force must be examined on a case-by-case basis. If acquisition is not possible due to such restrictions, liquidation of the property and payment of its value to the heir may become necessary. This outcome, however, is not automatic for every foreign heir; in many cases a foreign heir can register the property in their own name.

Certificate of Inheritance: Notary or Civil Court of Peace?

A certificate of inheritance (veraset ilamı) can, in most cases, be obtained from a notary for Turkish citizens. However, where the applicant is a foreign national or the file contains a foreign element requiring judicial determination, a notary cannot issue the certificate, and the application must instead be made to the civil court of peace. The mere fact that the deceased died abroad does not, by itself, always require court proceedings; what matters is the nature of the foreign element present in the specific file.

Where a certificate of inheritance has already been issued by a foreign authority, whether it can be used in Turkey must be assessed separately. Depending on its nature, recognition or enforcement may be required, or it may be more appropriate to obtain a new certificate of inheritance in Turkey.

Researching Title Deed, Bank, and Civil Registry Records

Establishing the deceased’s assets in Turkey involves researching title deed records, bank accounts, company shares, and debts. This is not a search that anyone can carry out without limitation. Land registry directorates and banks generally condition the release of information and documents on proof of heirship, a properly executed power of attorney, and the documents submitted with the file.

The same applies to civil registry records: not every foreigner is in the same position. A person who has acquired Turkish citizenship through investment will have a Turkish civil registry record, whereas the records of a foreigner who has not acquired citizenship may be held in different systems under different identification numbers. How and where the relevant record can be accessed depends on the deceased’s status and the documents the heir is able to provide.

The Basic Legal Path Heirs Can Follow

While the circumstances of each file differ, the process generally proceeds in the following order:

1. Determining citizenship status: establishing the deceased’s citizenship(s) at the date of death and whether the citizenship decision had become final.
2. Gathering documents: collecting the heirs’ identity, kinship, and civil status documents; checking apostille or consular certification requirements and sworn translation of foreign documents.
3. Certificate of inheritance: obtaining a certificate of inheritance in Turkey, or assessing the conditions for using a certificate obtained from a foreign authority in Turkey.
4. Asset and debt investigation: researching title deed records, bank accounts, company shares, other assets, and debts.
5. Registration and restriction assessment: determining whether the foreign heir can register the real estate in their own name, and if restrictions apply, assessing the liquidation route.
6. Title deed transfer and tax: carrying out title deed transfer and inheritance and transfer tax procedures in line with the circumstances and applicable declaration deadlines.
7. In case of dispute: where a will exists or a dispute arises among heirs, the applicable law and competent court must be separately determined.

If the heirs cannot agree on how to divide the real estate, the rules on auction and sale among heirs become relevant. At the title deed transfer stage, the points foreign buyers should watch for in title deed transactions are also part of the process.

Can a Gift Be Made During One’s Lifetime Instead of Waiting for Inheritance Transfer?

A person may wish to gift, during their lifetime, real estate registered in their own name in Turkey to a person of their choosing. For a gift of real estate to be valid, the transaction must be carried out in the official form at the land registry directorate and registration must be completed (Turkish Civil Code Article 706). Once ownership of the gifted property has been transferred in this way, no post-death inheritance transfer is required for that property. If the person has other assets, however, a certificate of inheritance and inheritance procedures may still be required for those.

This route is not a way to “settle the entire estate without ever obtaining a certificate of inheritance.” A gift can only remove the need for a subsequent inheritance transfer with respect to the specific asset that has been gifted and fully transferred.

Before making a gift, the following should be checked:

• Any mortgage, attachment, annotation, or other encumbrance on the property.
• The citizenship of the recipient and any restrictions on foreigners acquiring real estate.
• Whether the property was used in a citizenship-by-investment application and whether a three-year non-sale/non-transfer undertaking is still running.
• The fees, taxes, and other costs of the transaction.
• The effect of the gift on the rights of forced heirs (heirs with a reserved share).

A gift does not extinguish the rights of forced heirs in every case. If the gift infringes a reserved share, an action for abatement (tenkis) may be available where the conditions are met (Turkish Civil Code Art. 560 et seq.; Art. 565). If a transaction recorded at the land registry as a sale was in fact a gift, a claim of sham transaction between ancestor and heir (muris muvazaası) may also arise. For this reason, it should not be assumed that “once a gift is made, the heirs can never raise any claim afterward.”

Does Turkish Citizenship Pass by Inheritance?

No. Turkish citizenship does not pass automatically to heirs by inheritance. The citizenship status of the spouse or children of a person who acquired Turkish citizenship through investment must be verified separately and on an individual basis. An heir’s citizenship status is a separate matter from their right to inherit and their right to acquire real estate: a foreign heir may acquire the status of heir without this granting them Turkish citizenship, and their ability to acquire real estate is assessed under the rules applicable to foreigners.

Conclusion

Having invested in Turkey does not, by itself, confer Turkish citizenship. Nor does having acquired citizenship through investment automatically resolve every inheritance matter. The legal path heirs must follow is determined by the deceased’s citizenship at the date of death, whose name the investment and assets are registered under, the heirs’ citizenship, and any restrictions on the real estate. A gift of real estate completed at the land registry during the deceased’s lifetime can prevent a post-death transfer for that specific property, but reserved shares, taxes, title deed restrictions, and the remaining estate assets must still be assessed separately.

Each file should be assessed by examining the citizenship, title deed, and inheritance documents together.